“I Wouldn’t Say There Is Anything Language Specific”: The Disconnect between Tertiary CLIL Teachers’ Understanding of the General Communicative and Pedagogical Functions of Language

Abstract

CLIL teachers, particularly in tertiary “hard” CLIL settings, tend to underestimate the role of language for developing conceptual understanding of new content. Nevertheless, they consistently engage with English outside the classroom and even report a variety of activities that they carry out in English with the explicit hope that this will improve their language skills. However, they do not seem to develop transfer strategies that would allow them to benefit from this language engagement in their teaching. The results of a nation-wide study on CLIL teacher wellbeing in Austria confirmed this disconnect, prompting our present follow-up study, which aims to combine teacher training and research and to raise tertiary CLIL teachers’ levels of Teacher Language Awareness (TLA). By means of an online questionnaire, class observations and stimulated recall interviews, we explored teachers’ conceptualization of language, specifically their awareness of the language needed for effective content teaching. Results suggest that research-based TLA coaching must be part of CLIL teacher training to resolve the disconnect between the general communicative functions of language, on the one hand, and the pedagogical functions of language, on the other hand. This can help teachers unlock the potential of their existing language engagement for improving their classroom discourse and practices.

Becoming “Language-Aware“ in ICLHE

“…When they are asked to think about their students' language development, they understand this as meaning work on vocabulary and grammar, which they do not feel qualified to teach, rather than the role of language in the building and transfer of knowledge. Thus, language, which is a natural part of their L1 teaching, is perceived as detached from the content once they teach in a foreign language (Fürstenberg et al, 2021). In fact, they then experience language as an obstacle to effective teaching.…”

“…The second time, the teacher was asked to stop the video whenever he had a comment on the classroom scene. The researchers also took on the role of coaches, answered the teacher's questions and offered their observations and feedback on his language use (Fürstenberg et al, 2021).…”

“…They also attempted to shift the teacher's focus from his perceived lack of language proficiency to the communicative function of language. In other words, they tried to "disentangle the myth of language being solely a medium of instruction [...] by show[ing] content teachers how language in CLIL/ EMI can be enriching, if they have a better understanding of the connection between content and language" (Fürstenberg et al, 2021).…”