Learning Strategies Instruction in CLIL Textbooks and Teacher-Authored Materials: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

The aim of the study here presented was to understand to what extent CLIL materials are oriented towards the development of learning strategies (cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective strategies). This was done through the analysis of teaching materials of different content subject areas for primary and secondary school levels. A qualitative approach was adopted to compare learning units taken from commercial CLIL textbooks alongside self-authored materials created by CLIL teachers for their classes. A set of informative data was gathered to detect which strategies were most developed, whether any relevant differences between the materials analysed could be spotted, and whether strategy instruction was implicit or explicit. Main findings show that the types of strategies found in CLIL materials are very similar to those applied in second and foreign language learning environments and, although no significant differences have been spotted between textbooks and self-authored materials as to strategy instruction, the data has provided some interesting insights which deserve further exploration. It is hoped that the work will shed some light on practices of effective integration of learning strategies in CLIL teaching.