The suitability of foreign language teaching in childhood according to the CLIL approach: the foreign language teachers' attitudes

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a research into the foreign teachers' attitudes towards the first foreign language (FL 1) teaching according to the CLIL approach. The first foreign language teachers (FL 1 teachers) should have carried out their FL 1 lessons using the CLIL approach. The results of the twelve interviews: teachers agree upon the importance of the education process of teachers-to-be, for any teacher working at an early level should have completed a BA in class teaching and should have acquired a degree in the methodology of early language teaching. Most teachers who used the CLIL approach in the first year of its introduction (school year 2014–2015), refrained from it in the second year, or only used some elements of the CLIL approach, for they felt that it was impossible to follow the guidelines of the “hard” CLIL. Consequently, they only used some elements or strategies of the CLIL approach, which some authors call “soft” CLIL. Although some teachers claimed to have encountered numerous obstacles in teaching according to CLIL, they nevertheless considered it to be a suitable approach in the FL 1 classroom.A well-prepared abstract enables the reader to identify the basic content of a document quickly and accurately, to determine its relevance to their interests, and thus to decide whether to read the document in its entirety.

Technology acceptance and usage behaviour of content and language integrated learning teachers in Turkey

“…Various studies investigating CLIL practices in different educational settings revealed that during implementation, teachers experience a variety of challenges. Some of the problems identified in the studies conducted in the European context include insufficient teacher training programs and institutional support for professional growth (Banegas, 2012;Denman, Tanner & de Graaff, 2013); low language proficiency levels of students that lead to comprehension problems and unsatisfactory development of students' productive skills (Pladevall-Ballester, 2015); teachers' inadequate expertise in non-linguistic subject-areas (Smajla, 2021); classroom management issues experienced during instruction; the amount of time required for lesson planning and class preparation (Pladevall-Ballester, 2015); and insufficient teaching materials (Roiha, 2014). In a recent cross-cultural study, exploring the perceptions of managers and teachers about CLIL in Spain, Italy, and Turkey, Korbek (2019) found that support for teacher training, material design and use, and collaboration among teachers within their full schedule are the challenges prevalent in all three contexts.…”