Teachers’ views on their methodology and their profiles: in search of the possible reasons for the levelling effect of CLIL

ABSTRACT

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) research has thrived recently. Yet, while more and more is learnt about the impact of CLIL on motivation, proficiency, and content learning, few investigations examine how CLIL influences students of different socio-economic status (SES) and why. The recent large-scale English Impact study conducted in the Madrid region showed that CLIL has a potential to limit the influence of SES on students’ language learning motivation and proficiency. Yet being solely quantitative, it did not probe into the reasons behind such a result. This mixed-methods study aims to uncover such reasons. 138 teachers from different schools in the Madrid region filled in the TALIS questionnaire (OECD 2013. TALIS Teacher Questionnaire. http://www.oecd.org/education/school/TALIS-2013-Teacher-questionnaire.pdf) and further 20 teachers were interviewed. Whereas no significant differences between teachers from CLIL and non-CLIL schools were identified through the questionnaire, the interviews revealed that teachers from bilingual schools adapted their teaching methodology to best suit their students’ needs, and were more willing to take risks than their counterparts in non-bilingual schools.

KEYWORDS:

• CLIL
• SES
• teacher
• self-efficacy
• language learning
• foreign languages

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The difference between chartered and public schools was not deemed to be relevant, as the English Impact study does not discriminate between them, and the variable under investigation is the use of English as a means of teaching.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Dirección General de Becas e Innovación Educativa, Comunidad de Madrid [through Contrato LOE art. 83, ref. 130/2018].

Notes on contributors

Janina Iwaniec

Dr Janina Iwaniec is Senior Lecturer in Teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages at the University of Bath. Her research interests include language learning motivation in a variety of contexts, including second, foreign, EMI, gender role in language learning, and the role of contextual factors in language learning.

Ana Halbach

Ana Halbach is a full professor in the Department of Modern Languages at the Universidad de Alcalá (Spain). Her research interests include CLIL, literacy development in the foreign language and the role of language development for learning. She coordinates the research group “Language and Education” at her university.