Integrating language with content instruction (e.g., sheltered instruction, CLIL, ESP) is growing worldwide, but many subject teachers lack preparation to develop students’ second-language literacy skills while teaching academic topics. This talk describes challenges and research-based, professional learning approaches to help subject teachers redefine their role and provide language-oriented content teaching.
The integration of language and content instruction is a growing approach worldwide with various implementation models (e.g., sheltered instruction, CLIL, ESP) where the language of instruction is not the mother tongue of the students. It benefits learners by developing meaningful content knowledge and promoting authentic language interaction. Yet, many subject teachers are not prepared to develop their students’ second language literacy skills while they are teaching them mathematics, science, history, and more. Subject teachers generally know little of linguistics, second language acquisition theory, and pedagogical practices for integrating language and content. How can we help them redefine their role and provide language-oriented content teaching? This talk describes some of the challenges with engaging subject teachers in this process, including resistance to being a “language teacher”, unfamiliarity with the academic language of their subject area, lack of university coursework in methods for integrating language with content, and professional silos. It continues with some suggestions and research-based approaches for crossing disciplines, identifying the academic language and genres of a subject area, creating language learning objectives for these lessons, and developing subject teachers’ skills in language-oriented techniques (e.g., Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, 2008;Schleppegrell, 2004; Short & Echevarria, 2016; Unsworth, 2000). Using lessons learned from research on the SIOP Model for inservice professional development—the most common framework in the U.S. for making content accessible to second language learners while promoting their academic language development, the talk explains how teachers’ language awareness was raised, how workshops were designed to focus on subject-specific literacies and complementary pedagogical practices, and how job-embedded supports (coaching, classroom observations, professional learning communities) facilitated implementation and lowered departmental silos (Short, Echevarria & Richards-Tutor, 2011). The presenter then applies lessons to preservice settings and concludes with future directions for research and ways to sustain integrated approaches.
