Abstract Summary
This study examines the extent of effectiveness of CLIL, an emerging teaching pedagogy in Taiwan, in a Grade 11 Taipei classroom with discussion of achievements, challenges and implications behind for shedding some insights for Taiwan educators for adapting the coming new curriculum reform.
Abstract :
With the implementation of the new curriculum reform in Year 2019, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan suggested that students should use English not only for interpersonal communication, but also as a tool to communicate with other content subject area. However, educators and researchers had little focus on this issue for learners using English as a foreign language (EFL learners) in learning content subject. Therefore, strong language support, such as that under Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approaches, is essential for Taiwan students who are still mostly EFL learners. My central thesis is what students’ performance is like in a rich language support learning environment. My aims and purpose in this study are thus to monitor the learning progresses of students in order to evaluate the extent of effectiveness of CLIL.
This action research started from students received rich language support from multimodalities and code-swiching (Lin, 2016) in an Economics classroom to evaluate their academic achievements using formative assessments in essay writing. After that, classroom observations, teachers’ journals and questionnaire were also used in determine the attitudes of teachers towards teaching and learning using CLIL. Primary results show that students could cope with the challenges in learning Economics in English despite of challenges in essay writing. Pedagogical implications will also be discussed for shedding some insights for Taiwan educators for adapting the coming new curriculum reform.
Keywords:
EFL ,CLIL, translanguaging
References:
National academy for educational research (2018). Directions Governing for the 12-Year Basic Education Curricula - English Language. Retrieved from https://www.naer.edu.tw/ezfiles/0/1000/img/114/173173199.pdf
Cummins, J. (2008). BICS and CALP: Empirical and theoretical status of the distinction. Encyclopedia of language and education, 487-499.
Lin, A. M. Y. (2016). Curriculum mapping and bridging pedagogies. Language across the curriculum & CLIL in English as an Additional Language (EAL) Context: Theory and practice. Singapore: Springer.
