Doing CLIL in the Science Classroom: a Critical Sociolinguistic Ethnography in La Mancha Secondary Schools

Alicia Fernández -Barrera

doi:10.14516/fde.712

Autores/as

Alicia Fernández -Barrera Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha. Spain Autor/a

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14516/fde.712

Palabras clave:

CLIL, critical sociolinguistic ethnography, language ideologies, meaning-making, classroom practice

Resumen

This study examines CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) science education in two bilingual (Spanish/English) schools in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), a region which has recently implemented «Bilingual or Plurilingual Projects» under the provisions of the new «Integral Plan of Foreign Language Teaching in Castilla-La Mancha». By taking a critical sociolinguistic ethnographic perspective, the article explores how CLIL is understood and accomplished in an actual science classroom through English as the medium of instruction. This empirical approach serves as the framework to reflect upon the pedagogical transformation of traditional core areas, such as science, and the ideologies circulating among science teachers regarding their own practice. By looking into interactional events in situated classroom practices, the analysis sheds light on three key issues: 1) the role of language(s) in the process of meaning-making negotiation; 2) the way content is organised, taught and acquired through English; and 3) how teachers and students construct both academic and linguistic knowledge. From a CLIL perspective, the study examines daily teaching and learning practices and how teachers struggle to appropriate this methodology to integrate content and language while facing multiple institutional, pedagogical, logistics and behavioural challenges in the science classroom. Data comprise CLIL science interactions in two 1st grade of compulsory secondary education (CSE) classrooms at two state-funded private bi/plurilingual schools in La Mancha City (pseudonym), as well as semi-structured interviews carried out with the science teachers involved in the bilingual programme. For this purpose, the CSE lens contributes to better understand how CLIL science education works by establishing links between language policies, teachers’ ideologies and situated practices in relation to wider social processes.

Referencias

Anderson, B. (Ed.). (1991). Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. London: Verso.

Banegas, D.L. (2012). CLIL teacher development: Challenges and experiences. Latin American Journal of Content & Language Integrated Learning, 5(1), 46- 56.

Cenoz, J., Genesee, F., & Gorter, D. (2014). Critical analysis of CLIL: Taking stock and looking forward. Applied linguistics, 35(3), 243-262.

Codó, E., & Patiño-Santos, A. (2014). Beyond language: Class, social categorisation and academic achievement in a Catalan high school. Linguistics and Education, 25, 51-63.

Codó, E., & Patiño-Santos, A. (2017). CLIL, unequal working conditions and neoliberal subjectivities in a state secondary school. Language Policy, 17(4), 479-499.

Copland, F., & Creese, A. (2015). Linguistic ethnography: Collecting, analysing and presenting data. London: SAGE.

Costa, F., & Pladevall-Ballester, E. (in press). Language teachers’ perspectives on the CLIL experience in Catalan and Lombard secondary schools. Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica Applicata.

Council of Europe. (2001). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge, U.K: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.

Council of Europe. (2014). Languages for democracy and social cohesion: Diversity, equity and quality. Sixty years of European co-operation. Strasbourg: Council of Europe, Language Policy Division.

Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). Content and language integrated learning. Ernst Klett Sprachen.

Dooly, M., & Masats, D. (2015). A critical appraisal of foreign language research in content and language integrated learning, young language learners, and technology enhanced language learning published in Spain (2003-2012). Language Teaching, 48(3), 343-372.

Escobar Urmeneta, C., & Evnitskaya, N. (2014). «Do you know Actimel?» The adaptive nature of dialogic teacher-led discussions in the CLIL science classroom: a case study. The Language Learning Journal, 42(2), 165-180.

Escobar Urmeneta, C., & Sánchez Sola, A. (2009). Language learning through tasks in a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) science classroom. Porta Linguarum, 11, 65-83.

Eurydice. (2006). Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at school in Europe. Brussels: European Commission.

Evnitskaya, N., & Morton, T. (2011). Knowledge construction, meaning-making and interaction in CLIL science classroom communities of practice. Language and Education, 25(2), 109-127.

Fernández Barrera, A. (2017). Language Appropriations, Ideologies and Identities in Bilingual Schools in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature (Special issue: Language Ideologies and Teaching in Multilingual Contexts), 10(2), 41-58.

Fernández Barrera, A. (2019). Bilingual education in Spain: A critical sociolinguistic ethnography of CLIL in Castilla-La Mancha (Tesis doctoral). Universidad de Castilla- La Mancha. Facultad de Letras, Ciudad Real.

Goffman, E. (1981). Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Gumperz, J. (1982). Discourse strategies (vol. 1). Cambridge University Press.

Heller, M. (2006). Linguistic minorities and modernity a sociolinguistic ethnography. London: Longman.

Heller, M. (2007). Bilingualism as ideology and practice. In Bilingualism: A social approach (pp. 1-22). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Heller, M. (2011). Paths to post-nationalism: A critical ethnography of language and identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heller, M. (2014). Undoing the macro/micro dichotomy: Ideology and categorisation in a linguistic minority school. In Coupland, N., Sarangi, S., & Candlin, C.N. (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and social theory (pp. 228-250). Routledge.

Heller, M., & Martin-Jones, M. (Eds.) (2001). Voices of authority: education and linguistic difference. Westport, Conn; London: Ablex Publishing.

Labajos Miquel, D., Martín Rojo, L., & López Muñoz, M. (2011). Content integration in bilingual education: Educational and interactional practices in the context of MEC-British Council partnership in Madrid region. In Lasagabaster, D., & Ruiz de Zarobe, Y. (Eds.), CLIL in Spain: Implementation, results and teacher training. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Lemke, J.L. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning, and values. New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Martin-Jones, M. (2007). Bilingualism, education and the regulation of access to language resources. In Bilingualism: A social approach (pp. 161-182). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Martín Rojo, L. (2010). Constructing inequality in multilingual classrooms. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Martín Rojo, L. (2013). (De)capitalising students through linguistic practices: A comparative analysis of new educational programmes in the global era. In Duchêne, A., Moyer, M., & Roberts, C. (Eds.), Language, migration and social inequalities: A critical perspective on institutions and work (pp. 118-146). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Moore, E., & Dooly, M. (2010). «How do the apples reproduce (themselves)?» How teacher trainees negotiate language, content, and membership in a CLIL science education classroom at a multilingual university. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 9(1), 58-79.

Patiño-Santos, A. (2012). The discursive construction of school failure: A critical ethnographical sociolinguistics in a school in Madrid. Spanish in Context, 8(2), 235-256.

Patiño-Santos, A. (2016). Etnografía y Sociolingüística. In Gutiérrez-Rexach, J., Enciclopedia de Lingüística Hispánica (pp. 53-62). Oxon/New York: Routledge.

Pavlenko, A., & Norton, B. (2007). Imagined communities, identity, and English language learning. In International handbook of English language teaching (pp. 669-680). New York: Springer US.

Pavón Vázquez, V., & Rubio, F. (2010). Teachers’ concerns and uncertainties about the introduction of CLIL programmes. Porta Lingarium, 14, 45-58.

Pérez Cañado, M.L. (2013). Introduction. Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos, 19, 12-27.

Pérez-Cañado, M.L. (2012). CLIL research in Europe: Past, present, and future. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 15(3), 315-341.

Pérez-Milans, M. (2013). Urban schools and English language education in late modern China: A critical sociolinguistic ethnography. New York & London: Routledge.

Pérez-Milans, M., & Patiño-Santos, A. (2014). Language education and institutional change in a Madrid multilingual school. International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(4), 449-470.

Rampton, B. (2006). Language in Late Modernity. Interaction in an Urban School. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Relaño Pastor, A.M. (2015). The commodification of English in ‘Madrid, comunidad bilingüe’: insights from the CLIL classroom. Language Policy (Special issue: Language Education Policy in Late Modernity: Insights from Situated Approaches), 14(2), 131-152.

Relaño Pastor, A.M. (2018a). Narrative circularity, disputed transformations, and bilingual appropriations at a public school somewhere in La Mancha. International Journal of the Sociology of Language (Special Issue: Storytelling in globalized spaces: a linguistic ethnographic perspective), 250, 87-112.

Relaño Pastor, A.M. (2018b). Bilingual education and neoliberal CLIL practices. In Tollefson, J.W., & Pérez-Milans, M. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language Policy and Planning (pp. 505-525). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Relaño Pastor, A.M., & Fernández Barrera, A. (2018). Competing Bilingual Schools in La Mancha City: Teachers’ Responses to Neoliberal Language Policy and Practice. Foro de Educación (Monográfico: Education, Society and Elites / Educación, Sociedad y Élites), 16(25), 283-309.

Relaño-Pastor, A.M., & Fernández-Barrera, A. (2019). The ‘native speaker effects’ in the construction of elite bilingual education in Castilla-La Mancha: Tensions and dilemmas. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (Special Issue: Elite multilingualism – discourses, practices, and debate), 1-15.

Ruiz de Zarobe, Y. (2013). CLIL implementation: From policy-makers to individual initiatives. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 16(3), 231-243.

Rymes, B. (2009). Classroom discourse analysis: a tool for critical reflection. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press.

Sacks, H., Schegloff, E.A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696-735.

de Zarobe, Y.R., & Lasagabaster, D. (Eds.). (2010). CLIL in Spain: Implementation, results and teacher training. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.