Equinox English Linguistics and
English Language Teaching Series

Interaction in CLIL Scenarios:

Linguistic and educational perspectives

This volume explores interaction in the context of CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning, one of the most promising approaches to learning content through an additional language. The potential of CLIL is discussed in the framework of multiple literacies.

Research into classroom interaction has now reached an exciting stage where specific CLIL related goals are being pursued including:
(1) opportunities created for language learning through interaction;
(2) investigating conceptual learning;
(3) creating opportunities for collaboration between teachers of academic disciplines and teachers of academic language;
(4) measuring how far learner’s linguistic abilities are really challenged, enhanced and assessed in CLIL without impeding or diminishing content learning at all levels of language education.

At primary school level, CLIL-based teaching of scientific investigations provides the basis for various methods of stimulating learning. The volume includes samples from a collaborative science research project which offers insights into how specific methods of engagement and support promote interaction among learners, and the role of learner-to-learner scaffolding.

At secondary school level, various samples of video-recorded classroom interaction in a CLIL context in Germany are analyzed from an interactional linguist’s perspective. The analysis provides insights into teacher-centered interaction within activities such as observing and describing and reveals how pupils working in groups negotiate meaning while reading and talking about an authentic source.

In the context of higher education, a CLIL approach is examined through samples of classroom interaction and student presentation in an Australian university, where international students’ proficiency in academic English is an equally significant goal as acquiring knowledge and understanding of their chosen discipline (chemistry, biotechnology, environmental science or public health).

The goal in all of these investigations is to recognize linguistic and pedagogic patterns, such as scaffolding, code-switching and repair, and their relevance for specific activities in CLIL interaction and the design of assessment tasks. The focus is on how classroom interaction analysis can make a difference in teacher education and ongoing professional development. Interaction is also described in the context of designing CLIL material, focusing in particular on communication and collaboration, and how search-and-share capabilities of new technologies greatly facilitate the development of students’ conceptual understanding and procedural competence.