Teaching young learners through a low-competence target language in primary school CLIL: A teacher cognition study of the Dortmund International Primary Schools (DIPS)

by Paul Berge (University of Trier, Germany)

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This poster will report results from a study that investigated the cognitions of five primary school CLIL teachers  teaching in the Dortmund International Primary Schools (DIPS) program in North Rhine Westphalia (NRW). 

The  implementation  of  CLIL  at  primary  school  faces  unique  challenges. Primary  among them are students’ low or beginning target language competences. Additional challenges such as a lack of CLIL-specific teacher training (Massler, 2012) and a lack of  guiding documents  specific  to  primary school CLIL in NRW can further complicate CLIL’s implementation. While the development of target language competences is “an intended outcome” of CLIL instruction, low  target  language  competences  are problematic since L2 competences are “an essential prerequisite” for content learning (Morton, 2012, p.12).  Also,  it  has  been  questioned  whether  the  “ambitious”CLIL goal in Germany of developing subject literacy in two languages is appropriate for primary school learners  (Frisch,  2021,  p.  46). Therefore, in the face of such challenges, it is important to understand how practicing CLIL teachers address the challenging reality of CLIL instruction at primary school. Understanding teachers’ perspectives can help inform the further development of local CLIL programs.

Three research questions guided this investigation: 

1. What cognitions do teachers hold about teaching and learning in primary school CLIL? 
2. What language-related learning goals do teachers work toward? 
3. What approaches do teachers think are most effective for achieving these goals?  

After an initial semi-structured interview, each of the five teachers was observed teaching a series of science  and social  studies CLIL  lessons. Teachers were  then  interviewed  in  a  follow-up  interview  to discuss aspects of the observed instruction. Interview transcriptions were analyzed using Qualitative Content Analysis (Schreier, 2012). 

Teachers  described  the  development  of  English  competences,  especially oral competences and subject  vocabulary knowledge, as curricular enrichment. They described learning German subject vocabulary as necessary but described using German primarily as a comprehension support. Teachers also  described  the process of learning through a foreign language as cognitively and affectively challenging and one that requires them to calibrate goals and instruction based on their knowledge of students. The results will be discussed critically. 
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References: 

Frisch, S. (2021). Bilinguales Lernen in der Grundschule: Einblicke in sprachliche und naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenzen. Fremdsprachen Lehren und Lernen, 50(1), 31-49.

Massler, U. (2012). Primary CLIL and its stakeholders: What children, parents and teachers think of the potential  merits  and  pitfalls  of  CLIL modules  in  primary  teaching.  International  CLIL  Research Journal, 1(4), 36-46. Retrieved from: www.icrj.eu/14/article4.html

Morton,  T.  (2012).  Teachers’ knowledge about language and classroom interaction in content and language integrated learning [Doctoral dissertation Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid]. Retrieved from: repositorio.uam.es/handle/10486/660387

Schreier, M. (2012). Qualitative content analysis in practice. Sage.