Content and Language Integrated Learning in the pathway sector : developing teacher language awareness through reflective practice

Abstract

This practitioner-led study was undertaken at a UK institution providing Higher Education (HE) preparation (“pathway”) courses for international students. It explored the extent to which subject teachers’ language awareness (TLA) developed during a workshop series informed by Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and based on the principles of dialogic, data-led reflective practice (RP) (Mann and Walsh, 2017). The study consisted of two phases: phase I examined participants’ language-related cognitions and practices at the onset of the study; phase II was concerned with participants’ TLA development during the activity. The thesis starts by linking the emergence of pathway courses to the HE internationalisation agenda. The literature review discusses the main pedagogical and theoretical concepts underpinning the study, CLIL, TLA and RP. A pragmatist perspective guides the methodological decision-making. A transparent account justifying the choice of data collection methods (focus groups, interviews, lesson/workshops observations, survey) is provided and the steps in the thematic analysis are explained. The phase I findings confirmed the assumption that pathway teachers could potentially benefit from TLA development as participants’ observed teaching approaches and classroom interactional management were not equally conducive in encouraging the kind of language learning and academic adaptation teachers sought to encourage in their students. Thus, context-relevant TLA development foci were established for the CLIL-RP activity. Phase II found that the development of participants’ TLA was individualised, fragmented and limited to those areas most obviously relevant to subject teaching. The discussion offered explanations for the observed findings: teachers’ varied backgrounds and experiences as well as their customary identities as subject teachers seemed to impact on their TLA development. It was also acknowledged that other factors – the institutional context, short-term nature of the activity, workshop design and handling of the discussions by the researcher/facilitator – had limited the opportunities for deeper reflection and hence influenced the participants’ TLA development. It is proposed that more long-term, interdisciplinary and institution-wide collaboration between pathway centres and their partner universities is necessary to create a shared vision of pedagogical practice and professional learning.