Teachers' knowledge about language and classroom interaction in content and language integrated learning

Resumen

This thesis investigates the knowledge about language, or language awareness, deployed by four secondary teachers who teach their subjects through English as an additional language as part of a Bilingual Education Project run jointly by the British Council and the Spanish Ministry of Education. The study contributes to the research effort on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), where CLIL is defined as any educational initiative in which non-language subject matter is taught through the medium of an additional language. Although CLIL teachers have responsibility for their students¿ language development, as well as their learning of subject matter, the nature of the language awareness held and deployed by CLIL teachers has not been the focus of much study. This has serious implications, as without such studies, it is very difficult to construct a knowledge base for CLIL teaching and teacher education. This is the gap that this study aims to fill. Using the framework of teacher cognition research, the study examines the language awareness deployed by the four CLIL teachers, both in their classroom practices and their verbal commentaries (interviews and video-stimulated comments). Three perspectives on language are identified (language as a tool for learning, language as curriculum concern, language as competence) and these are related to three dimensions of teacher language awareness (TLA), and four `modes of knowing¿ (public-theoretical; public-practical; personal-practical; personal-theoretical). Methodologically, the study adopts a social practice approach which highlights the action-orientation of the discursive settings in the study by adapting tools from conversation analysis (CA) and discursive psychology. Findings show how the teachers skilfully deployed L2 interactional competence in setting up and maintaining five classroom `micro-contexts¿ linked to pedagogic goals, and in carrying out a wide range of `language-focused practices¿ (LFPs) in which they proactively and reactively drew learners¿ attention to aspects of the L2. However, the teachers deployed their TLA mainly in two knowledge modes (personal-practical and personal-theoretical), and did not generally engage with the `public¿ knowledge modes (public-theoretical, and public-practical), with the result that much of the L2 focus was incidental. The study has implications for the understanding of CLIL classroom interaction, the study of CLIL teachers¿ cognitions and practices and for teacher education in CLIL.