Ana Halbach

A pluriliteracies approach to content and language integrated learning – mapping learner progressions in knowledge construction and meaning-making

Over the past decades content and language integrated learning (CLIL) research has predominantly focused on the language proficiency of CLIL learners. The results are very promising and show that working language skills in learners, especially reading and listening skills, can be improved through a CLIL programme. Studies focusing on subject learners are still few but they indicate that learners maintain or under certain conditions can improve their subject learning when compared to learners learning in L1. However, more recent studies have raised challenging questions concerning academic language competence which indicate that CLIL instruction may not be reaching its full potential. Unravelling the integrated approach and the inherent interrelationship of using language for progressing knowledge construction and meaning-making needs to be addressed, drawing together linguistic and pedagogic theoretical underpinnings. This article posits that CLIL can pragmatically address the growing educational malaise of functional illiteracy. We reason that progression along the knowledge pathway towards deeper subject understanding requires a greater command of secondary discourse, and mastery of subject-specific literacies. In traditional classrooms, content teachers do not usually focus on the quality of learners’ disciplinary literacy and discourse. In language classrooms, subject-specific literacies are considered irrelevant. We suggest that if ‘literacy’ were at the centre of the learning agenda, regardless of subject disciplines, a fundamental shift towards deeper learning would occur. Therefore, the article addresses two fundamental issues: (i) the role of subject-specific or disciplinary literacies in CLIL and (ii) the iteration of a model building on the existing 4Cs framework, which maps literacy and language progression in CLIL contexts and serves as a guide for evolving classroom practices.

Exporting Methodologies: The Reflective Approach in Teacher Training.

In the field of English language teaching there seems to be a generalised tendency to accept and use teaching methodologies and textbooks in certain contexts that have been developed in and for a different context. Recently, this rather unquestioning use of methodologies has been challenged (see, for example, Holliday, 1994), with authors pointing out that what might be suitable for one situation might not be equally so for a different one. Thus, it would seem to be more fruitful to try to establish the appropriateness of what has been imported and, if necessary, make the suitable changes and adaptations, so as to make most of the methodology. This is precisely the aim of the present paper, which explores the extent to which a reflective approach to teacher training is suitable for teaching undergraduate students a course in methodology at the University of Alcalá in Spain, and, if not, what kind of changes will make it more fruitful in this specific context.

Empowering Teachers, Triggering Change: A Case Study of Teacher Training through Action Research

espanolEl presente articulo se propone validar los pequenos trabajos de investigacion como una herramienta para profesores en formacion que promueve la integracion de la teoria con la practica docente asi como un acercamiento reflexivo a esta practica. En el se presenta un estudio de caso del proceso seguido por una docente experimentada en la elaboracion de una investigacion como parte de sus estudios de Master en el ambito de la Ensenanza del Ingles como Lengua Extranjera. Para ello se analiza tanto su interaccion oral y escrita con la directora de trabajo, como los materiales elaborados para la intervencion pedagogica y la posterior recogida de datos. El analisis del proceso llevado a cabo por la estudiante nos permite concluir que la experiencia de investigacion contribuye al aprendizaje del profesor en formacion y le ayuda a reflexionar sobre su propia practica docente. EnglishThe present article sets out to validate small-scale research projects as a tool to foster the integration of theory and practice as well as the development of a refl ective mindset in trainees in teacher training courses. This case study of the process followed by an experienced teacher carrying out research as part of a Master’s degree in Teaching English traces the student’s learning during her research process through an analysis of her interactions, both oral and written, with the thesis supervisor, as well as of the materials created for the pedagogical intervention planned and the data collection carried out as part of the action research process. This reconstruction of the trainee’s developing understanding while working on her MA thesis reveals that learning does take place and is brought about by a mixture of different factors, such as the relation established between the theoretical concepts studied in the program and the actual teaching practice, the detachment brought about by the need to collect data and the interaction with the supervisor. Carrying out a research project also helps the trainee to reflect on her own practice, and thus establish a reflective mindset.

Knowledge ecology for conceptual growth: teachers as active agents in developing a pluriliteracies approach to teaching for learning (PTL)

ABSTRACT This article explores how a group of educators and researchers enacted an inclusive process of conceptual growth involving teachers and teacher educators as active agents, knowledge builders and meaning-makers in the development of a Pluriliteracies approach to Teaching for Learning (PTL). The evolution of a working model based on five emergent principles, foregrounded the need for stakeholders across different languages, cultures and disciplines, to work together from the start so that learning spaces were created where teacher development went alongside researcher development, and theorizing was not only inclusive of praxis but validated by it. A growth cycle emerged using theories of practice as the medium for critique, disagreement and consensus which this article seeks to interpret through an ecological lens. The development of the theoretical constructs, therefore, involves shared ownership and is embedded in the development of pedagogic practices. This approach does not end with a theoretical model but continues growing a principled practice model which prioritizes teacher agency for further critique and development.