The focus of this paper is on language alternation in upper secondary schools offering English-medium CLIL in Sweden. With neither national guidelines nor in-service training for CLIL available in the Swedish context, teachers must create their own policies for language use, that may be either implicit or explicit. The use of Swedish (L1) and English (L2) in content lessons in two schools was studied over the course of one academic year; and methods included participant observations of content lessons and interviews with teachers and students. The aim was to understand differences in perspectives and practices in the two contexts.
Language use was analyzed through the lens of translanguaging, which, unlike code-switching, does not focus on languages as codes. Instead, translanguaging focuses on the speakers in a context and how they use all their linguistic resources for both language development and content learning (Lewis 2008). Translanguaging may afford greater understanding of content matter, greater competence in students’ weaker language, and a better integration of fluent and weaker speakers in the classroom discourse (Baker 2011). The present investigation of CLIL lessons in the two schools is a study of actual language practices and the participants’ experience of the practices. The intention is to shed light on how translanguaging may allow students access to the content material.
The results indicate that the de facto local language policies in the two schools differ considerably; and stakeholders likewise have divergent discourses on the place of translanguaging in the content lesson. At one school, the focus is on how Swedish and English may be used together to facilitate content learning. At the second school, the focus is on how much English and Swedish are used in the classroom. In conclusion, practices and perspectives may differ according to perceptions of the affordances translanguaging offers in CLIL lessons.
References
Baker, C. (2011). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (5th Ed.). North York, Ontario: Multilingual Matters.
Lewis, W. G. (2008). Current challenges in bilingual education in Wales. AILA Review, 21(1), 69-86.
2014.
THINK CLIL 2014: 9th International Conference Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, August 28-30, 2014, Venice, Italy