Meyer and Coyle (2021: 9–16), when discussing developments in CLIL research, point out a clear shift in focus which has meant growing attention to the inherent integration of content and language and its role in subject-specific knowledge building and display, i.e. disciplinary literacies. Accordingly, theoretical frameworks that address the nature of content and language interface and academic language across subjects have started to emerge, such as the construct of Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDFs, Dalton-Puffer 2013) or that of semantic waves from the Legitimation Code Theory (Maton 2013). However, less is known of the mutual relationship between theoretical frameworks and teachers' experiences and actual classroom practices. This is partly due to research often assuming a stance of unidirectional knowledge transfer from researchers to practitioners, which may render invisible the contribution of practitioner insights to the evaluation and revision of theoretical frameworks. There is thus need for research orientations that see theory and practice as interrelated and mutually informative and that are based on teacher-researcher partnerships (e.g., Poehner & Inbar-Lourie 2020).
This paper introduces ongoing research from the context of Finland on subject-specific knowledge building practices, with specific focus on exploring how the theoretical frameworks of CDFs and semantic waves resonate with CLIL teacher perceptions and experiences, and how those help revise theory. The participants in the study are two researchers and seven teachers of different school subjects from a secondary school offering CLIL. They are involved in a year-long process, during which collaborative workshops are organized to discuss and explore the focal frameworks. The joint ideas emanating from the workshops are then applied to practice by the teachers who will try out novel pedagogical approaches that will help steer explicit attention to matters of subject-specific knowledge building.
The data for the study comprise audio and/or video recordings of the workshops and the lessons during which the teachers try out the new pedagogical approaches. This paper reports on the preliminary findings from the workshop data, which is analysed by using discourse analytic methods. In essence, the analysis focuses on how researchers and teachers jointly negotiate and construct their understandings of the role of language in subject-specific knowledge-building and of the focal frameworks. We are interested in convergences and tensions that emerge, and will discuss and reflect on their potential to increase understanding of how theories can contribute to practice and how practice can speak back to theory.
References:
Dalton-Puffer, C. 2013. A construct of cognitive discourse functions for conceptualising content-language integration in CLIL and multilingual education. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 216–253.
Maton, K. 2013. Making semantic waves: A key to cumulative knowledge-building. Linguistics and Education, 24(1), 8–22.
Meyer, O. & Doyle, C. 2021. Beyond CLIL: Pluriliteracies Teaching for Deeper Learning. Cambridge University Press.
Poehner, M. E. & Inbar-Lourie, O. (Eds.) 2020.Toward a reconceptualization of second language classroom assessment: Praxis and researcher-teacher partnership. Springer.
