Scholars maintain that, due to the documented linguistic shortcomings of immersion students, teachers must attend to students' language learning needs as they learn academic content through an L2 (e.g., Cammarata & Haley, 2018; Lyster, 2007; Ó Duibhir, 2018; Tedick & Lyster, 2020). Professional development (PD) programs have been designed to address this issue by incorporating instruction on content and language integration (C/LI), which intentionally draws students' attention to language within the context of meaningful content (Lyster, 2007; Tedick & Lyster, 2020). Yet little is known about the effectiveness of such programs. Most previous research has used observational and interview data (e.g., Cammarata & Haley, 2017; Ó Ceallaigh et al., 2018). In contrast, this presentation will report on a quasi-experimental study involving one such PD program for immersion teachers in the U.S. Quasi-experimental studies may help clarify, extend, or add nuance to findings revealed in qualitative studies. Moreover, their findings may be generalizable to other similar programs.
The PD program at the center of this study followed Lyster's (2007) "counterbalanced approach" to C/LI. The study examined whether the PD program was effective at improving teachers' knowledge and pedagogical skills related to C/LI (e.g., Lyster, 2007; Morton, 2018). Fifteen teachers from the PD program (treatment group) and 15 others representing the same immersion schools (control group) participated. They completed the same online questionnaire twice – at the start and the end of the PD program. The questionnaire included rating-scale and open-ended items. Eight of the 18 rating-scale and two of the four open-ended items focused specifically on C/LI and are thus the focus of this study.
Because there was interest in analyzing the effect of the PD program on each item, an ordinal regression model was fitted to each. The results showed that for all eight rating-scale items and one of the two open-ended items the treatment-control variable was statistically significant, favoring the treatment group. These results suggest that the PD program is effective at improving practicing immersion teachers' knowledge and pedagogical skills related to C/LI. Limitations of the study as well as implications for research and future PD programs will be discussed.
Cammarata, L., & Haley, C. (2018). Integrated content, language, and literacy instruction in a Canadian French immersion context: A professional development journey. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 21(3), 332–348.
Lyster, R. (2007). Learning and teaching languages through content: A counterbalanced approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Morton, T. (2018). Reconceptualizing and describing teachers' knowledge of language for content and language integrated learning (CLIL). International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 21(3), 275–286.
Ó Ceallaigh, T. J., Hourigan, M., & Leavy, A. (2018). Developing potentiality: Pre-service elementary teachers as learners of language immersion teaching. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. DOI: 10.1080/13670050.2018.1489779
Ó Duibhir, P. (2018). Immersion education: Lessons from a minority language context. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Tedick, D. J., & Lyster, R. (2020). Scaffolding language development in immersion and dual language classrooms. New York, NY: Routledge.
