In recent years, the scope and spread of CLIL provision has garnered the interest of educational authorities seeking to provide high quality education that is built on the values of equity and equal opportunity. One example is the expansion of the Spanish/English Bilingual Program across the network of public schools in the region of Madrid, Spain, wherein CLIL has been envisioned as an opportunity for revision of existing pedagogical practices for improved student learning in subject specific areas alongside English. In line with recent work on participant perspectives (e.g., Fernández-Agüero & Hidalgo-McCabe, 2020; Somers & Llinares, 2021; Tompkins, 2021), this paper provides an overview of a study on students' perceptions of subject learning in two CLIL strands (High- or Low-exposure, according to the hours of instruction received in L2 English) in four schools located in contrasting social class areas of Madrid. For the purpose of gathering students' opinions, a questionnaire was delivered to 252 students (138 High-exposure and 114 Low-exposure) in these schools. Students' responses to one open answer question on perceived differences in the ways in which subjects are taught through L1 (Spanish) and L2 (English) were analyzed using empirical thematic analysis.
Results show that whether students perceive differences is more closely linked with their strand intensity than their SES, with more Low-exposure students (64.8%) perceiving differences than High-exposure students (54.0%), yet both variables play a role in the distribution of themes identified in students' justification of such perceptions. Content was a particularly salient theme across strands and SES areas in relation to the similarities perceived in the syllabus and the curriculum across L1 and L2 subjects, whereas a greater variety of themes emerged where differences were perceived. Students' difficulty/comprehension was another relevant theme with respect to learning through L2. This theme was mentioned more frequently in Low-exposure than in High-exposure, indicating that Low-exposure students associated a greater demand with the L2 subjects taught in the High-exposure strand. Additional themes and subthemes were evoked whenever students expressed concerns with respect to: (1) teachers' difficulty/proficiency when teaching through L2 in the High-exposure strand in high SES areas; (2) a loss of content in L2 subjects in low SES areas; and (3) challenges to academic competency in Spanish by reason of learning through English in the Low-exposure strand in low SES areas.
Bibliography
Fernández-Agüero, M. & Hidalgo-McCabe, E. (2020). CLIL Students' Affectivity in the Transition between Education Levels: The Effect of Streaming at the Beginning of Secondary Education. Journal of Language, Identity & Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2020.1795864
Somers, T., & Llinares, A. (2021). Students' motivation for content and language integrated learning and the role of programme intensity. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 24(6), 839-854. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2018.1517722
Tompkins, F. L. (2022). Socioeconomic Status, English Exposure and CLIL Motivation in High and Low Exposure CLIL Groups. CLIL Journal of Innovation and Research in Plurilingual and Pluricultural Education, 5(1), 41-52. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/clil.67
