Journal | EL.LE
Journal issue | 7 | 1 | 2018
Research Article | Content-Specific Learning in CLIL
Content-Specific Learning in CLIL
The Case of Physics Teaching in Italy
Abstract
The research investigates the effects of two learning contexts, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and traditional learning (non-CLIL), upon content-specific outcomes, an aspect less explored than language-specific achievements in CLIL. Specifically, the study provides an interdisciplinary analysis of English CLIL applied to Physics in Italian high school. Two different levels of student competence are examined: selecting answers for content-specific issues, and content-related argumentative skills, in order to measure how learners comprehend and discuss content. The comparison between CLIL and non-CLIL classes in pretest, posttest and delayed posttest accounts for content assimilation and retention. Findings show that CLIL students significantly outperform non-CLIL students in both levels of competence in posttest and even more so in delayed posttest, a difference which emerges in terms of mean and coefficient of variation. Furthermore, feedback questionnaires display enhanced motivation, a well recognised influential benefit of CLIL in language-specific learning. Such results have pedagogical implications and may contribute to a better understanding of the correlation between language, content and motivation in CLIL.
Submitted: Dec. 3, 2017 | Accepted: July 19, 2018 | Published March 1, 2018 | Language: en
Keywords Content and language integrated learning • Argumentative competence • High school • Acquisition of disciplinary content • Motivation
Copyright © 2018 Fabiana Rosi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/ELLE/2280-6792/2018/01/002
