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A Classroom-Based Evaluation on the Implementation of CLIL for Primary School Education in Taiwan

臺灣小學實施CLIL教學之課堂評估

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Abstract

In 2019, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan implemented the 12-Year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines in hopes of improving the education system in order to meet global needs and create lifelong learners. One way to do this is to improve upon English education in order to become a bilingually educated nation by the year 2030. Therefore, teaching methodologies such as CLIL and EMI have entered into the education system, so far with mixed results. The purpose of this classroom-based evaluation research was to investigate the effectiveness of implementing CLIL into a primary school in Southern Taiwan. The 5-week course centered around the topic of insects, and the lesson plans were based on Coyle’s [1] 4Cs model. Content and cognition were connected through use of the Language Triptych, and relevant topics on culture were also incorporated into the lessons. The students were given a pretest, a posttest, and a delayed posttest on the course content, and they completed questionnaires upon completion of the study. The students showed significant improvement on their posttests and received passing scores on their delayed posttests. The students’ responses on their questionnaires showed that overall they enjoyed participating in CLIL, they believed that their English improved from learning the CLIL content, and they were motivated to participate in future CLIL courses. Due to the students’ limitations in linguistic ability, it was difficult to assess the students’ improvements or lack thereof in content knowledge, as they were unable to express this knowledge in English. However, overall CLIL was deemed to be an effective choice for primary school students as they learned the content and enjoyed the course. Future studies may look at designing more effective ways of assessing content knowledge in classes with lower levels of English proficiency.

摘要

2019年, 臺灣教育部實施了十二年國民基本教育課程綱要, 希望改善教育制度, 以滿足全球的需求並培養終身學習者。達到此一目標的方法之一就是改善英語教育, 以便在2030年成為雙語教育國家。因此, 像是CLIL和EMI的教學法已在教育系統中採行, 到目前為止結果正反不一。本研究是以課堂為基礎的評量研究, 旨在調查南臺灣一所小學實施CLIL教學的效果。五週的課程主要教授以昆蟲為主題, 並以Coyle (2010)的4Cs框架為基礎設計教案。透過語言三角(Language Triptych)將內容與認知連結起來, 並將相關文化的主題融入於課程中。學生接受了關於課程內容的前後測和延宕後測, 並在研究結束後接受問卷調查。學生在後測的表現上有顯著的進步, 並在延宕後測中得到及格的分數。學生問卷的回答整體上顯示他們喜歡參與CLIL課程, 他們認為透過學習CLIL的課程內容, 他們的英文有所提升, 而且他們有動力參與未來的CLIL課程。由於學生的語言能力有限, 很難評估學生在學科知識上是否進步或不足, 因為他們無法用英語表達這些知識。然而, 整體而言, CLIL被認為是一個對小學生有效的選擇, 因為他們學習到了內容, 也喜歡這個課程。未來的研究可以考慮設計更有效的方法來評量英語程度較低班級的學科知識。

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Kaohsiung Normal University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

    Curt Beaudin

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Appendices

Appendix 1.

CLIL lesson plan

CLIL Course Plan

Unit 1: Insects: Characteristics and Life Cycles

figure a

Appendix 2.

Post-study questionnaire on students’ positive attitudes toward the CLIL class (this questionnaire was self-designed)

Item

Undecided

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

1. I enjoyed learning about science during my regular English class at my elementary school.

     

2. I learned a lot of new words in class that were not in my English text book.

     

3. I understood what the teacher was saying during English class.

     

4. I felt nervous having a native-speaker of English in the classroom because I could not understand what he was saying.

     

5. I hope we have science in our English class next semester.

     

6. I enjoyed learning about insects in English class.

     

7. I believe that my English improved because of the science section of my English class.

     

8. I feel more motivated to learn English because of the science section of my English class.

     

9. I am looking forward to learning new science words in the future.

     

10. Learning English is important for my future.

     

11. It is not very enjoyable to learn extra science words in English class.

     

12. I hope my English class does not have a science section next semester.

     

13. The science words that I learned in my English class will help my English learning in the future.

     

14. Learning words that are not in my textbook makes my knowledge of English stronger and more balanced.

     

15. I will be a better student if I learn a wider variety of words in English.

     
 

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Beaudin, C. A Classroom-Based Evaluation on the Implementation of CLIL for Primary School Education in Taiwan. English Teaching & Learning 46, 133–156 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42321-021-00093-3

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