Using CLIL to support teacher language awareness in the Irish language in English-medium primary schools: an analysis of the impact on second language teaching and learning competency

Abstract

This study sought to examine CLIL as a mechanism to enhance teacher language awareness (TLA) in English-medium schools in the Republic of Ireland. The potential of this enhancement of TLA is to support teachers’ own language proficiency together with their second language teaching and learning competency. The benefits of a CLIL approach for the learner have been clearly established across international research including studies undertaken by Fernandez-Fontecha (2014); Dalton-Puffer (2007, 2008); De Diezmas (2016); Gierlinger and Wagner (2016); Harris and Ó Duibhir (2011) and Morton (2015). The benefits of employing a CLIL approach are less clear for teachers. This is not only a deficit in current research but also a significant missed prospect in the exploration and promotion of CLIL and its associated opportunities for the development of successful language teacher identity as well as related improvements in second language learning classroom practice overall.

The research aims of this study were realised through the application of a pragmatic lens employing a case study research design to explore the coupling of CLIL with the Irish language and the subsequent implementation efforts in primary classrooms in the Republic of Ireland. Five primary school teachers’ interactions with CLIL were documented. A mixed methods approach was utilised to collect data and included the use of self-assessments, formal assessments, focus groups and reflective exercises to chart the journey of participants as they engaged with CLIL approaches in their classrooms. Participant-informed perspectives provided a context as to what the impact of employing a CLIL approach was for the teacher as well as what is achievable for Irish language CLIL-based teaching and learning within the English-medium school context.

Five distinct themes emerged from the data collected from this study. The first three themes explored the influence of employing CLIL in the classroom on teachers’ own language self-efficacy as well as their professional beliefs. The final two themes explored firstly the essential knowledge base that is required by teachers to successfully implement CLIL practices before finally discussing the needs as well as the opportunities to support the development of this essential knowledge base across the micro-, meso- and macro-levels of a teacher’s ecosystem.

Conclusions supported a series of recommendations grounded in achievable and realistic proposals that are based on the informed perspectives of participants of this study. The advantage of employing a CLIL approach to the development of appropriate teacher language awareness is clear. Benefits of employing a CLIL approach include a positive influence on teachers’ language self-efficacy as well as a strengthening of professional identity emergent from the enhancement of teachers’ professional beliefs which support improved language classroom practices. The possibilities for CLIL implementation across the primary school system are grounded within the participant-informed perspectives collated from this study. A host of current education processes currently in use by schools in the Republic of Ireland are opportune for the support of CLIL implementation on a larger scale, the result of which would undoubtedly support improved Irish language teaching and learning experiences together with learner outcomes.