15.2470, Diss: Applied Ling: Sylvén: 'Teaching...'

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-15-2470. Tue Sep 7 2004. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 15.2470, Diss: Applied Ling: Sylvén: 'Teaching...'

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1)
Date:  Sun, 5 Sep 2004 10:51:24 -0400 (EDT)
From:  liss.kerstin.sylven at eng.gu.se
Subject:  Teaching in English or English Teaching? ...

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Sun, 5 Sep 2004 10:51:24 -0400 (EDT)
From:  liss.kerstin.sylven at eng.gu.se
Subject:  Teaching in English or English Teaching? ...

Institution: Göteborg University
Program: Department of English
Dissertation Status: Completed
Degree Date: 2004

Author: Liss Kerstin Sylvén

Dissertation Title: Teaching in English or English Teaching? On the
effects of content and language integrated learning on Swedish
learners' incidental vocabulary acquisition

Linguistic Field: Applied Linguistics, Language Acquisition

Subject Language: English (code: ENG)

Dissertation Director 1: Sölve Ohlander
Dissertation Director 2: Mats Mobärg

Dissertation Abstract:

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an increasingly
popular teaching method, where regular subjects, such as history and
math, are taught in a foreign language in order to enhance target
language exposure and acquisition. In 1999, approximately 20 percent
of the upper secondary schools in Sweden were implementing some kind
of CLIL. Yet, research into the effects of CLIL in Sweden is scarce.

The present work investigates incidental vocabulary acquisition among
CLIL students, compared with a control group of "traditional"
students, having Swedish as the main medium of instruction, English
being a separate subject. A total of 363 students were involved (99
CLIL, 264 control) in a longitudinal study, spanning two full school
years and comprising three test rounds. The first test round was
conducted at the beginning of the first year of upper secondary school
and the third at the end of the second year. A test battery of four
different types of vocabulary test was used on each test
occasion. Questionnaires concerning personal background were also
filled out by students and teachers.

The results show that the CLIL students outperform their control group
peers in the areas tested. However, they were outperforming them
already from the outset of the investigation, i.e. before the CLIL
students had been exposed to CLIL. In addition, both groups improve
significantly over the test period, but the CLIL students do so to a
greater extent. In the analysis of the results, other factors - above
all, extra-curricular reading of English texts - were shown to have an
impact on students' lexical development. Furthermore, parents' level
of education was higher among top-scoring students in both CLIL and
control gorups. Attitude and motivation were also important factors
with regard to the acquisition of a rich vocabulary. In a comparison
between high and low scorers in the CLIL and the control groups, the
high scorers in both groups had more features in common than did the
high and low CLÍL students. The greatest development of test results
was seen in the CLIL group with the least amount of English input.

The superior lexical development of the CLIL students is clear, yet it
is difficult to attribute the good results only to the CLIL method. A
fact contributing to the difficulties in drawing conclusions regarding
the CLIL method in Sweden is that there are no national guidelines for
schools implementing CLIL to follow regarding, for instance, target
language competence among CLIL teachers.

Apart from the main objective of the study, an error analysis was
carried out on the fairly large number of incorrect answers obtained
on the various tests in order to see if CLIL students behave
differently from traditional students in the way they approach unkown
English words. Although differences were small, there was a greater
tendency among CLIL students to use a semantic approach when trying to
understand a new word, whereas traditional students tended to go more
by formal likeness.

The results of the study are also discussed in connection with other
aspects of the CLIL method, including negative effects on and possible
domain losses in Swedish, as well as detrimental effects on
subject-content proficiency.

Key words: content and language integrated learning; CLIL; bilingual
education; immersion; incidental vocabulary acquisition; second
language acquisition; English vocabulary; error analysis.

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