Developing my Theory of Practice of CLIL Classroom Interaction

Introduction

In the previous chapters, 1 have outiined the development of my theory of practice as meaningful, focused and pragmatic. I have illustrated through the use of my diary entries how I have come to this understanding of theory of practice by researching interaction in my BFC classroom. This implies that my theory of practice has grown out of my practice/s as a teacher-researcher and contributes to the further discussion of van Lier's theory of practice. I have argued before that van Lier's theory of practice could be understood as theory without practice: His theory of practice does not seem to be based on research into the teaching and learning of modern foreign languages, but it seems to rely upon the combination of ethnographic and SLA research. In comparison, Bourdieu's (1977) theory of practice draws from his anthropological fieldwork conducted in Kabylia (Algeria): it is the result of scientific practice, not of 'pure' theorising.

My understanding of theory of practice is the outcome of researching classroom interaction in my BFC classroom as a teacher-researcher. As 1 have illustrated in Chapter 1, developing my theory of practice demands the constant movement between theory and (my classroom) practice. This process is also part of the discussion in this chapter: I present my research findings that illustrate my understanding of CLIL classroom interaction by relating my practice/s to CLIL teaching and learning theories. As van Lier (1994: 9) points out 'the classroom does not exist in a vacuum. It is located in an institution, a society, and a culture. What happens in the classroom is in part determined by forces from the outside.'

Teacher-Researcher Diary Focus Group Interviews Teacher Content Learners College du Headteacher-

Figure 2: Developing my theory of practice of classroom interaction

In Chapter 2, 1 have presented my tools for researching perceptions of interaction in

my BFC classroom with Figure Figure 2 represents how my research tools have allowed me to develop my understanding of interaction in my BFC classroom. As I have already pointed out in Chapter 1, my research has informed me about my teaching and vice versa. For this reason, the arrow in the diary box points in two directions. This also applies to a certain extent to the learners who attended the focus group interviews, as I have suggested in Chapter 2. The outer circle represents the whole school context that the BFC and my BFC classroom in particular are located within. Of course, this outer circle representing the College du

context is in turn part of a larger context itself. However, my data are limited to my school context. I present the College du context in relation to the larger context in Part The inner circle represents my BFC classroom which 1 focus on in

my data analysis: My classroom consists generally of one teacher and my

year old learners. The teacher and the learners interact in my BFC classroom about

content taught in a foreign language. In order to facilitate interaction about content

in a foreign language, the learners need support which is provided by the teacher and the learning environment and exploited by the learners. At the same time, support for content learning needs to be considered in relation to the challenges that the learners are confronted with when learning content in a foreign language. I examine these key features of my BFC classroom in the following sections.

In order to develop my theory of practice of CLIL classroom interaction the following chapter is divided into six distinct parts:

• In Part describe the current situation for the teaching and learning of modern foreign languages in English secondary schools. I relate this situation to existing research into both natural and learned bilingualism by examining its benefits and by presenting briefly existing CLIL frameworks in Europe. I then relate CLIL to the issue of Language across the Curriculum and cross-curricular teaching and learning approaches. Finally, I consider the creation and implementation of the BFC in relation to the previously outiined background.

• In Part 2, I start to narrow down the focus of my analysis by examining key features of CLIL classrooms in relation to key features of my BFC classroom as proposed by myself and my learners.

• In Part 3, I examine classroom interaction models by focusing on Vygotskian theories and by relating these to teacher and learner roles as described by myself and my interviewees.

• In Part 4, I look at two particular features of classroom interaction crucial for learning in the BFC, support and challenges, by examining first the notion of scaffolding as appropriate, temporary and adjustable and by arguing that CLIL classrooms potentially offer a dual scaffolding through combining the teaching and learning of content and a foreign language. Through my data, I

consider scaffolding and replace it with the broader notion of support. 1 identify support as supporting else which leads me to consider support in

relation to learner challenges. 1 examine these challenges by presenting data where myself and the learners refer to 'pushing' which I relate back to support by discussing my planning for learning in the BFC, support in the learning environment and support for CLIL through CLIL. Support for CLIL through CLIL leads me back to my argument that support in the BFC is dual: Content learning supports foreign language learning and foreign language learning supports content learning. order to examine this issue further, I then relate support to challenges and describe general support, linguistic support for content, content support for foreign language learning and the combination of the two. I conclude Part 4 by illustrating how my support and challenges framework developed so far promotes interaction in the foreign language in my BFC classroom through the learners' 'noticing' which in turn may lead to learner 'performance' in the foreign language.

In Part 5, I present a brief summary of my research findings and relate these to the notion of risk which I discuss further in Part 6 in relation to the CLIL classroom interaction framework built up throughout this chapter.

Part 1: Modern Foreign Languages Teaching and Learning