What is it about?
A foreign language can be learnt through teaching different subjects in the foreign language. This method is called Content and Lanuage Intergrated Learning (CLIL). We asked Finnish 8-year-olds learning French and English through CLIL to draw pictures of foreign language usage. Very often they linked a language to a country and nationality. Situations where foreign language is needed were often linked to travelling. Even though these children use either English or French every day at school, school or classroom did not show in the pictures.
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Why is it important?
Previous studies on CLIl have concentrated on learning results, not on views on language. There is also very little research on languages other than English. Even though English is so dominant in the Finnish society and its media compared to other foreign languages, this did not show in the results. More surprising was the fact that even though children's daily activities at school are in French or English, school did not show in the pictures at all.
Perspectives
This article focuses on learners' own voice and views, which are significant in any learning process. We also wanted to include some other language than English because studies on second and foreign language learning so very often focus on English which may affect the results: the structures of a language and, on the other hand its role in the society also impact its learning.
Katja Mäntylä
Jyvaskylan Yliopisto
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Investigating young Finnish CLIL pupils’ perceptions of foreign language use through visual narratives, Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education, June 2022, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/jicb.21033.man.
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