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Teaching, Learning and Scaffolding in CLIL Science Classrooms
Edited by Yuen Yi Lo and Angel M.Y. Lin
[Benjamins Current Topics 115] 2021
► pp. 63–83

Teacher language awareness and scaffolded interaction in CLIL science classrooms

| Sun Yat-sen University | University of Tasmania
| The University of Hong Kong
Teacher language awareness (TLA) constitutes the teacher’s self-reflective knowledge about the operation of language systems in pedagogical practices. This study focuses on teachers’ understanding of learning of language and learning through language in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) contexts, exploring how teachers proceduralise their knowledge of language to facilitate science learning in Hong Kong. By analysing the reflective relationship between TLA and scaffolding strategies of two teachers (students n = 31; 32) during a set of lessons in a secondary school, this paper suggests that it is critical to re-orient the TLA focus from teachers to the act of learning and learners’ needs. This expanded conceptual framework of TLA sheds light on how to transform teachers’ implicit knowledge of language into explicit awareness of scaffolding in class. The TLA-filtered, scaffolded interactions can therefore promote the use of language not merely for pedagogical purposes but also as a cognitive learning tool.
Keywords: Teacher language awareness, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), scaffolding strategies, learners’ needs, science classrooms
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Teacher language awareness
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Procedures
    • 3.3Analysis
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1L2 science teachers’ awareness of language from the perspectives of learners and learning in CLIL contexts
      • 4.1.1Teachers’ understanding of learning content subjects through language
      • 4.1.2Teachers’ knowledge about learners’ English language proficiency and their cognitive knowledge of subject matter
      • 4.1.3Teachers’ understanding of the impact of MOI policy on learner’s motivation and learning outcomes
    • 4.2Conceptual scaffoldings
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 13 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.115.04xu
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