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Article published In:
Issues and Perspectives on Student Diversity and Content-Based Language Education
Edited by Fred Genesee and Diane J. Tedick
[Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education 9:2] 2021
► pp. 310–335

CLIL as a balance for female–male differences?

The effect of CLIL on student writing outcomes

ORCID logo | National Taiwan Normal University
| Texas A&M University
| Texas A&M University
| Texas A&M University

This study examines female–male differences in English writing outcomes for Taiwanese primary school learners enrolled in a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program. Narrative and expository writing samples of 212 primary school students (Male = 103, Female = 109) in Taiwan were collected and scored using several measures including spelling accuracy, correct word sequences, lexical diversity, total t-units, and a holistic rubric for ideas. Students’ topic interest was also measured through a Likert-scale survey. The findings revealed differences between females and males and the two genres of writing. While there were statistical differences attributed to gender and topic interest variables for some writing measures, further analysis revealed that these effects were minimal in terms of practical significance. The paper raises questions about the relationship between female–male writing differences and CLIL and provides suggestions for future research to broaden our understanding and support diversity in the CLIL classroom.

Keywords: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), gender differences, writing, elementary education, English as a foreign language
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Defining gender and sex
    • 1.2Second language writing outcomes of females and males
    • 1.3Content and language integrated learning and female–male differences
    • 1.4Investigating writing as a multidimensional product
    • 1.5The present study
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Setting and participants
    • 2.2Data Collection
    • 2.3Writing task scoring
    • 2.4Data analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Narrative writing
      • 3.1.1Narrative spelling accuracy
      • 3.1.2Narrative correct word sequences
      • 3.1.3Narrative lexical diversity
      • 3.1.4Narrative total t-units
      • 3.1.5Narrative ideas rubric
    • 3.2Expository writing
      • 3.2.1Expository spelling accuracy
      • 3.2.2Expository correct word sequences
      • 3.2.3Expository lexical diversity
      • 3.2.4Expository total t-units
      • 3.2.5Expository ideas rubric
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 14 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.20007.gra
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