Linguistics and Sociolinguistics of CLIL (EDUC90482)

This subject will review the linguistic and sociolinguistic issues involved in content-based programs including such issues as general vs specific purpose language, the language of the discipline (and the integral relationship between them) and of the classroom (including the language of instruction), discipline-specific terminology, and the conventions of writing in a discipline (including text structure and reporting). The subject will also refer to the notion of English as an international language, contextualisation, the nature of the language acquired by students in CLIL programs, and the effect of CLIL and learning through a second or foreign language on the first language, its development, possible domain losses, and the survival of the local language. It will also examine cultural issues in CLIL including issues involved in cross-cultural communication, the relevance of culture, the influence of culture on learning and on world view, ways of facilitating comprehension to promote learning of both content and language, the need for language support for the students, and the forms that such support might take. Reference will be made to the intellectual and cultural consequences of teaching through a second or foreign language and the relationship between culture, language, concepts and cognition and, in particular, the transfer of knowledge acquired through the second or foreign language to the first.

This subject has a TESOL or Modern Languages/LOTE focus, according to the course within which the student is enrolled.