Research
New Collaborative Research Publications and Presentations: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English Medium Instruction (EMI) – Dr. Mark Antony de Boer
Dr. Mark Antony de Boer, Assistant Professor in AIU’s English for Academic Purposes Program, has co-authored a book chapter, journal article, and report and given a presentation with research collaborators from multiple international universities on subjects related to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English Medium Instruction (EMI). Please see the individual descriptions below.
Book Chapter: “Action-oriented approach and academic reading: Creating tools to guide learner development”
Authors: Dr. Mark Antony de Boer, Dr. Dmitri Leontjev (University of Jyv?skly?)
Book: Putting CEFR into practice through action research: Reflecting on principles for foreign language teaching (G. C. Birch, M. G. Schmidt, N. Nagai, & J. V. Bower)
Keywords: CEFR, Action-oriented Approach, Academic Reading, Action research
Abstract and Link
Recently, there has been a renewed interest towards the Action-oriented Approach (e.g., O?Dwyer & Runnels, 2014; Piccardo & North, 2019), which particularly intensified with the appearance of the Companion Volume to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR/CV) (COE, 2020). This chapter reports on the outcomes of two cycles of an action research project, informed by the CARM model (Birch et al., 2021), whose goal was to design tools to guide the development of the learners? critical reading skills. Using backward design, we worked from specific reading comprehension and mediation competence descriptors of the Companion Volume to create two tools. The first was the Group Leader Discussion Question tool, a step-by-step scale designed to guide learners in creating comprehension and critical reading questions. The goal of the questions was to enable peers? reflection and understanding of the text as a coherent whole and its connection to larger societal issues, as well as recognising the author?s intentionality. The second was the Group Leader Discussion Checklist based on mediation descriptors (COE, 2020). Its goal was, namely, developing learners? mediation competence while they guided their peers? understanding of the text using the questions created, informed by the first tool. The study was inspired by the desire to move away from the product-orientedness of the academic reading course towards focusing on learning as a contingent cycle (O?Dwyer & Runnels, 2014). The data come from two iterations of a first-year academic reading course in spring and autumn 2021, its learner participants being the subjects. The data were collected from the learners? performance, video recordings of learner interactions, learner interviews and questionnaires, and de Boer and D. Leontjev the instructor?s (first author?s) reflective notes. The tools were refined between the two course iterations, the collected data allowing for both identifying areas for development of the tools and establishing the successfulness of the tools in guiding the development of learners? critical reading competence.
Find the book information here.
Journal Article: “Content knowledge for language teaching: dialectical
materialist stance on developing teacher language awareness”
Authors: Dr. Mark Antony de Boer, Dr. Dmitri Leontjev (University of Jyv?skly?)
Journal: Language Awareness (Special issue: “Teachers? knowledge for content and language integration in content-based language education contexts”, edited by Dr. Tom Morton)
Keywords: CLIL, Content Knowledge for Language Teaching, Dialectical Materialism, Teacher Language Awareness
Abstract and Link
Morton?s language knowledge for content teaching (LKCT) is a powerful tool for understanding interactions in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classrooms, as well as CLIL teachers? knowledge base and teacher language awareness (TLA). However, often lacking in the body of research on TLA and LKCT is an explicit stance on epistemology. We further propose an expanded construct that builds on LKCT and includes content knowledge for language teaching (CKLT). To address these gaps, focusing on two teachers in a Japanese context, we report on a study whose goal was developing English teachers? (n = 24) in Japanese schools knowledge base, TLA, and practices in an intervention informed by dialectical materialism. The instructor created conditions for teachers to co-construct knowledge by introducing theoretical concepts, which he invited the participants to use as a lens to understand their practices, while using their practices to build an understanding of these concepts. To trace the teachers? development, we analysed their interviews and forum interactions. We illustrate how dialectical materialist epistemology allows for simultaneously uncovering and provoking teacher development, focusing on a transformation of TLA towards the role of language as a meaning-making tool as teachers began to embrace CKLT.
Conference Presentation: Teaching chemistry in a Japanese EMI context: A multimodal approach to classroom interaction
Presenters: Dr. Natalia Evnitskaya (Universidad Internacional de Catalunya), Dr. Mark Antony de Boer
Conference: Thinking, Doing, and Learning 5th International Conference, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, Denmark
Keywords: EMI, Cognitive Discourse Functions, Legitimation Code Theory, Multimodality, Chemistry, Semantic Waves
Abstract
In English-Medium Instruction (EMI) contexts where disciplinary subjects are taught in English, there might be a gap between the level of academic language used by the teacher to deliver content and learners? L2 proficiency (Jenkins, 2011). Dalton-Puffer?s (2013) construct of cognitive discourse functions (CDFs) is useful to examine what language is used in meaning-making and knowledge construction because it “links subject-specific cognitive learning goals with the linguistic representations” (Dalton-Puffer, 2016, p. 30). Additionally, the notion of ?semantic waves? from the Legitimation Code Theory (Maton, 2013) allows to identify how teachers scaffold students? disciplinary understanding through “unpacking/packing” knowledge (Lin, 2016). This study examines the process of teaching chemistry in an EMI context in terms of the what, i.e., the linguistic means in the L2, and the how, i.e., the use of other multimodal resources, such as classroom objects (Morell, 2018), gestures, gazes, etc. (Evnitskaya & Morton, 2011). We use multimodal conversation analysis (Mondada, 2018) to explore what CDFs are realized and how knowledge is co-constructed in classroom interaction through different modalities and semantic waves. The video-recorded data come from a 5h dataset (regular lectures and labs) of an EMI 3rd-year Chemistry classroom in a Japanese University where the teacher is a native English speaker and the Japanese-speaking students have a B2 CEFR level of English. The micro-analysis reveals that the teacher produced CDFs using language and other semiotic means, yet few semantic waves were observed. The teacher employed complex academic language without resorting to unpacking disciplinary knowledge through everyday L2 or the students? L1. He provided little linguistic scaffolding; however, he used pointing and gesturing, and he interacted with individual students. We discuss the significance of the findings and how educators can use CDFs, semantic waves and multimodalities to scaffold students? understanding of the disciplinary content and the L2.
Conference Outline
This was the 5th annual conference of Thinking, Doing, & Learning (TDL5) which was conducted over three days (June 3-5, 2024). There were four plenary speakers, all renound in their fields of expertise; Ute R?mer-Barron of Georgia State University, Rasmus Steinkrauss of the University of Groningen, a brilliant talk by Marion Tellier of Aix-Marseille University, and Olcay Sert of M?lardalen University. This conference takes place every two years and is held back-to-back with the ICOP Conference (Interactional Competences and Practices in a Second Language). Dr. Evnitskaya and Dr. de Boer presented at the ICOP Conference as well presenting on “Multimodality and materiality in technologically mediated L2 peer interaction in a Japanese university context”.
Report: Assessing disciplinary literacy with CEFR descriptors: History, mathematics, and science
Authors: Lorenzo, F., Cvikic, L., Llinares, A., de Boer, M. A., Adadan, E., Arias-Hermoso, R., ?aleta, M., Demirkol Orak, S., Evnitskaya, N., Glasnovi? Gracin, D., Granados, A., Guzmán-Alcón, I., Kasprzak, M., Lehesvuori, S., Miloshevska, L., ?zdemir, H., Piacentini, V., del Pozo, E., Roquet, H., Salinkova, D., Ting, T
Working Group: Working Group 2 of CLIL Network for Languages in Education: Towards bi- and multilingual disciplinary literacies (CLILNetLE), Action CA21114 (Task: research and develop disciplinary CEFR descriptors for B1 and B2 levels in CEFR, for history, mathematics, and science)
The report that was published is the culmination of the actions of the subgroups of history, mathematics, and science. Dr. de Boer is part of the history subgroup.
About CLIL Network for Languages in Education: Towards bi- and multilingual disciplinary literacies (CLILNetLE)
This Action responds to the move into mainstream education of Content-and-Language-Integrated-Learning (CLIL), i.e., the teaching of non-language subjects through a foreign language. Ongoing challenges in CLIL practice and research negatively affect the realisation of CLIL?s full potential, which lies primarily in helping school-leavers achieve the competence to use at least one foreign language confidently for professional and academic purposes. Young Europeans clearly require such bi/multilingual disciplinary literacies, complementing that in their first language, to succeed in employment and higher education.
Through connecting researchers across Europe, this Action will develop an impactful, shared research agenda and dissemination strategy, targeting CLIL?s educational potential to support the development of bi/multilingual disciplinary literacies. This Action, for the first time, integrates research clusters from language education, focusing on CLIL and subject education experts working on education through the main language of education. To allow for a holistic understanding of the use and development of bi/multilingual disciplinary literacies, further expertise on digital media and multilingual schools is included.