Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Enthusiasm for the creation of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs in Seville has increased in tandem with researchers’ calls for studies to clarify the definition of CLIL and its program components and teaching pedagogies, citing these as critical to the systematic improvement and evolution of CLIL. Following the recommendations for such research projects, the study quantifies and measures the quality of instruction provided in English to second grade students (ages eight and nine) in bilingual programs in Seville (Andalusia, Spain) and then correlates the quality of instruction to students’ progress in English oral/aural proficiency. This study was carried out between January and June, 2013, and targeted the second-grade classrooms in five schools in Seville where CLIL programs were being implemented. The author used the Early Language Listening and Oral Proficiency Assessment (ELLOPA) (Thompson, Boyson, and Rhodes, 2006) as a pre-test (and later as a post-test) to measure the oral/aural language proficiency levels of a group of second-grade students (n=149) participating in bilingual education programs in seven different classes taught at five different public schools. Then, on a regular, scheduled basis over a fourteen-week period, the author used the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) (Echevarria, Short, and Powers, 2003), a research-based, validated, and reliable instrument, to measure the quantity of strategies to increase second language development that teachers (n=11) used in those classes. As an additional data point, the level of English proficiency of the group of teachers was also evaluated using the Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM) (California State Department of Education, 1981) and this data were correlated to SIOP results and student proficiency gains. Finally, the level of increases in oral/aural English language development that the student sample made during the time this project was conducted was correlated to the quantity of strategies used by the teachers to increase second language development. Research questions investigated and answered include addressing the best practice for instructional strategies in bilingual programs being employed in participating bilingual classrooms, questioning what CLIL instructional best-practices are being employed in the bilingual classrooms studied, and exploring what the language acquisition outcomes are for students in the bilingual classrooms studied. The results of this research showed that few CLIL strategies were being employed in the bilingual classes studied and no gains in language acquisition were taking place.