Cross-curricular CLIL projects in Swedish middle school

Abstract

In this article, we report and discuss findings from a case-study of cross-curricular CLIL implementation involving English and home economics at a Swedish middle school. The objective was to study teaching strategies for supporting students’ integrated development of content and language knowledge in practical school subjects and to explore the role of the majority language in the CLIL classroom. The study is theoretically grounded in the perspective of languages as being socially constructed (Lantolf, 2000; Lantolf & Thorne, 2006). The focus of the analysis is the role of scaffolding (Walqui, 2006) in CLIL. Data consist of field notes and teaching materials from lesson observations as well as teachers’ plans and evaluations of the CLIL theme. Findings show that practical subjects, such as home economics, offer ample opportunities for visual scaffolding, and that the content is concrete and often close to students’ everyday life. Further, the content of the English lessons becomes highly relevant for the students as it will be used in an authentic situation, i.e. in home economics class. With careful planning, including strategies for scaffolding, and cooperation among teachers, cross-curricular CLIL themesinvolving a practical subject seem highly suitable for CLIL among young learners.