CLIL Teacher Disjuncture in CLIL

CLIL Teacher Disjuncture in CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a promising and highly regarded approach to teaching a foreign language, principally to primary and secondary students. Occasionally, some teachers have experienced difficulties in implementing fully this approach to language study. A major reason for this difficulty is because of the twin focus of this methodology: on content and on language. This brief essay will examine the causes that underline this reason.

In an extensive study of the literature on this topic, Peter Mehisto (2008) has found, "Many teachers find it difficult to apply a multiple focus on content and language, as well as on cross-curricular integration, cognition, and reflection" (p.113). Mehisto does not see the difficulty as being limited to teachers. He writes, "Education officials and administrators, as well as teacher trainers are facing some of the same difficulties" (Mehisto, 2008, p. 113).

One of the causes of the problem is "a climate of high-stakes exams that can contribute to a reduction in autonomous decision-making by teachers" (Mehisto, 2008, p. 113). Another concerns "a lack of knowledge about CLIL-specific and other widely accepted teaching strategies and their impact on learning, as well as on examination results" (Mehisto, 2008, p. 113). A third may be "teacher mindsets" (Mehisto, 2008, p.

113), a point-of-view that some teachers may think the approach in which they have been trained and/or which they use is adequate and, therefore, these teachers resist adopting a new method that may be even more effective. These teachers believe that it would be unnecessary to learn or implement another teaching method. A final cause concerns "a need for better and more coordinated planning by teachers and government authorities" (Mehisto, 2008, p. 113). Mehisto (2008) finds that "any of these factors can knock a programme off balance" (p. 113).

Mehisto (2008) defines "disjuncture" as "tension between one's current way of doing things and a new approach" (p. 93). He finds that "changing the medium of instruction places increased organisational and cognitive demands on both educators and students" (Mehisto, 2008, p. 94). The introduction of any new instructional method requires significant thought and effort on the part of the teacher. Mehisto (2008) describes a study of the implementation of a CLIL program in the former Soviet republic of Estonia begun incrementally in 2000 (p. 95).

Mehisto (2008) notes, "a multiple focus calling for the integration of content and language is widely accepted as essential to bilingual education and the CLIL approach" (p. 96). The problem with this approach is, as Mehisto (2008) finds, "Teachers are often not in the habit of integrating both content and language, and as a consequence neither are students" (p. 98). Mehisto (2008) analyzes the Estonia study and concludes that in "approximately half of the lessons observed, teachers were seen to focus on both language and content learning" (p. 98).

Conversely, in the other 50% of the lessons, disjuncture occurred. The problem, as Mehisto (2008) has observed, is that "students in the observed lessons were.