The salience of language in Social Sciences lessons

Abstract

Even though there is not a unified definition of CLIL and it is therefore approached from different perspectives, what is known is that CLIL is not only about teaching conceptual content through a FL; it also entails linguistic content. However, it is not yet clear what role language plays in CLIL courses. This research study seeks to find out about the extent to which language is made salient in social sciences lessons taught through English by consider ing the teacher’s methodology and the materials used. Likewise, the perceptions towards language of the aforementioned teacher and a group of students involved are also considered and analyzed. Data were collected by means of lesson observation, textbook analys is, an interview, and the administration of a questionnaire. The findings revealed that lessons developed in a basic language-aware way, which was aligned with the teacher’s perception towards language, who considered it to be important but not decisive. The materials used considered language to a great extent, and the students’ perceptions towards language were predominantly positive. Finally, it was discus sed how certain changes in the teaching procedures can make lessons develop in a more language-salient way for best exploiting a CLIL environment.