The educational effects of CLIL in the EFL elementary school context

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02885
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Foreign language education
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Yasuda Sachiko 神戸大学, 大学教育推進機構, 教授 (60386703)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 第二言語ライティング / 内容言語統合型学習 / CLIL / ライティング評価・測定 / 年少学習者 / Young learners

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To date L2 children’s writing has often been investigated in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) settings. The most commonly used method to evaluate children’s writing is an analytic scoring system, often focusing on the four constructs: task fulfillment, organization, vocabulary, and grammar. While using an analytic scoring system is beneficial in providing insight into the strengths and weaknesses of L2 learners, assignation of a single score for each element based on pre-determined criteria may ignore other important elements that are not involved in the criteria.
In this study, I draw on functional linguistics to describe children’s language choices that could contribute to better quality of their letters. In-depth analysis of letters written by L2 children highlight how they construct textual and interpersonal meanings to engage with their intended readers, which cannot be addressed in the evaluation of their letters based on the analytic scoring system alone.

Free Research Field

英語教育，第二言語ライティング

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ライティング能力の測定・評価の際には，しばしば全体的評価と分析的評価が用いられる。しかし，この二つの観点からだけでは，書き手が実際にどんな言葉を選択し，どんな文体を選択しているか，なぜそのような選択をするのかという質的な発達状況は見えてこない。本研究は，選択体系機能言語学に基づいて書き手が読み手に向けてどのような単語や文体を選択しているかを描写することを試みた。得られた成果は，ライティングの評価や測定に新たな知見をもたらすものである。また，本研究は，CLILという教授法が，内容や言語の知識に加えて思考を深めたり他者視点を育てる可能性を示したという点で，CLIL研究の発展にも寄与するものである。