CLIL教学法在初中英语阅读教学中的应用研究——以邻水中学为例

徐思怡，王 玲

（四川工商学院外国语学院，四川 眉山 620000）

1 Introduction

1.1 Background of the st udy

For a long time, Chinese junior high school English teaching has laid too much emphasis on the study of vocabulary and grammar while ignored the cultivation of comprehensive English language application ability advocated by curriculum standards. This kind of isolated language teaching and learning practice impedes the development of the junior high school English teaching. Since its inception in Finland in the early 1990s, “Content and language integrated learning” (CLIL) has rapidly become popular around the world. The application of CLIL in the past twenty years shows that CLIL has its own distinct superiority in foreign language teaching. It completely jumps out of the traditional foreign language teaching and creates a natural social cognitive context for second language acquisition through the mutual contextualization of language learning and subject knowledge learning, which reflects the social and cultural shift of foreign language teaching method and paves a new way for foreign language teaching in China.

As we all know, reading ability is an important component of language learning, and English reading teaching plays a critical role in the whole English teaching. “Reading is both an ability and a complex act,” notes the English Art Curriculum at Obar Elementary School in New York, USA. It means the reader’s ability to get information from written material depends on the active participation of the reader. This view has been supported by many English educators. They also contend that reading behavior is crucial to English learning. Some scholars even think that reading is the intermediate stage of oral and writing ability, and even suggest that reading should be regarded as the main means of English teaching.

1.2 Purpose and significance of the study

This study takes the reading section in each unit of Junior High School English as the main body and takes the study of examples as the basic research paradigm, aiming to explore the effect of content and language Integrated Learning (CLIL) teaching mode on changing the traditional English reading teaching mode to improve the classroom effect of reading teaching. Through the research, the author hopes to put forward effective suggestions and strategies to improve junior high school English reading teaching by using CLIL teaching model, and explores the development of CLIL theory based on localization practice through classroom practice, so as to find out more experiences applicable to junior high school English reading teaching. The author studied and sorted out the origin, definition, goal, theoretical framework and teaching method of CLIL teaching model, and meanwhile constantly probed into reading materials in English textbooks for junior high school, and combined language and content into classroom teaching. CLIL mode is still in its infancy in China, and its localization and systematization are just beginning. Therefore, the development of this research not only enriches the practice cases of junior high school of English curriculum integration theory, but also deeply excavates the current teaching materials.

2 Literature review

2.1 Previous studies of CLIL

At present, CLIL has been applied in various educational settings, and it is considered as an innovative strategy to teach content in a language that differs from the students’ own. Bearing in mind the present alignment between traditional methods and its low-impact contribution to students’ academic achievements, it can be applied as a medium for learning within a particular academic field. There are many foreign studies on CLIL, most of which focus on the influence of CLIL teaching on students’ learning, or on how CLIL is applied in various fields.

In the process of development, CLIL has absorbed the experience of immersive education, bilingual education, content based education and other modes, and gradually matured in theory and practice. Dobson, Alan (2020) used the CLIL teaching method to prove that using English as a learning tool is more effective than the functional language usage[1]. Banegas, Dario Luis (2020) mentioned that CLIL teaching method completely breaks away from the traditional foreign language teaching mode and creates a natural social cognitive context for second language acquisition through the mutual contextualization of language and subject knowledge[2].

Many of the studies within this area were conducted in Spain, where the CLIL approach has been introduced extensively during the last decade. Hughes and Madrid conclude in a study, that the CLIL approach brings positive effects to the students, both in terms of motivation and in terms of language development[3]. Guo yueqin and Wu xiujuan once conducted a study on the application of CLIL in college English writing, whose research emphasized that “for college English writing, CLIL is a source of writing support in the process of writing cognition. On the one hand, it provides support for the process of writing implementation, and on the other hand, it also has a direct influence on the process of writing implementation”[4].

However, some researches indicate increased learner engagement and motivation, while others point in the opposite direction. Similarly, there is research indicating that students’ confidence in language use increases during the CLIL setting, and some shows the opposite result.

2.2 Previous studies related to English reading teaching

At present, there have been a lot of researches on English reading teaching in China, but from the current situation, it can be mainly divided into three categories. The first kind of studies focus on the selection of reading materials, and advocate the expansion of reading areas and methods. It aims to strengthen the use of modern newspapers, the Internet and other media content, from which teaching method can be chosen in line with the students’ cognitive law and level[5]. At present, there are few stable and systematic studies on extracurricular reading. The results of these studies take English reading behavior as a means of language learning rather than a goal, and the conclusions they draw are relatively direct. For example, to expand the scope of reading and pay attention to reading methods to improve understanding ability, to make reasonable use of English newspapers and periodicals to effectively promote English teaching, to carry out extracurricular English teaching to expand students’ development space and so on. However, systematic and planned extracurricular reading or extensive reading teaching research activities of the material research is relatively lagged. The second is to focus on the construction of reading mode. In the teaching of junior high school English reading, it should be guided by the “scaffolding theory” of constructivism, emphasizing the introduction of new course teaching from the background, construct the context framework for vocabulary teaching and implement reading strategies from setting up chapter support. In the teaching of English reading, it is necessary to “promote learning with questions, run through class with tasks”, and achieve the educational goal by taskoriented approach. Liu Yuxi advocates the use of interactive English reading in junior high school teaching, and believes that this mode strengthens the mutual communication and feedback between teachers and students, and promotes the communication and interaction between students. This multidirection interaction can optimize the traditional English teaching mode to a large extent, and is worthy of further reference and promotion in English reading teaching[6]. The third one focuses on empirical studies. This research method mainly underlines the current situation of English reading education and tries to find out the existing problems in English reading, explore the direction of efforts and improve the space from a comparative empirical perspective. Li Jujian starts with cultural background knowledge, which is used as the material for reading comprehension, to discuss the function mechanism of teaching content such as cultural background knowledge on junior middle school English reading teaching, and puts forward the correlation and mutual promotion between cultural background knowledge and national language teaching. In addition, he also uses habits, motivation, will, self-confidence, teacher-student relationship and other factors to carry out “a study of the non-verbal factors affecting middle school students’ English reading”, to explore new ways of English education[7].

2.3 Problems existed in English reading teaching in junior high school

First, teachers’ teaching concept is backward. Most teachers thought that junior high school English reading teaching should focus on cultivating students’ reading ability and enabling them to master more English skills. However, influenced by traditional teaching concept, many current English teachers’ teaching idea in junior high school is lagging behind. While teaching English, teachers always pay attention to the teaching of vocabulary and grammar, ignoring the language teaching, thus a lot of students can understand the article, but difficult to understand the authors’ emotions contains in the article. Mi Baofu (2015) once said that not paying enough attention to the cultivation of students’ interests will only make students feel that English reading is boring, resulting inefficiency and stagnation in reading ability[8]. What’s more, due to the lack of reading strategies and skills of teaching instruction, students’ ability to understand and absorb information cannot be trained. As time passes, students have no interest in reading, which finally led to the weariness.

Secondly, there are some problems existed in teacher’s target design. For example, the design of teaching objectives needs to be determined by combining the teaching content and the actual situation of students. However, many teachers do not combine the characteristics of reading teaching when designing the teaching objectives for junior high school, which results in the objectives breaking away from the teaching requirements. At the same time, the setting of reading teaching objectives is too extensive, the subject is not clear, and students’ initiative in classroom teaching is not strong, which is detrimental to the training and improvement of students’ abilities. Apart from that, due to the lack of cultural background knowledge, students often have a half-baked understanding of reading materials. In the long run, students’ cultural awareness, learning strategies and writing ability cannot be effectively improved.

Third, there are many drawbacks in teaching methods. Ye Chang (2017) emphasized that in order to cultivate students’ English reading ability, it is essential to let students open their mouths to read. However, many teachers ignore the importance of reading in junior high school English reading teaching[9]. Most of the teaching methods focus on understanding the meaning of articles but lack of guidance to train for students’ reading ability.

3 Theoretical framework

3.1 Definition and characteristics of CLIL

3.1.1 Definition of CLIL

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an educational approach with a dual focus, where an additional language is content and language learning and teaching. That is to say, in the process of teaching and learning, we should pay attention to both content and language. Each is intertwined, even if the emphasis is more on one or the other at a given time. CLIL is neither a new form of language education nor a new form of subject education. It is an innovative fusion of the two. CLIL is closely related to and shares some elements of a range of educational practices. Huang Youlin pointed that content and language integrated learning refers to a way of combining content and language learning in the process of foreign language learning. Through the content and language integrated learning, students can fully understand English knowledge and master the comprehensive application ability of English[10]. Through brain processing of relevant knowledge and information skills in language courses, students are guided to communicate, which helps students better form language perception ability and logical thinking ability, so as language understanding and cultural knowledge.

3.1.2 Characteristics of CLIL

CLIL’s main driving force is the content rather than the teaching method, which not only extends the language learning experience, but also differs from the existing language teaching methods. In general, current research shows that CLIL broadens language learning approaches, enriches learning content through cross-language disciplinary perspectives, creates more opportunities for contacting with the target language, and provides a variety of methods and the forms of classroom teaching. It is of great benefit to cross-cultural learning and communication, and it is also an effective supplement to other courses.

3.2 Modes of CLIL

According to the 4Cs theoretical framework proposed by Coyle in 1999, a classroom based on CLIL pedagogy usually consists of the following four aspects:

(1) Communication, which means mastering and understanding both language and content through learning;

(2) Content, which means that students can acquire relevant knowledge, culture, information and skills through language courses;

(3) Cognition, which is the procedure of processing, recognition, and digestion of information by the brain, and thus make it become abstract or concrete concepts, perceptions, and logic;

(4) Culture, which means to broaden cultural perspectives and enrich the understanding of foreign cultures through language media.

3.2.1 Content-based instruction mode

In this teaching method, foreign language is not the teaching purpose, but is used as the teaching language. Subject education has certain requirements on the language practice ability of educatees, so according to the specific situation of educatees, content-based teaching is widely used in junior high school. In the 1990s, Finland launched “Content Language Integrated Learning” firstly. This innovative and effective teaching method spread rapidly in Europe, especially in various vocational schools.

3.2.2 Immersion mode

The purpose of the teaching method is to teach the content of the subject, not the language itself, so it can be considered as a special “language and content integration” teaching method. However, in this learning process, students master the content of the subject and use the second language at the same time by applying the second language in accordance with the grade level. As early as the 1960s, immersion modes were tried in Canada and other countries, such as teaching French to students from non-English-speaking countries. Since then, the teaching method has gradually been recognized and popularized in North America and other places, and different forms and degrees of immersion teaching have appeared. After years of development, immersion method has been widely concerned in the education sector, and has been tried and popularized in schools around the world.

4 Applying CLIL in English reading class

4.1 Case Analysis

The teacher takes Reading 1 “The Taiwan Earthquake” in 8B Unit 8 of Yilin Edition of Oxford Junior High School English in Natural Disaster as an example, and makes a comparative study between the previous reading class and CLIL class. This paper discusses the practical ways and methods of CLIL applied in junior high school English reading teaching, of which comes with analyzing and reflecting.

4.1.1 Analysis of teaching materials

Unit background analysis: This unit is a part of The World Around us and the theme is “Natural Disasters”, which talks about the world around us, where some natural disasters and accidents often appear. The objective of this unit is to let students to learn about natural disasters and to be able to distinguish between natural disasters and accidents. Moreover, it aims to enable them to face these natural disasters with a positive attitude and learn some effective ways to save themselves and escape from disasters.

Textbook content analysis: The theme of this unit is to talk about “Natural Disasters”. In the reading part, the protagonist Timmy describes in the first person what he saw and felt during the Taiwan earthquake and how he was saved. This course requires students to be able to read articles, understand the Taiwan earthquake in the way of listening, speaking, reading and writing, learn some effective ways to save themselves, and be able to face the earthquake and other natural disasters with a positive attitude. According to the students’ cognitive regularity, teachers should carry out tasks and activities around the text, so as to help students gradually deepen their understanding of the content, and at the same time, to further improve the students’ ability of using language, and let the students know the dangers of disaster in reading and never give up the life.

The flowing is a teaching plan about unit 8 Natural Disasters

4.1.2 Analysis of learning situation

For the earthquake, although many students have not personally experienced, but most of the students have heard about it from the news, newspapers and parents, thus in this link of teaching, students should have a certain ability to accept. After school learning English for a year, eighth-grade students already learned a certain number of words and a certain ability of English reading comprehension. Through this class activities, students was able to further consolidate and apply the learned skills and strategies, thus help to activate the students’ application of both old and new knowledge, to improve students’ pragmatic competence and English reading comprehension.

4.2 Teaching procedures

Teaching procedure Step 1: Preparation before class Before class, ask students to collect materials related to natural disasters (name, cause, self-protection measures, etc.) and compile them into short articles of about 100 words (Chinese is optional), so that students can work in groups in class and exchange information with each other in the following process.Step 2: Lead-in When an earthquake happens, what can we see/hear/feel? Use pictures, flash, and sound effects to render new words. Do a brief introduction to the Taiwan earthquake with the classmates.Step 3: Pre-reading Show short clips from disaster movies, which include tornado, earthquake, blizzard, flood, tsunami, drought, mudslide, volcanic eruption and other disaster scenes. Then, ask students to retell the natural disaster in the form of brainstorming.Step 4: While-reading (1)Skimming Ask students to read the passage quickly then answer the following questions:1. What was Timmy doing when the earthquake started? Why?2. Was he safe in the end?Watch the text Flash and complete the judgment T/F of the whole text content as follows:1. Timmy was asleep when the earthquake started.2. At first, Timmy heard a loud noise like thunder.3. People ran in the same direction in the street.4. Timmy was trapped in a dark place after the earthquake stopped.5. There was not enough space for Timmy to pull himself through.6. People found Timmy soon after he was trapped.(2) Scanning Ask students to read the article carefully, then work in groups and complete the task according to different paragraphs.Section 1.1-2: Complete the graphic matching.Segment 2.3-4: Text matching.Step 5: Post-reading 1. Pair works: Give the frame and ask students to work in pairs, act as the reporter or Timmy, and do an interview after the disaster with each other. 2. Group works: Students were divided into groups of 5/6. According to the picture tips and the materials prepared before class, ask students to discuss and summarize the ways to save themselves and escape from earthquakes in different places (classroom, at home, in the supermarket, on the road), and made oral reports.Step 6: Summary The way to escape from an earthquake aims to encourage students to be calm and brave and never give up the chance to survive no matter what danger they may encounter in the future.Homework(1)Read the text after class.Discuss with classmates how to escape from other disasters.

5 Research results and discussion

5.1 Analysis of research results

In this study, the author conducted two reading tests on the students in the two parallel classes. The pre-test paper was five reading articles in the 2019 Linshui Middle School Examination paper, and the post-test paper was selected from the 2020 Linshui Middle School Examination paper with a total score of 30 points. Students have to finish the test within 40 minutes. This test is mainly used to investigate whether the discrepancies between the experimental class and the control class are the same in the two reading tests before and after, so as to verify whether the CLIL theory can be used to guide the teaching of junior high school English reading teaching to effectively improve the classroom effect of reading and improve the reading ability of junior high school students.

5.1.1 The pre-test results of the control class and the experimental class

As we can see from Table 1, in the pre-test, there was no significant difference in the reading scores between the control class and the experimental class. The average score of the control class is 19.08, and that of the experimental class is 19.64. The average difference between the two classes is only 0.56 points, basically no difference. It can be seen that before the two classes received different English reading teaching methods, there was no significant difference in their reading scores and reading abilities.

Table 1 Pre-test results of the control class and the experimental class

Table 2 Post-test results of the control class and the experimental class

5.1.2 The post-test results of the control class and the experimental class

As we can see from Table 2, in the post-test, the average score of the control class was 18.51, and that of the experimental class was 21.78. The standard deviation of the control class was 6.163, and that of the experimental class is 4.776. Before the teaching experiment, the average score discrepancy between the two classes was not significant, and the average score discrepancy between the two classes was only 0.56 points. After one’s CLIL teaching, the average score of the experimental class in the post-test was far higher than that of the control class, which was nearly 3 points, making obvious progress.

5.2 Advantages of CLIL teaching

Firstly, in the design of CLIL classroom practice teaching, teachers always adhere to the principle of meaning content first, form second. On the basis of the unity of the two, the significance of the content is emphasized. For example, in the teaching cases in the previous chapter, the author focuses on guiding students to understand what people saw and heard before, after and at the epicenter of the Taiwan earthquake, as well as what they felt after being trapped and rescued. Secondly, a large number of structures were built in CLIL classroom teaching activities, which reduced the student’s anxiety expressed in the target language in English class and built a platform for most students to participate in classroom activities. It not only enriches the diversity of classroom activities, enhances the challenge of activities, organizes and cultivates students’ comprehensive analysis ability to achieve the best output, but also stimulates students’ learning motivation and encourages them to actively participate in classroom activities. Thirdly, through the implementation of CLIL teaching, it also greatly improves the teachers’ ability to solve problems existed in the reading class. By using the weekly lesson preparation group activities, teachers in research group were organized to learn CLIL teaching methods, thus conducive to update their teaching concept. Fourthly, in CLIL teaching mode, teachers consider the development of the students as the center mission, and pay attention to the subject status of students’ learning, which is more humanized. Creating a real situation for students can help them understand the text content, which reduces their anxiety about target language. And because of the increased communication between students and teachers, the discourse output becomes richer and more flexible. Apart from that, getting rid of the previous sequencing, students can fully experience the fun of learning and further increase self-confidence through the diversity of immersive tasks, thus helps to guarantee the learner’s principal position and class effectiveness.

5.3 Deficiencies reflected in CLIL teaching in classroom

(1) Difficulty in choosing teaching content. “Content and language integrated learning” is an educational mode with dual purpose of teaching, which gives consideration to both content and language learning. Moreover, context plays an irreplaceable role in language learning in CLIL class.

(2) The application effect of CLIL teaching is greatly restricted by teaching conditions and means. The essence of CLIL class is context-centered classroom teaching. Specific teaching technical assistance is required in teaching, such as PPT, video and audio production, and statistical technology, which is not only the requirement of teaching vitality, but also the need of evaluation feedback and accumulation.

(3) The faculty quality is poor. CLIL teaching requires English teachers to have good language skills, rich and extensive knowledge and broad international vision. This is a great challenge for most of the English teachers who are used to traditional teaching methods, lacking innovative thinking and pioneering consciousness.

(4) Students lack a language environment based on their basic needs. Under the current teaching conditions of junior high school, CLIL can only simulate certain language scenes for students within a limited class period. But the current campus teaching environment does not provide such conditions.

(5) This teaching practice has a lot of exploratory nature, so immaturity does exist. Although CLIL teaching mode is based on the original teaching idea of combining language and content, it still has its own particular innovation point, especially provides a new perspective for the reform of English teaching in China.

5.4 The inspiration of the design of reading course under CLIL model

Enriching the learning content and encouraging the active participation of learners. When analyzing the teaching texts, teachers should focus on the theme and enrich the teaching materials from the perspective of students. Only in the real context, learners will have a stronger interest in participation and think deeply about the problems matching the language, which includes the skills training of listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating. In the process of continuous communication, thinking ability and learning interest will be activated.

Paying attention to cognition and culture and improving the pattern of English classroom. For junior high school students, due to the limitation of their vision and language ability, they seldom can freely express their thoughts and emotions in class. Therefore, English class is very active at the beginning, and then slowly becomes silent, and they can only complete the tasks mechanically. CLIL mode of teaching focuses on the combination of the learning content in the teaching process, allowing learners to perceive the cognition and culture in it, and connecting with learners’ learning and life, so as to improve learner’ thinking ability and cultural awareness. In short, the author believes that under the guidance of CLIL model, front-line teachers will get twice the result with half the effort through continuous practice, which can not only improve students’ interest in English learning, but also break through the bottleneck period of English teaching, and greatly improve the quality and efficiency of English teaching. However, there are still some problems existed to be solved in this process, such as how to quickly find high-quality and suitable extracurricular reading materials.

6 Conclusion

6.1 Research Conclusion

The author conducted CLIL teaching practice for three months in the English reading class of Linshui Middle School. It is helpful for the students to develop their language using ability, improve the skills in cross-cultural communication, promote the teaching methods and form diversification as well as improve the learners’ motivation. Discipline curriculum in junior high school currently does not yet have a wide range of promoting bilingual education, thus applying CLIL in junior high school English teaching in China can make the language learners be more engaged in the learning of content and target language.

Through the feedback of CLIL’s teaching effect, I find that we can use English as the medium to teach students subject knowledge, popular culture of target language, subject terminology and so on. By integrating language materials and subject education, students can change from “learning language” to “learning language with language”. At the same time, it can provide opportunities for learning content from different perspectives, so as to change the long-standing problems in English teaching in China, which always focus on learning language system, single teaching means and inefficient study.

6.2 Limitations of the study

The experimental time of this study is short, only three months, so it lacks completeness and fails to make a longterm and stable investigation on the effect of CLIL based teaching model of junior high school English reading. During the study period, the test of students’ reading scores will also be affected by other factors. For example, during the study period, students who are lower than the average score of the class will transfer in or out, which will inevitably affect the average score of the whole class in English, thus affecting the research results. In addition, in practical teaching, according to the characteristics of CLIL, textbooks need to be adapted for classroom teaching. The real language materials and systematic professional knowledge of non-English subjects such as geography, history, biology and other natural sciences required for CLIL teaching bring great challenges and pressures to English teachers. Due to regional differences, teaching implementation conditions, teaching organization forms and individual differences of students will affect the application effect of CLIL to a certain extent.

6.3 Suggestions for further studies

In the current junior high school English teaching, the practical exploration of CLIL is still in its infancy, and a stable and operable teaching strategy for CLIL has not been formed. In the follow-up teaching research, effective localization CLIL mode can be built in junior high school classes through pre-reading construction, while-reading with abundant language input and real situation, post-reading with multi-dimensional interaction. Teachers can simulate the atmosphere of using the target language for students with the help of the original English language materials, such as texts, audio, video, or sitcoms stored in multimedia digital ways.

Through further research, the understanding of English reading course can be deepened and broadened, and it can also be applied to more aspects and deeper teaching mode and teaching level. For example, CLIL contains four C elements (communication, content, cognition, culture), but which element is the most interested one in English learning or English ability? In addition, in the learning environment, content proficiency or language proficiency, which one is more conducive to improving students’ English learning interest and ability? Finally, more general research topics, authoritative questionnaires and examination papers should be selected in teaching experiments. In addition, the teaching experiment cycle should be longer and more comprehensive. Further systematic and scientific research on CLIL teaching model in the future will certainly have profound guiding significance for junior high school English reading teaching. It is hoped that more front-line teachers, experts and scholars can join this research, cooperate with each other and establish a resource sharing platform, so as to promote the scientific research of CLIL teaching model in teaching, the promotion and application of scientific research results and teaching cases.