Session Information
27 SES 06 B, Teaching and Learning Foreign Languages
Paper Session
Contribution
Using English as a medium of instruction becomes more and more crucial in Thai educational system. Since Thailand officially steps into ASEAN community in early 2016, English, which is considered as an official working language, is an important key to deal with other member countries in ASEAN. Are we, Thai content teachers, ready for this change and teaching content through English? Also, Thailand was ranked 55th on the English proficiency out of 60 countries by the Education First Institution in 2012. Therefore, Thailand needs to promote English language teaching standard to elevate competitiveness in ASEAN community.
Consequently, learning English only in language lesson is no longer enough to develop competitive language skills for Thai learners. English should be a part of their life onward. Do we focus only on learners? As a matter of fact, this political change involves not only learners but teachers themselves who have to improve their skills. Particularly, in regular content classrooms, Thai content teachers’ language skills need to be purposefully focused. They have to be able to teach their subject matter in an additional language which is English in Thai educational context. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) concept should be pointed out.
As pre-service CLIL teacher training program is unofficially boosted, a number of in-service teacher training programs are currently launched enhancing Thai content teachers’ language skills, conceptualizing the use of English as a vehicle language for Thai learners learning in regular program.
In-service teacher professional development programs take time and require significant budgets. Some in-service training programs are never been followed or officially valued if teachers’ performances in CLIL type classes were progressively developed, difficulties and important needs to facilitate and accomplish their CLIL classrooms are rarely analyzed after attending professional development program. As long as pre-service CLIL teacher training is not officially operated, in-service CLIL teacher professional development program is essential because transforming Thai classroom into English integrated classroom is a big issue.
Theoretical framework
A key-concept for this approach comes from the concept of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) that is a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and languages (Mehisto, Marsh, & Jesùs Frigols, 2008). This approach uses an additional language as a medium of instruction and learning based on 4Cs framework; Content, Communication, Cognition, and Culture (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010; Dalton-Puffer, 2008; Mehisto, Marsh, & Jesùs Frigols, 2008).
In the teaching and learning process, the main theoretical framework comes from the joint action theory in didactics - JATD (Sensevy & Mercier, 2007 ; Mercier & al., 2002). This on-going research is the opportunity to put the theoretical frameworks from CLIL approach and the JATD to the test of precise empirical data and thus to probe their heuristic relevance and to evaluate their potential convergence.
Research questions
The aim of this study is to analyze participant teachers’ teaching performance after attending CLIL teacher professional development program, to characterize regular content classrooms instructed through English by Thai content teachers; such as Mathematic, Science, Physical Education and Music. It is assumed that this study will give perspectives of using English as an instructional language and clarify CLIL type classroom practices among Thai content teachers’ understanding and remodel the CLIL teacher professional development program. The study focuses on the following questions:
1. What are teaching performances of content teachers after attending the teacher professional development program on the use of English in content classrooms?
2. What are major difficulties, problems of readiness of content teachers toward the use of English as an instructional language in content classrooms?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). Content and Language Integrated Learning. UK: Cambridge University Press. Dalton-Puffer, C. (2008). Outcomes and processes in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL): current research from Europe. In D. Werner, & V. Laurenz (Éds.), Future Perspectives for English Language Teaching. (pp. 139-157). Heidelberg: Carl Winter. Dalton-Puffer, C., Nikula, T., & Smit, U. (Éds.). (2010). Language Use and Language Learning in CLIL Classrooms. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. de Graaff, R., Koopman, G. J., Anikina, Y., & Westhoff, G. (2007). An observation tool for effective L2 pedagogy in Content and Langauge Integrated Learning (CLIL) (Vol. 10). Bilingual Education and Bilinguism. Mehisto, P., Marsh, D., & Jesùs Frigols, M. (2008). Uncovering CLIL. Thailand: Macmillan Education. Mercier, A., Schubauer-Léoni, M.-L., Sensevy, G. (Ed.) (2002). « Vers une didactique comparée », Revue française de pédagogie, n° 141, p. 5-16. DOI : 10.3406/rfp.2002.2910 Ministry of Education Thailand. (2014) English as a medium of instruction reform. Office of Basic Education Commission. Sensevy, G. (2005). Sur la notion de geste professionnel. La lettre de l’Association Internationale de Didactique du Français. AIRDF, 4-6. Sensevy, G. (2011). Le sens du savoir. Éléments pour une théorie de l’action conjointe en didactiqu. Bruxelle: De Boeck. Sensevy, G., Mercier, A. (2007). Agir Ensemble. L’action didactique conjointe du professeur et des élèves dans la classe. Rennes : Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.