Symposium Presentation slides from Professor Makoto Ikeda based on his article for the International CLIL Research Journal. http://www.icrj.eu/21/contents.html

1. 2014/3/25
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Does CLIL work for Japanese secondary school
students?: Potential for the ‘weak’ version of CLIL
CLIL in Japan: Beyond the European context
26 March 2014, Sophia University
Makoto Ikeda (makoto-i@sophia.ac.jp)
Two types of CLIL
Bentley (2009)
Dale and Tanner (2012)
Total
immersion
Partial
immersion
Subject
courses
Language classes
based on thematic units
Language classes with
greater use of content
Strong/hard CLIL
Content-oriented
Weak/soft CLIL
Language-oriented
Ball (2009)
Partial
immersion
Subject-led
(modular)
Language-led
Subject lessons taught
by CLIL subject teachers
Language lessons taught
by CLIL language teachers
Working definition
‘Weak/soft’ CLIL is a type of content
and language integrated instruction
taught by trained CLIL language teachers
to help learners develop their target
language competency as a primary aim
and their subject/theme/topic knowledge
as a secondary aim.
Research context
School: Wako Kokusai High School in Saitama
Participants: 80 students (16-17 years old; 62
female and 18 male students; B1 on CEFR)
Teachers: Two experienced CLIL language
teachers (Japanese) and ALTs (native speakers)
Content: Global issues (e.g. war and peace)
Period: 35 weeks from April 2012 to March 2013
(62.5 hours for two groups and 72.5 hours for
the other two.)
Research questions
(1) Do the students perceive any CLIL
features which are distinct from normal
English lessons?
(2) Does their language proficiency develop
as a result of CLIL lessons?
Instruments
(1) Course evaluation questionnaire
10 multiple-choice and 1 open-ended questions
(2) Essay writing tests (pre-test and post-test)
Criterion Online Writing Evaluation Service

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Result (1): CLIL lessons = high density Student’s comment
I learnt about the world situation that I
hadn’t known at all [Content/Culture]. I
enjoyed the lessons particularly because
I thought about the topics deeply using
my head [Cognition], discussed with my
friends [Communication/Culture] and
gave presentations in groups
[Communication/Culture].
Result (2) = Some developemt in writing
More words, more vocaburary types
but more errors
Category Scale Test Mean SD t-value
Holisticscore Criterionscore Pre-test
Post-test
2.03
2.72
0.73
0.77
-8.10**
Fluency Numberof words Pre-test
Post-test
153.67
196.38
53.24
63.99
-6.47**
Accuracy Numberof errors Pre-test
Post-test
15.03
19.61
8.30
10.04
-3.55**
Numberof errors
persentence
Pre-test
Post-test
1.07
1.29
0.43
0.54
-2.98**
Complexity Numberof wordtypes Pre-test
Post-test
83.38
97.33
21.09
24.86
-4.86**
Percentage of Base list1words Pre-test
Post-test
83.92
80.88
5.14
5.33
3.76**
Percentage of Base list2words Pre-test
Post-test
4.78
5.16
2.48
2.48
-1.07
Percentage of Base list3words Pre-test
Post-test
3.00
3.39
1.79
1.37
-1.75
Percentage of otherwords Pre-test
Post-test
8.30
10.58
4.12
4.75
-3.40*
Findings
(1) The students noticed there were distinct
CLIL characteristics in the course that were
different from other English lessons.
(2) The learners’ overall written English proficiency
developed, particularly in terms of fluency and
complexity.
NB These language learning gains cannot be totally
attributable to the CLIL lessons, as the participants
also learnt English outside the CLIL classroom.
Conclusions
 A ‘weak’ form of CLIL does work for Japanese
secondary school students.
 The ‘soft’ version of CLIL should be recognised
as an adapted, contextualised breed while, at
the same time, its authentic, universal model
(i.e. ‘hard’ CLIL) is pursued as the norm.
 Effective CLIL lessons can be conducted by
teachers who are adequately and amply
trained in CLIL theories and skills.