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The rise of English-medium education in (European) higher education has attracted considerable attention, but most analyses of the topic to date have been conducted in traditional universities. Highly international fields such as that of classical music higher education (CMHE) remain under-researched. Dafouz, E., and U. Smit. 2016. “Towards a Dynamic Conceptual Framework for English Medium Education in Multilingual University Settings.” Applied Linguistics 37 (3): 397–415 and Dafouz, E., and U. Smit. 2020. ROAD-MAPPING English Medium Education in the Internationalised University. Palgrave Macmillan. The ROAD-MAPPING framework provides an analytical tool for examining such complex contexts and unpacking the various factors at play in these multilingual university settings. In this paper, we present a mixed-methods case study at one of Austria’s largest state-funded music universities, comprising a policy analysis, a survey and semi-structured interviews with students, teachers and management. Using the ROAD-MAPPING framework to guide our analysis, we found that university policy and reported practice were coherent among all groups, with German as the default medium of education. English is explicitly designated the second academic language, while multilingualism and multimodality are actively promoted as a means of achieving educational and professional goals. However, we also noted that many strategies for coping with these multilingual teaching and learning contexts seem to be rather ad hoc, suggesting that there is a need for more awareness of multilingual pedagogy, and confirming the value of the ROAD-MAPPING framework for examining such complex settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Apart from linguistic diversity and multilingualism, empirical research into diversity is only in its beginnings in the Austrian educational context. CLIL research, on the other hand, is well-established but has not tended to focus on pedagogical practices. This study explores teachers' and students' self-reported experiences in Austrian CLIL classrooms with regard to the phenomenon of diversity and the pedagogical practices addressing it. This mixed-methods study used the research instruments (questionnaires, interview guides) developed in the ADiBE project. Three Viennese secondary schools with two classes each participated in the study. In total, 132 students answered the questionnaires. Six focus group interviews with 6–8 participants were conducted (one for each participating class). Teacher questionnaires were distributed in but also beyond the participating schools (N = 30), and eight teachers from the participating schools were interviewed. With regard to the phenomenon of diversity as such, our results suggest a system-inherent ambivalence between segregation and egalitarianism. Concerning pedagogical practices during CLIL lessons, such as language scaffolding, learner-centred design or use of German, the responses of students and teachers show that different aspects of classroom reality carry different weight with the two groups of participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), an educational approach where a foreign language is used to teach non-language subjects. More specifically, this contribution presents new insights into an under-researched area, namely the potential of CLIL in fostering the learning and use of subject-specific target language vocabulary (SSV). This is investigated in a case study analysing spontaneous oral classroom productions of two groups of advanced, secondary-school students in an Austrian CLIL programme within the subject European economics and politics. Based on a holistic definition of SSV comprising both single and multi-word lexical units, complementary quantitative lexical and qualitative discourse-embedded research methods are employed to present a comprehensive picture of the engagement of learners with subject-specific vocabulary. Findings of the lexical analysis show a substantial and active use of SSV with some homogeneity but also considerable variation between students. Discursive investigations of the affordances for learning arising in interactions indicate that in constructing and negotiating SSV, the students make use of a range of learning and communication strategies, which indicates their heightened level of SSV learning awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research on CLIL suggests positive impacts on lexical proficiency and on spoken language, the crucial question of the effect of CLIL on advanced learners, both in terms of subject-specific language (SSL) proficiency and content knowledge, has received less attention. We argue that the ability to negotiate a factual position appropriately is a key element of SSL, relating to both content and to foreign language ability. As a theoretical framework for understanding these negotiations of generally opposing standpoints, we use argumentation theory. The study was conducted in upper-secondary CLIL classes on European economics and politics in Austria. From the data set of 16 hours of video-recording, comprising teacher-whole class interactions, group work, and role plays, episodes of argumentation were extracted and analysed. Two types of argumentation patterns emerge, with one focused on the joint construction and learning of new SSL and content knowledge, and the other on the enactment of such knowledge in interaction. Students' engagement in these argumentations gives clear evidence of their SSL proficiency in prepared and unprepared oral production. As the type of classroom event has an effect on the specific argumentation patterns, the need for exposing students to a diversity of educational practice is underlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is one of the most dynamic pedagogic trends in language teaching in Europe, and yet, the enthusiasm with which this innovation is implemented by stakeholders and ‘made a success’ is not fully understood. In this paper we argue for an investigation of CLIL implementation as a form of extended language policy, which relates language management, practice and beliefs, and so expands the notion of policy well beyond a top-down legislation. In this contribution, the suggested centrality of beliefs to CLIL policy analysis will be shown by a detailed investigation into the lay theories of teachers and learners involved in CLIL instruction in Austrian upper secondary colleges of technology, which traditionally attract students considered as relatively unsuccessful foreign language learners. The data consist of 48 in-depth interviews with teachers and students in this setting, covering a range of teacher specialisations and of student abilities. The discursive and content analysis of these interviews shows clear clusters of beliefs relating to language learning, the effects and benefits of CLIL and to the construction of success regarding CLIL. Findings suggest that the strength of beliefs and the relative absence of language management result in a construction of CLIL and of CLIL success that is partly at odds with those of experts or policy-makers, but which is linked directly to local CLIL practices. Issues arising of these mismatches are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent debates on English varieties have focused on the apparent contrast of Global English on the one hand and World Englishes on the other, where the former reflects the status of English as the main global means of communication, while the latter describes the multitude of diverse varieties of English presently used in various parts of the world. The status and description of the variety in question here, BSAE (Black South African English), is one of the examples that apparently contain elements of both Global English and World Englishes. This article reports on the pilot study of a still-ongoing research project which investigates teachers' language perceptions and language use in mainly BSAE-using classrooms. Our aim here is to describe and analyse this specific micro-level situation of language use in view of two macro-level considerations: (i) in how far Global English vs local Englishes manifest themselves in teachers' evaluations and (ii) what this means for the teachers' perceptions of BSAE (Black South African English). From a methodological point of view, the pilot study focuses on teachers' language perceptions as revealed in their assessment of student work and elicited by a questionnaire containing student texts and closed and open-ended questions, which was filled in by 48 respondents in August 2001. The findings show that the respondents used two criteria of assessment (MESSAGE and SENTENCE GRAMMAR), which relate to learner-group centred and external points of reference. While more, and also more-detailed, data will be needed before clear-cut conclusions regarding the macro-level considerations can be drawn, the study outcomes seem to indicate that in actual situations of language use a global norm and local manifestations and expectations co-exist, which might also be the basis for the diffuse but still shared understanding of BSAE as a variety of its own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates accent recognition and language attitudes. Arguments that accent recognition can influence speaker evaluations; Indepth look at accent recognition as an integral part of future investigations into language attitudes.