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Complementing the rich literature on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classroom discourse, this study is one of the first to focus on teachers and students topicalizing language in technical education at upper secondary level. By using an extended conceptualization of the "language-related episode" (LRE) to incorporate all interactional sequences dealing with linguistic topics (e.g., lexis or pronunciation) as well as suggestions or comments on language use or choice, this multi-case study analyzed 17.5 h of IT and economic lessons observed in five cases set in four different upper-secondary technical colleges in Austria. The quantitative and qualitative findings reveal an overall high frequency of LREs of both types, although individual cases display a surprising diversity in using LREs, ranging from one per lesson to one per minute. Furthermore, certain LRE topics, such as lexis and language choice, are highly dominant, and individual cases show their own ways of developing LREs and thus integrating language (learning) in CLIL. When combined with insights gained from the reflection interviews undertaken with all teachers, these findings reveal both language-related teaching aims and how the participating teachers put them into practice in the form of LREs. • LRE is adapted to analyse language being topicalized in technical CLIL. • The new conceptualisation of LRE includes linguistic and language-use topics. • Language (use) is topicalized in technical CLIL discourse to differing degrees. • Differences in LRE use reflect learner-group and subject-related factors. • Reflecting content teachers' language (learning) aims, LREs instantiate CLIL. [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]

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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]

While Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has received a considerable amount of research interest lately, its increasing popularity as an approach to teaching content subjects in a foreign language requires concerted investigation that reflects and recognises its fundamentally contextualised nature. In this contribution, we sketch various tasks that require localised, often action research, covering a range of areas highly relevant to CLIL realities, but so far underrepresented in the literature. These are, firstly, policy issues, comprising policy statements as well as stakeholders’ perceptions of CLIL and its success; secondly, classroom discourse as the prime site for the investigation of CLIL practices and their implications for the learning process; and, thirdly, classroom pedagogy, with the focus on potential differences between CLIL and non-CLIL settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article offers information on the Applied Linguistics Perspectives on Content and Language Integrated Learning Conference (ALP-CLIL) to be held at Miraflores de la Sierra in Madrid, Spain from June 5 to 8, 2013, and the CLIL 2013 Conference in Silezia, Poland from April 4 to 6, 2013.