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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.

Many teachers of English aspire to study in anglophone countries, especially at postgraduate level, as a means to support their own professional development. While the overt interest lies in acquiring cutting-edge theories in ELT to improve their classroom practices, a sojourn abroad is also valued as a cultural and linguistic immersion in the English language. Within the vibrant research scene of study abroad, comparatively little is known about the effect of studying abroad on older participants. This study addresses mature teachers as students abroad and focuses on the challenges and changes to their existing professional beliefs triggered by their foreign academic sojourn. The participants are four Japanese teachers of English who attended MA programmes in the UK. The analysis of a corpus of 2046 minutes of in-depth interviews, conducted over a period of 20?months, revealed how some core professional beliefs on English were reformulated, and triggered teacher development.

English as a foreign language is no longer the sole object of specialized language classes, but increasingly a medium of university-level instruction in a range of content areas. This leads to a complex interaction between new academic content and the means of expressing this expertise through appropriate disciplinary language uses. Conceptually, this study focuses on oral disciplinary-reasoning episodes, in which knowledge structures are explicitly developed. These episodes exemplify diverse ways whereby disciplinary meaning making is co-constructed in English-medium instruction (EMI), with one specific type being language-related episodes which clarify specific items of terminology. Drawing on INTE-R-LICA, an international and interdisciplinary project, the database under investigation covers 671 minutes (67,605 words) of classroom discourse from a Spanish business administration degree programme. Findings suggest a structural diversity within these episodes, which are jointly constructed, and involve a rich variety of discursive strategies to effectuate meaning making. Our results indicate that an understanding of the crucial role of language in this disciplinary meaning-making process is essential for the TESOL profession to remain relevant in the current English language teaching educational landscape. In addition to providing expert input into the potential of a language-sensitive EMI pedagogy, TESOL teacher education will need to foster both language and content teachers' awareness of the disciplinary nature of classroom discourse and its role in developing subject expertise among their students.

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.

The rapid increase in English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education has resulted in the need for a greater evidence base documenting EMI in practice spanning a range of settings. Studies of EMI focusing on linguistic issues are beginning to emerge but there are few comparative studies looking at multiple sites, levels and stakeholders. In response to this, the study reported here examined the roles of and conceptualisations of English and other languages in three EMI programmes in Thailand, Austria and the UK. A mixed-methods approach was adopted making use of a student questionnaire (N = 121) and interviews (N = 12) with lecturers and students, supported by documentary analysis and observations. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed diverse roles of English and other languages, various levels of recognition of multilingualism, and a sophisticated range of conceptualisations of language by stakeholders. In particular, English as discipline-specific language use emerged as a key concept, straddling language and content learning and teaching, as well as problematising simplistic divides between language and content. Furthermore, the complex understanding of the diverse roles of languages by participants offers a counter to perspectives of English in EMI as an unambiguous, monolithic entity.

While disagreements are often considered dispreferred choices and potentially face-threatening acts due to their oppositional nature, this perception does not adequately reflect the importance of disagreeing for many types of interaction, such as problem-solving and decision-making. Developing ability in performing this speech act therefore becomes relevant for learners of an L2 in order to show achievements in such general language learning targets as expressing and defending opinions and arguments, as well as negotiating consensual decisions. This paper presents a sequential analysis of disagreements in assessed interactions of advanced German-speaking learners of English, observed in three different exam formats, i.e. teacher-led interview, role play with teacher and paired student interaction. Overall, 33 disagreement episodes were identified in 18 oral exams. Findings show that the choice of examination format constrains range and type of disagreement trajectory enacted by the learners, highlighting the influence of minor contextual differences. Moreover, analyses of these exams suggest that linguistic alignment can and does co-exist with oppositional talk, supporting the notion that the purpose of achieving a successful joint performance of L2 interaction carries weight even when there is disagreement on a content level.

The contribution presents data and findings from a teacher education intervention, which aimed at supporting (student) teachers' professional vision in order to improve their (dialogic) reflective practices. In order to facilitate meaningful dialogue, video-recorded English lessons were used as bases of discussion. The 19 participants were early career teachers (with about two to four years teaching experience) from diverse geographical and educational backgrounds. Overall, interactions amounting to 349 minutes were recorded. Data show interesting interactions between participants describing and noticing specific teaching events on the video material, the challenges of suspending evaluation and the crucial role of dialogue in deepening the reflective process. Findings also show the affordances of video materials on fostering professional vision, such as the means of re-watching episodes and of several participants having seen the same teaching event. Although the participants had teaching experience, the facilitators were crucial in guiding towards both specific moments in the teaching events observed and to theory-based knowledge available to the participants. This raises implication for both pre- and in-service teaching aimed at reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trend towards greater globalisation of the academic landscape is closely linked to the establishment of English as the strongest academic language. As a result, more and more university courses are taught in English, with students of diverse subjects being required to write their academic texts in English. Through this development, even successful students and experienced foreign language learners frequently face new challenges, but the level of support offered by the universities varies widely. Research in this area has only quite recently begun to take account of the extent of this phenomenon. The present paper offers, in a first step, a concise overview of current research in the field of academic L2 writing in English. The second part consists of a presentation of empirical study results involving Austrian students of English, and a discussion of the implications of these findings for pedagogy in Higher Education, with a special focus on three subject areas: attitudes and perceptions of student writers, challenges and difficulties involved in academic writing, and writing practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education has rapidly increased over the last decade in Europe and Asia. However, this expansion has far outstripped research and many key questions remain unanswered. This study addresses a number of those questions related to roles and conceptualisations of English and other languages in multilingual university settings. Data is presented from an exploratory mixed‐methods (121 questionnaire responses and 12 interviews with lecturers and students), comparative study of higher education institutes in the UK, Austria and Thailand. Findings showed a move from monolingual orientations at management level, mixed responses to multilingualism in ideologies and beliefs, to extensive multilingualism and complexity in practices. Furthermore, unexpected similarities between the UK and Thailand as regards language proficiency and content learning were found. [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]

The rapid increase in English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education has resulted in the need for a greater evidence base documenting EMI in practice spanning a range of settings. Studies of EMI focusing on linguistic issues are beginning to emerge but there are few comparative studies looking at multiple sites, levels and stakeholders. In response to this, the study reported here examined the roles of and conceptualisations of English and other languages in three EMI programmes in Thailand, Austria and the UK. A mixed-methods approach was adopted making use of a student questionnaire (N = 121) and interviews (N = 12) with lecturers and students, supported by documentary analysis and observations. Quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed diverse roles of English and other languages, various levels of recognition of multilingualism, and a sophisticated range of conceptualisations of language by stakeholders. In particular, English as discipline-specific language use emerged as a key concept, straddling language and content learning and teaching, as well as problematising simplistic divides between language and content. Furthermore, the complex understanding of the diverse roles of languages by participants offers a counter to perspectives of English in EMI as an unambiguous, monolithic entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this seminar was to promote dialogue between two research areas addressing educational multilingualism: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and community languages. In bringing together these two strands of research, the seminar explored and fostered potential methodological and theoretical synergies. As organisers we invited abstracts which addressed innovative research in areas related to the conference theme, especially contributions which explored ways of linking school and community-based language learning. We aimed to create an atmosphere of stimulating discussion and debate in a convivial, intellectual environment. The programme included a variety of formats that would encourage discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Teaching English As a Friendly Language: Lessons From the SCOTS Corpus," by Anderson and Corbett, published in the 2010 issue.

The trend towards using English as an academic lingua franca has undoubtedly increased the awareness of a need for specific EAP writing instruction and inroads into researching student writing have been made. However, systematic improvements for a theory-informed teaching practice still require more detailed knowledge of the current state of student academic writing, which also takes into account local practices and requirements. Extended genre analysis provides such a means of researching student writing in specific settings. This is an innovative methodology which expands on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) genre analysis (cf. Bhatia, 1993, 2004; Swales, 1990, 2004) to systematically integrate corpus linguistic tools into the analysis and to take into account the special status of student genres. A special advantage of this methodology is that it can be applied easily and successfully to small-scale purpose-built corpora. This paper presents an application of extended genre analysis to a corpus of 55 student paper conclusions produced by non-native speakers in the initial phase of their studies. Findings suggest systematic differences in structure between student and expert genres, as well as a more complex set of differences in lexico-grammar, and especially the use of formulaic language, between research articles and non-native student papers. The implications of these findings as well as of the proposed methodology of corpus-based genre analysis for teaching practice are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the need to re-evaluate the aims and objectives underlying the teaching of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in a European context. I argue here that for students to develop fully their abilities as writers, the objectives set in individual classes must reflect students’ communicative purposes, rather than those of expert writers, and for that reason specific student writing models are needed. This paper proposes a methodology for the development of such writing models, and presents results of the application of this methodology to the analysis of a corpus of 55 student paper conclusions. The notion of student genre(s) adopted here challenges the tacit assumption that EAP is a homogeneous whole, and that expert models can realistically be used as models in teaching EAP student writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]