Mathematical conversations in a trilingual classroom

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaLes dades que presentarem formen part d'un treball de recerca dins del Màster d'Iniciació a la Recerca de Didàctica de la Matemàtica i les Ciències Experimentals de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. El treball està centrat en la identificació de pràctiques matemàtiques en una aula de matemàtiques en anglès amb un grup classe de 1r d'ESO. Des del punt de vista de la fonamentació teòrica, es tracta d'un treball emmarcat en les teories socioculturals de l'aprenentatge i, en particular, plantejat d'acord amb una perspectiva sòcio-lingüística d'interpretació d'entorns CLIL. La situació didàctica parteix de la gestió a l'aula d'una versió adaptada del joc del dòmino. El context de joc s'entén com un recurs educatiu per a la promoció de la interacció física amb material i la interacció social entre alumnat. Per tal de jugar, s'organitza l'alumnat en petits grups que, per torns, han de resoldre equivalències que van des de l'ús correcte de noms d'angles (zero, recte, pla, complet), al càlcul d'angles complementaris i suplementaris respecte d'un angle donat, la manipulació de mesures expressades en el sistema sexagesimal, la interpretació de dibuixos o la representació de valors d'angles en graus sexagesimals i en radians, entre d'altres. Per mitjà de l'anàlisi de continguts matemàtics de les converses, explorem la resolució de les jugades de tirada del dòmino. Són, en general, jugades de tipus molt variats quant al treball de continguts, la construcció d'argumentacions, la utilització d'estratègies de resolució i els referents socials de la interacció. Tots aquests aspectes es concreten per mitjà de converses trilingües, on l'anglès és la llengua de l'ensenyament i alhora el tercer idioma d'un alumnat que és eminentment bilingüe en català i castellà. Alguns resultats preliminars mostren canvis en l'ús de la llengua durant els episodis d'implicació de l'alumnat en les diferents jugades. Es passa alternativament i de forma regular de l'anglès al català i/o al castellà i es retorna a l'anglès en moments puntuals. En un dels grups, per exemple, l'alumnat construeix paraules a cavall entre dues llengües, sent una d'elles l'anglès, enlloc de passar a la primera llengua, o bé demanar ajut en la construcció de certes frases. L'anàlisi en profunditat d'aquests resultats en relació a la identificació de pràctiques matemàtiques ha de facilitar l'explicació de relacions entre la complexitat matemàtica de la tasca i l'ús de la llengua. D'altres resultats preliminars posen de manifest la diversitat de discursos d'interacció amb els altres. Les estratègies per tal d'apel·lar a la participació d'alumnat i professor semblen variar en funció dels continguts matemàtics de la jugada i de la llengua usada. L'alumnat no sempre verbalitza l'estratègia usada, sovint es limita a buscar la confirmació d'un company i rarament argumenta en cap de les tres llengües. Això contrasta amb el fet que el joc avanci amb èxit, resolent-se les successives jugades amb procediments matemàtics correctes. Caldrà analitzar novament aquests resultats i examinar-los d'acord amb la complexitat matemàtica de la tasca i l'ús de la llengua. En la versió completa de la comunicació, detallarem les característiques de l'estudi, ampliarem la descripció de resultats preliminars i mostrarem part de l'anàlisi duta a terme en l'exploració de relacions emergents entre ús de la llengua, complexitat de la tasca matemàtica i formes d'interacció social en el nostre cas empíric

La Alternancia lingüística entre L1 Y L2 en tres contextos AICLE

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaThis paper's aim is to analyze teachers' code-switching from L1 (Italian) to L2 (English) in various CLIL contexts in Italy. For years the shift from L1 to L2 was banned in language classes since it was thought that in this way the learning of the foreign language could be impaired. On the contrary, in recent years there has instead been a recognition of the validity of code-switching which has been considered as a strategy adopted by all bilingual speakers (Baker 1996, Butzkamm 1998, Cook 2001, Franklin 2001, Gajo 2001, Ricci Garotti 2006, Myers 2006, Bentley 2008). Therefore, if CLIL, as it is, is to be assimilated to bilingual learning then code-switching should be present in CLIL contexts. We aim at answering the following research questions by means of a qualitative research method: when does code-switching in teacher's speech occur and what is its role? What differences are there between first, middle and secondary teaching with regards to code-switching by the teacher? To test this, three different types of schools have been chosen to be analysed, primary, middle and secondary. Almost six hours of teaching have been audiorecorded by means of a digital recorder with a microphone connected only to the teacher. Therefore examples of code-switching in the teacher's talk have been gathered. The students couldn't be recorded for privacy reasons. Secondly, the researcher has filled in an observational grid on the basis of Bentley's categories in order to see in what types of activities code-switching does occur with regards to both teachers and learners. Thirdly, a questionnaire has been filled out by the teachers in order to compare the field notes with their perceptions of the use of code-switching. In general, not many differences have been found out in the use of teacher's code-switching for primary, middle or secondary school. Nevertheless, the study has shown that according to what could be expected, the primary school teacher makes an extensive use of code-switching. The middle school teacher also uses it a lot even for non didactic activities such as reproaching the students. The high school teacher, on the contrary uses it very rarely and only for guiding or instructing the students. All of the teachers observed used code-switching for eliciting the switch as a natural activity to be developed in bilinguals and also to explain the lexis. This seems to be very useful especially for younger students in order to give them the lexis in both languages. The risk here, especially with specific lexis, is that the children learn the foreign word but they never have the chance to know the term in their native language. As regards the teachers' opinions on code-switching, all of them are in favour of it. They are very aware of their use of it but less of the use of it by the students. That is to say they think they allow it less than they actually do. To sum up, according to Baker (1996) all teachers use code-switching for didactic and non didactics functions but give less attention to the type of skill where they use it. According to Gajo's (2001) categories they all use micro alternance more than macro alternance. This is supposed be very positive because it is the real bilingual skill

A Quantitative Approach to FL Learner Oral Data : methodological Issues

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaThis paper proposal presents an exploratory study in which the T-unit - the most popular unit of analysis applied in SLA research - was tested against FL learner empirical data. The aim was to investigate its appropriateness and effectiveness for the assessment of complexity of learners' academic explanatory oral production in the target language. Suggested by Hunt (1970) to measure schoolchildren' syntactic maturity in writing, it is defined as "a main clause plus all subordinate clauses and non-clausal structures attached to or embedded in it". The analysed empirical data were audio recordings of FL learners' individual pretests and posttests gathered during the implementation of a CLIL teaching sequence (Natural Sciences in English) in a Catalan state secondary school (Barcelona, Spain). In order to achieve the posed aim we followed a traditional SLA research practice in the area of written and oral learner discourse measurement and worked within the quantitative approach. Thus, the procedures to be taken were the following: (1) data segmentation into T-units according to the unit's definition and (2) data quantification by applying the T-unit to the data. For the latter, the chosen measures were: (a) two Frequencies (Unit Frequency and Unit Length Frequency) which could reveal the progress in general complexity and two Ratios (Clause Ratio and Subordinate Clause Ratio) which could provide information about syntactic complexity. However, already in the first phase of the analysis we were faced with several methodological problems related to the spoken nature of the data. First reason was the fact that the definition of the selected research tool turned out to be too wide and ambiguous when being applied to low-intermediate FL learner monologic spoken discourse. And secondly, having revised the studies on L2 and FL non-interactive production, we found very few ones that provided either guidelines for segmenting the data into T-units or any examples of their data segmented into analyzable units. Being especially interested in previous research made on the assessment of low level learners' explanatory spoken language complexity through the application of the T-unit, we found that none of the reviewed studies worked with the same type of the data and thus could serve as a reliable source for consulting. The analysis revealed that in the segmentation process the analytic tool resulted to be little appropriate for dealing with our data since it raised serious methodological issues which it was unable to resolve. In our opinion, this owes to the proper nature of the T-unit which was developed for the formal assessment of learner written syntactic maturity. However, in relation to the data quantification, the measures showed that the tool turned out to be useful not only in identifying the progress in complexity of the produced language attributable to the treatment but also in distinguishing between those who achieved this progress and those who did not. Still, to make any generalizations over the appropriateness and effectiveness of the selected tool both for data segmentation and measurement an examination of a larger corpus is highly recommended

Wireless CLIL : un ejemplo de aprendizaje entre iguales utilizando videoconferencia

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaThe CLIL methodology has been already explored in many European projects (Comenius 2 and Lingua) but they used traditional classroom lessons to develop CLIL modules while the intent of the project W CLIL was to open up the classroom by using a videoconferencing system. A more specific aim was to connect learners from a remote location allowing them to attend a class in a foreign language where the teacher is teaching a content (or a language) which is part of their curriculum and to interact with the remote students and teachers. It was implicit in this that the final aim was to promote language learning for students and teachers as well and that the process would favor the intercultural dialogue and the European Dimension. Furthermore future teachers of different subjects were involved in the project and this represented for them a very important training opportunity. The Minerva project W CLIL aimed therefore at the delivery of CLIL videoconferences and it had two focuses: (1) The use of ICT for didactical purposes (2)The promotion of the CLIL approach. A special focus was put on methodological and organizational considerations for the preparation and implementation of W CLIL videoconferences. Types of videconferences Within the project lifecycle we ran three different types of videoconferences: (1) Videoconferences aiming at making people meeting/knowing each other, both teachers and students; (2) Videoconferences aiming at keeping in touch project staff between one transnational meeting and the following one in order to reduce the shortage of face-to-face contacts; (3) Videoconferences aimed at CLIL lessons. (4) We ran CLIL videoconferences in the following subjects: (1) Italian Literature and history (Dante and his time, The Italian Resistance War, Right to vote for Women in Italy) (2) Geography (Spanish Territory) (3) Environmental issues (4)Intercultural Dialogue (challenges connected to the migration flows)

Reading to Learn and to Develop Critical Thinking and the Learning of Science

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaUna de les característiques de la societat actual és la gran quantitat d'informació que hi ha a l'abast de tothom. La transmissió de la informació no és actualment un repte de l'escola, pero sí que ho és trobar-la, comprendre-la i llegir-la críticament per poder prendre decisions de manera fonamentada. Quan com a lectors ens enfrontem a la lectura d'un text podem adoptar diferents posicions, però sens dubte la més difícil és la posició crítica, ja que cal realitzar un procés de negociació entre el text i els propis coneixements per poder construir una interpretació. En aquesta ponència s'analitzaran exemples d'activitats, realitzades en el marc de classes de ciències, orientades a aprendre a llegir críticament i a gaudir de la lectura tot apropiant-se dels coneixements propis de l'àrea

Teacher education on the CLIL Approach: A case for inclusion of informed appreciations of complementary curricular area

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaUna de les característiques de la societat actual és la gran quantitat d'informació que hi ha a l'abast de tothom. La transmissió de la informació no és actualment un repte de l'escola, pero sí que ho és trobar-la, comprendre-la i llegir-la críticament per poder prendre decisions de manera fonamentada. Quan com a lectors ens enfrontem a la lectura d'un text podem adoptar diferents posicions, però sens dubte la més difícil és la posició crítica, ja que cal realitzar un procés de negociació entre el text i els propis coneixements per poder construir una interpretació. En aquesta ponència s'analitzaran exemples d'activitats, realitzades en el marc de classes de ciències, orientades a aprendre a llegir críticament i a gaudir de la lectura tot apropiant-se dels coneixements propis de l'àrea

Becoming Reporters In A Clil Classroom: Development Of Shared Understanding Of Task Requirements In Group Work

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaThis research project departs form a sociocultural perspective on learning in general, and language learning in particular. It is focused on the development of shared understanding of task requirements by students working in pairs and the joint knowledge constructed through interaction within that process. In order to understand such a process a revision of several theoretical perspectives has been done. We consider language, consciousness and knowledge as social constructs, from which it follows the consideration of learning as a social phenomenon which occurs through interaction and scaffolding. This Sociocultural perspective, when applied to language learning, suggests the need for situated tasks that promote real interaction in engaging learning contexts. Also related with the Sociocultural Paradigm, we find the Activity Theory, that - in the context of language learning - analyses the learning processes as sets of goal-oriented activities, and the contextual elements that influence such processes. Activity Theory also suggests the need for relevant and meaningful learning contexts. At this point, we shall suggest Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) as a methodology that meets all this requirements and promotes group and pair work, interactive activities and all the potential learning situations that interaction carries with it. From these viewpoints, the interaction in four pairs of students was analysed with the final objective to understand a little bit of the learning process, because "we must understand learning before we can teach. We can only study teaching in reference to learning, and we can only understand teaching if we understand learning" (van Lier, 1998: 130). The data was collected in a 2nd ESO inclusive classroom during the implementation of a CLIL didactic sequence on the Holocaust. The recording of 4 pairs were analysed, two of these pairs could be defined as symmetric and the other two as asymmetric. On analysing the data the focus was set on how a team of two students deloped a shared understanding of the requirements of a task, and with such objective in mind the following research question was posed: Do the students proceed according to instructions? What kinds of activities (as defined in Activity Theory ) do students carry out in order to develop a common understanding of what is expected from them? The answer to the first part of the question is "No". The students had been given the written instructions, which had been read as a class (they had to write an article following several steps). The data confirmed that students do not strictly follow the instructions, however, from the Activity Theory perspective, they perform a wide range of goal-oriented activities which lead them to the final outcome (they do indeed write the article). From the analysis of the data from an emic perspective, several categories emerged: (1) Task management activities, among which negotiation of task meaning, negotiation of writing strategy, negotiation of roles, negotiation of general topic, negotiation of specific content, negotiation of setting, etc. (2) Evaluation of task (3) Encouragement (4) Doubts or hesitation (5) Self-repair (6)Elusion of responsibility (7) Off-task. Most of these activities imply some kind of negotiation which often brings joint construction of knowledge, that is, students learn while interacting. And the students not only learn language, but also content, and new ways of social communication. This research project has given us the chance to observe how the students develop a shared understanding, and thus learn together, eventhough they do not always proceed as instructed or asexpected. We should not then be discouraged when our instructions are not followed as planned, and make the most of the results from student negotiation

Environment. El tema del medio ambiente en inglés. Material de apoyo para AICLE con MALTED

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaEnvironment se presenta como un material digital didáctico de apoyo realizado con el programa MALTED. Habiendo sido experimentado en alumnos de 1º de bachillerato en el aula informática durante el curso 2007/2008, pretende en primer lugar introducir y avanzar en la enseñanza con las nuevas tecnologías; en segundo lugar introducir material específico AICLE, en el área de las Ciencias Naturales y en tercer lugar intenta integrar el tema del medio ambiente, como tema transversal, en la asignatura de lengua inglesa. El material digital practica las 4 destrezas básicas en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera: hablar, escuchar, leer y escribir. Aunque el mayor número de actividades desarrollan estrategias escritas: leer y escribir, se ha intentado no descuidar la parte oral, incorporando textos orales que el alumno debe escuchar e incluso grabarlos con su propia voz. En las actividades se dedica una especial atención al vocabulario específico ya que son precisamente el vocabulario y sus definiciones los que introducen conceptos en el aprendizaje de la materia curricular. Las diferentes partes o secciones del material, se han diseñado teniendo en cuenta el contenido de medio ambiente y sostenibilidad e intenta abarcar sus temas fundamentales: polución atmosférica, residuos sólidos, recursos hídricos y el reciclaje. A partir de estos temas se han explotado didácticamente los textos a nivel lingüístico para una mayor comprensión de éstos y para un aprendizaje y/o repaso de determinados contenidos gramaticales y de vocabulario. Aunque el material, por sus características digitales tiene un alto componente de aprendizaje autónomo, la ayuda del profesor, como monitor y asesor, es importante para aclarar dudas y guiar al alumno hacia una óptima ejecución de las tareas. Los ejercicios están graduados en dificultad de manera que los más difíciles se sitúan en las últimas actividades, éstas incluyen ejercicios de lectura escritos y orales más extensos y complejos. Sin embargo se ha intentado combinar ejercicios simples y complejos para evitar el cansancio, aburrimiento y abandono en el seguimiento de las actividades. Gran parte de las tareas que se les piden a los alumnos son de asociación: asociar imágenes a términos, a conceptos, a textos orales o escritos. El segundo grupo de actividades más frecuentes es el de rellenar huecos en un texto con palabras dadas en una lista. Este segundo tipo de actividades permite una atención especial al uso y práctica de cuestiones gramaticales tales como formas y tiempos verbales, comparación de adjetivos… de ahí que sean de gran ayuda las páginas auxiliares sobre explicaciones y práctica de estas cuestiones

The role of tasks in CLIL program development

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaThe goal of this paper is to discuss the role of tasks and task-based research may play in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) program development. In the last three decades, a large body of research has been conducted in all areas of task-based program development. A number of task-based approaches have looked at how task-based interaction and performance may contribute to L2 development and acquisition. Both from and interactive (i.e. looking at how learners or learners and teachers may interact) and cognitive (i.e. looking at how information is processed in the learners' mind) perspective, task-based research has triggered promising results for the balanced development of L2 production and acquisition. I suggest that such evidence can be useful for and complementary to current research into and implementation of CLIL. It is argued that content in many subjects (i.e. chemistry, geography) is often organized into tasks, and that program design in CLIL can benefit from what is known about task-based performance and its impact on learners' interlanguage development. The paper will first deal with how needs analysis may be used to identify the relationship between tasks, content, and language in CLIL. The paper will argue that a properly handled needs analysis will contribute to the identification of goals, processes, and outcomes, which in turn can inform program development. It is suggested that both content experts and language experts need to be involved in need analysis. Secondly, a series of suggestions will be made as to how tasks and content may be selected, sequenced, and graded. The paper will consider different criteria, such as difficulty or cognitive complexity which have been advanced for the sequencing of units within a program and will evaluate them critically. Thirdly, it will look at how research into task-based methodology may be applicable to a CLIL context. It will be posited that task design and pre-active, active, and post-active techniques devised for task implementation can provide useful clues to CLIL program development in this area. Finally, the paper will deal with the issue of evaluation in both task-based and CLIL approaches and will briefly tackle the issue of evaluating both content and language

How plurilingualism contributes to the development of language and subject knowledge in a higher education CLIL classroom

III Colloquium on Semi-Immersion in CataloniaIII Encuentro sobre Semi-Inmersión en CataluñaUna de les característiques de la societat actual és la gran quantitat d'informació que hi ha a l'abast de tothom. La transmissió de la informació no és actualment un repte de l'escola, pero sí que ho és trobar-la, comprendre-la i llegir-la críticament per poder prendre decisions de manera fonamentada. Quan com a lectors ens enfrontem a la lectura d'un text podem adoptar diferents posicions, però sens dubte la més difícil és la posició crítica, ja que cal realitzar un procés de negociació entre el text i els propis coneixements per poder construir una interpretació. En aquesta ponència s'analitzaran exemples d'activitats, realitzades en el marc de classes de ciències, orientades a aprendre a llegir críticament i a gaudir de la lectura tot apropiant-se dels coneixements propis de l'àrea