Exploring primary school CLIL perceptions in Catalonia: students', teachers' and parents' opinions and expectations

Abstract

Analysing participants' perceptions of a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) experience is essential in order to provide a clear picture of whether CLIL is effectively implemented. This becomes extremely relevant in primary school contexts, where the way the different groups involved in an educational experience feel tends to be highly related to its potential success. The present paper presents an overview of the students', CLIL teachers' and parents' perceptions after a year of CLIL implementation in five primary schools obtained by means of opinion questionnaires and interviews. Children, except for low achievers, report general satisfaction, mainly because they realise their use of English is meaningful and feel capable of understanding concepts in English. Teachers' main concerns included their students' low level of English, lack of materials, lack of institutional and peer support and not being competent enough in the content subject. Parents unrealistically perceive CLIL as the only solution to their children's low level of English or fear it might be a threat to the students' L1 and content knowledge. Although a great effort on the part of all parties involved in the process is required, CLIL is already perceived as a positive practice that promotes motivation, learning and interest in the foreign language.

Keywords:

• CLIL
• primary school
• stakeholders
• perceptions

Notes

1. All throughout the analysis, schools where CLIL was implemented in science classes will be referred to as science schools and schools where CLIL was implemented in arts and crafts classes will be referred to as arts schools.

2. As an anonymous reviewer pointed out, Spanish is not included as the children's L1 in the analysis. Although all children are Catalan/Spanish bilinguals, the L1 used in the classroom context is Catalan whereas both languages tend to be used (and mixed) in the playground.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: This research has been conducted with the support awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [FFI2010-19997].