Exploring teacher support for a content and language integrated modern languages curriculum

Figures & data

Figure 1. The Integrated Curriculum for MFL (Meesterschapsteam mvt, 2018).

Table 1. Overview of participants and contributed data sources.

Name^a	Gender	TL	Role	Data
Denise	Female	French	Teacher, upper secondary	Discussions during meetings Teaching materials Written reflections
Eelco	Male	German	Teacher, upper secondary	Discussions during meetings Abstract and presentation
Els	Female	German / Italian^b	Teacher, lower and upper secondary / adult education	Discussions during meetings Abstract, notes and presentation Teaching materials Written reflections
Patty	Female	French	Teacher, lower and upper secondary	Discussions during meetings
Paul	Male	French	Teacher, lower and upper secondary	Discussions during meetings Abstract, notes and presentation Written reflections
Tracy	Female	French	Teacher, lower and upper secondary	Discussions during meetings
Emma	Female	German	Teacher educator, university of applied sciences	Discussions during meetings

^aNot real names.

^bPart-way through the project Els changed jobs. She was able to continue her project in the new setting. The majority of data pertaining to her teaching refer to her second role.

Table 2. Overview of the content areas included in participants’ teaching, and the core concerns expressed in their conference presentations and/or final reflections. Areas where content objectives are leading are marked in bold.

Teacher (TL)	Content used in teaching	Core concerns regarding teaching
Denise (French)	Topics drawn from analysis of final reading exams^a, transformed into content goals, alongside language goals and reading strategies	Support language learning, not just train ‘exam monkeys’ Learners enjoy lessons and become competent TL users
Eelco (German)	Deepening understanding of German culture	Learners view the world from a different perspective, empathise with people from a different culture and engage emotionally with the language Deeper than the cultural content offered in textbooks
Els (Italian)	Cultural content on Italy, e.g. origin of pizza Margherita, coffee culture	Learning to communicate in a language also means learning to understand the TL culture beyond what is offered in textbooks Learners develop cultural understanding alongside basic communicative language skills
Patty (French)	Content of authentic TL video materials to inspire learners to produce content-rich presentations for their final oral exam	Move away from pupils learning speeches by heart and not engaging with what they are talking about Reduce anxiety and increase enjoyment
Paul (French)	Content chosen and brought in by pupils, e.g. hobbies or interests	Engage learners by allowing them to bring in their own content Scaffold the process of preparing for presentations, while having learners take responsibility

^aEducation, food, clichés and emotions, transport (objectives related to French culture); Environment, sport and leisure, technology, health, gender equality, crime (objectives not directly connected to French culture).

Table 3. Anticipated and experienced challenges, and questions raised regarding the prospect of content-rich MFL, classified as micro (classroom), meso (department/school) or macro (societal/political) level.

	Obstacles	Level
Anticipated challenges	School culture, assessment programme and textbooks prevent teachers from deviating too much from the established curriculum	Meso
	How to distribute content across different MFLs	Meso
	Teacher workload and encouraging pupils to work instead of teachers	Micro
	Deciding whether to assess content and, if so, in which language	Micro
	Deciding how much TL to use	Micro
	Establishing a balance between cognitive level and language level	Micro
	Establishing learning objectives for content and language without the support of a textbook	Micro
	Making content meaningful and not superficial (especially with regard to culture)	Micro
Experienced challenges	Uncertainty about how to guide pupils in dealing with content	Micro
	Uncertainty about how to approach content or to integrate it with language, including content-specific discourse	Micro
	Mixed feelings about assessment of language, content or both, and whether they should be assessed together	Micro
Questions raised	Difficult to imagine what centralised curriculum outcomes for MFL content would look like	Macro
	Risk of centralised outcomes being prescriptive/limiting for teachers and pupils	Macro
	Would pupils understand what is expected of them?	Macro
	Would society accept this new concept of language learning?	Macro

Meesterschapsteam mvt. (2018). Visie op de toekomst van het curriculum Moderne Vreemde Talen (Vakdidactiek Geesteswetenschappen Ed.). Vakdidactiek Geesteswetenschappen.

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