Learning strategies in CLIL classrooms: how does strategy instruction affect reading competence over time?

ABSTRACT

This article reports on an intervention study of reading comprehension among young learners of English as a third language (L3) in a multilingual (Spanish-Basque-English) context in the Basque Country. The study involves a pre-test post-test design, with an intervention of 7 weeks using two intact groups of participants that served as experimental and control groups in CLIL classrooms, where a number of subjects are taught through the L3: English. Findings indicate that reading awareness and strategy use were enhanced following the training. While both the control and the experimental group improved over time, the experimental group showed statistically significant gains in reading comprehension, outperforming the control group. Furthermore, this difference was maintained over a two-year period, with the experimental group showing a marked improvement in reading competence. This study has implications for the fields of learning strategies and instructional strategies with respect to children learning a foreign language in CLIL contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• CLIL
• reading awareness
• reading strategies
• training instruction
• young learners

Acknowledgments

Our sincere thanks to participating teachers and students, as well as to the school administrators.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Yolanda Ruiz de Zarobe is Associate Professor in English Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country in Spain. Her research interests focus on the acquisition of English as a second and third language, multilingualism and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Her work has appeared in books, edited books and international journals.

Victoria Zenotz is a lecturer in English Didactics at the Public University of Navarre. She has degrees in English, French and German Philology. She defended her PhD Dissertation on reading strategies and the Internet in 2009. Her publications can be found both in books and in international journals.

Notes

1 Adapted from http://www.zamandayolculuk.com/html-1/earthsolarsystem.htm.

2 This is part of a larger longitudinal project that analyses not only the effect of a reading strategy intervention on reading competence, but also the potential influence of its instruction on other skills, notably listening, and on other languages, such as Basque, in most cases the L2 of the students.

3 A pilot study of the test was carried out before the intervention in order to ensure test reliability.

Additional information

Funding

We would like to acknowledge the funding awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO [grant number FFI2012-31811], MINECO/FEDER [grant number FFI2015-63715-P] and the Basque Department of Education, Research and Universities IT904-16.