Lexical Reiteration Instruction through CLIL and L2 Composition Writing of High School Students

• Main Authors: Mojgan Rashtchi, Maryam Baniardalani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: KARE Publishing 2019-09-01
• Series: Applied Linguistics Research Journal
• Subjects: clil; explicitly instructed content; implicitly instructed content; lexical reiteration; writing compositions
• Online Access: https://www.journalagent.com/z4/download_fulltext.asp?pdir=alrj&un=ALRJ-44154

This study examined the efficacy of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) as a context for teaching writing to Iranian high school girls. The researchers of the present study assumed that teaching lexical reiteration could contribute to writing coherent compositions. Lexical reiteration was manipulated through explicit and implicit instructions. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection procedures were employed. Thirty students were randomly assigned to two groups of Explicit Instruction Content group (EIC) and Implicit Instruction Content group (IIC). The participants had been grouped in English classes based on the Preliminary English Test (PET) at the beginning of the academic year by the school administrators, and therefore they were homogeneous. The writing pre-test ensured the homogeneity of the groups regarding the writing ability. During the treatment, which took ten 90-minute sessions in five weeks, EIC was exposed to the explicit reiteration instruction through teacher explanations, reading, and writing, and IIC engaged in the implicit instruction through narrow reading and writing compositions. The writing post-test showed the outperformance of EIC. The interviews with EIC group explored their views regarding employing lexical cohesive devices. The analysis of the interviews provided some understandings about the efficacy of the explicit teaching of lexical reiteration in enhancing coherence in EFL high school students' compositions.