Interdisciplinary work through the medium of English - an investigation among teachers and pupils at a compulsory school concerning integration of English into an interdisciplinary setting

• Main Author: Hellstrand, Rickard
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Malmö högskola, Lärarutbildningen (LUT) 2007
• Subjects: Interdisciplinary work; Cross-curricular work; CLIL; SPRINT; Content-based learning; Bilingual education; Integration of English; Social Sciences; Samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-33828

Content and language integrated learning is an approach to learning a language while studying subject matter, as well as the other way round. The intention with this dissertation has been to gather insights into teachers‘ perceptions regarding this approach and pupils’ perceived views regarding working with subject matter through the medium of English. Previous research within this area of study has shown that using this approach to learn content and language is increasing in Sweden primarily at upper secondary schools. This dissertation can be seen as twofold: firstly, a project was conducted in an 8th grade at a compulsory school in the southern part of Sweden that implement interdisciplinary work on a daily basis; secondly, data was gathered from questionnaires and interviews with both teachers and pupils who participated in the project. The results show that this approach is time-consuming and very challenging for pupils in general; it is particularly difficult for weaker pupils in English. Also, it may lead to shortcomings in the Swedish language, with terminology in particular. However, both teachers and pupils think that learning English while studying subject matter is effective, since pupils have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the English language more than otherwise. Working with subject matter in English is very different from doing it in Swedish and there are aspects that must be taken into consideration when planning, designing and implementing this approach at compulsory school level.