Talking and writing in a foreigner language in CLIL contexts: a linguistic analysis of secondary school learners of Geography and History

This paper presents an analysis of spoken and written productions in English by early secondary school Spanish students (11-12 year olds), collected in two state schools which have just started introducing CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) in a number of disciplines. A topic selected from the curriculum for Geography and History was the focus of a class discussion in a revision session led by the teacher, which was recorded for the oral data. The written data consisted of a short composition on the same topic, written a few days later, in class. The analysis follows the systemic-functional model. We focus on the representation of content in the language used by the learners: types of processes, circumstances and clause complexes, and on the interventions of the speaker or writer by using expressions of modality. We also look at register differences, comparing the learners’ spoken and written productions. Finally, we reflect on the learners’ productions in relation to the language used in the textbook they follow. The work is a part of a larger project, a longitudinal study on language needs in the CLIL class in this discipline