The emerging understanding of how languaging affects learners’ thinking has encouraged CLIL researchers and practitioners to explore at state schools in Colombia how the integration of content and language may shape learners’
views of the natural world. Throughout this decade, a group of teacher- researchers have been working with learners who have been mostly classified as lower achievers in English. Students who have been ranked as A1 or A2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), a level of English that is below B1 which is the benchmark set by the Ministry of Education in Colombia. Nevertheless, despite this classification, these students have displayed enormous potential to do science and to com- municate their thinking effectively in different contexts. Working with this population has brought about some challenges but also a myriad of opportu- nities to study how these learners build scientific competencies while learning through Spanish and English.
In the aforementioned setting, CLIL has played a key role in understanding how language and content interact in the same learning environment. As Coyle (2008) suggests, CLIL promotes the understanding of elements that interact in any learning environment such as content, cognition, communica- tion, and culture. The idea of making science learners aware of the importance of language to construct and communicate knowledge has been a trigger to apply active learning pedagogies such as PBL framed by CLIL and supported through translanguaging. Inspired by translanguaging studies, teachers have encouraged learners to use their entire linguistic repertoire to do science through projects that require observing, collecting, analysing, and reporting data. Students have realised that the most recent discoveries in science are usu- ally reported in English, an observation that has motivated them to use this language in different contexts.
The following excerpt (Garzón-Díaz, 2018) shows a sample of teachers’
views on the implementation of projects to learn Science and English in bilin- gual settings. In these settings, the main goal is the development of scientific thinking, scientific literacy, and scientific citizenship. There are no strict rules for using language other than encouraging learners to use both Spanish and English. For example, a teacher recorded in his diary something a student told him:
I looked for information about the project online and it was very interesting because I looked for the information first in Spanish and then in English and the information was totally different. Thank you for making us learn things in two languages. (Teacher’s journal)
The teacher who wrote this comment highlighted the fact that students under- stood how important it is to compare and contrast data while doing research and that this information may be distinctly different depending on languages and sources.
By motivating students to do research, teachers guided them through self- discovery, and purposefully created an external need to use the target language despite students reporting lack of interest in using it, even in their English lessons. The following extract (Garzón-Díaz, 2018) was taken from an inter- view where students reported learning English more easily in Science lessons than in English lessons:
I am not good in English, but for me it was easier to learn English in Science than in the English class. When you like topics you learn better. For instance, it was interesting to learn about the ozone layer, there were easy words that you can remember. (Student’s interview)
When sharing findings, students could select either Spanish or English. Most of them felt more comfortable using their L1 despite instructors encouraging them to use English. However, when writing reports, students were encour- aged to use both languages again. At this point, some learners reported feeling empowered to use technical language since they realised how similar science vocabulary was in Spanish and English due to common Greek and Latin roots. Some students even present their project findings using a sort of inter- language that we colloquially call Spanglish a mixture of Spanish and English.
Moreover, they started to mix social and academic registers or what we may call BICS and CALP (Cummins, 1979, 1980/2001); colloquial and scientific language (Lemke, 1990); or mundane and scientific talk (Skovholt, 2018) to convey meaning depending on the audience.
When they engaged in input, students felt that technical or specialised ter- minology in science was more easily digested than everyday terminology.
Words such as turbidity, eutrophication, ecological niche, carbohydrates, and resilience, among others seemed to facilitate the understanding of not only the concept itself, but also, the similarities between English and Spanish. On the other hand, words such as weather and climate pose some difficulties since they tend to have the same translation into Spanish clima but their applica- tions in science are explicitly different. In addition, the fact that learners were exposed to this terminology in an active learning environment (through doing projects) helped them construct knowledge in a more flexible fashion.
Students seemed to be better equipped to understand that some words may have different meanings regardless of the language/register being used (either
English or Spanish, academic or social). At this point in time, learners and tutors agreed that what really matters for communicating effectively is the choices that individuals make from their entire linguistic repertoire depend- ing on contexts and purposes.
In general, when students do projects, they are encouraged to act as scien- tists carrying out systematic processes of observing, collecting data, and ana- lysing findings in order to draw evidence-based conclusions. I believe that by doing so, learners are encouraged to transfer skills across disciplines, regardless of the language used, fostering cognitive development, content learning, and social development. The next pages show some samples from a project con- ducted by learners who used their entire linguistic repertoires to language their thinking.
Heating the Meaning of Global Warming
The following is a sample of a project on climate change and global warming.
The aim of the project was to enable learners to define key concepts and describe an issue in particular. Students were encouraged to set up a climato- logical station at home where they collected data on weather patterns such as temperature, humidity, cloudiness, and wind direction. With these data and also secondary data, students deepened their understanding of weather in Bogota. They formulated their own definition of global warming and its effects on the planet. Students also watched videos and critically analysed the two points of view defended by scientists and media. Finally, they created videos to share their definitions of global warming, its causes, and suggestions for mitigating this global issue. Table 1 shows the planning sheet for this project.
When students finished their projects, videos were used to display their definitions of global warming. These videos provided evidence of the use of Spanish and English in their research. The following are some samples anal- ysed. In the first product, PowToon was used as a tool to present findings.
Students created avatars with their faces and wrote in Spanish the reasons they considered led to global warming. They claimed that in the Cretaceous period, particles accumulated in the atmosphere and so global warming started. We found no definition of global warming in this product but there was an attempt to establish its origins.
In Fig. 1, the students provided the factors that contributed to global warming, including human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels. It is
interesting to see how students realised that the scientific community consider global warming a serious issue that needs to be tackled.
Figure 2 shows how students harnessed emerging concepts to issues such as global warming and the greenhouse effect. Science learners are usually expected to make connections between different phenomena. The fact that learners attempted to establish connections to solve environmental issues might be evidence that scientific thinking was taking place regardless of the languages used during the projects.
Figure 3 displays the students’ need to exercise their scientific citizenship with a call for action. At this point, learners seemed to become aware of the problems that global warming may pose for future generations and suggested potential scenarios connected to this environmental issue as well as the need to keep working cooperatively.
Table 1 Project planning sheet
PROJECT Heating the Meaning of Global Warming Learning outcomes
On completion of this project, students will be able to define the term “Global Warming” and recognise the factors that may contribute to this environmental issue.
On completion of this project, students will be able to use English and Spanish to articulate their understanding of “Global Warming”.
Content and Language (Language of learning, Language for learning, Language through learning)
Weather vs climate, describe weather patterns, identify instruments to measure weather and climate, revise basic concepts (biotic, abiotic, resilience, sustainability, ozone layer, world biomes), analyse environmental policies and the role of governmental organisations, become aware of global environmental change.
Engagement What is the difference between weather and climate?
Watch videos related to the topic. Listen to foreigners talking about their countries. Set their project problem.
Exploration Set a climatological station at home and collect data regarding weather patterns (air pressure, temperature, wind direction, pluviosity). Watch videos about global warming and global environmental change.
Explanation Explain the difference between weather and climate, biotic and abiotic, world biomes, and the opposed positions held by scientists and politicians regarding global warming.
Elaboration Analyse the data collected and what has been learnt from the research process to define the term global warming, its causes, and potential solutions. Make videos to language your thoughts on this topic.
Evaluation Self-evaluation and co-evaluation using the rubric devised for this project.
Figure 4 shows a reflection written by students in English. They again warned viewers against the potential threats posed by global warming but did not propose any solution to mitigate this issue.
As Fig. 4 shows, there is an overuse of the determiner the (a problem that many Spanish speakers display), but this mistake does not affect meaning.
The message is clearly conveyed, and students used vocabulary learnt in their research projects, such as soil, nutrients, diseases, poles melting, loss of fauna, and of course global warming. These terms are generally considered appropri- ate in scientific discourse. The fact that learners incorporated in their linguis- tic repertoire terminology which can be categorised as CALP/scientific/
technical may reinforce the idea of translanguaging as a successful pedagogy in science lessons. It is fair to highlight that English and Spanish share Latin
Fig. 1 Causes of global warming
Fig. 2 Global warming and the greenhouse effect
and Greek roots, which to the best of my knowledge, facilitates the develop- ment of scientific literacy due to commonalities between L1 and L2 special- ised terminology.
Figures 5 and 6 show students’ definition of global warming and the factors that they believed contribute to this environmental issue. Students decided to use Spanish to explain what global warming is and the factors that may con- tribute to it; they then used English to justify why they thought this is a real issue and why we should help mitigate this problem. The language used for the project output was negotiated between teachers and students, who decided
Fig. 3 Calling for action
Fig. 4 Students’ reflections
to use linguistic features that allowed learners communicate meaning at ease but at the same time reach a wider audience. This choice of languages was the result of students feeling more confident in using Spanish for explaining what they considered key points in their video. Then, they felt confident enough to use English to show evidence of the use of the target language, and by doing so, potentially reach a wider audience. It is interesting that students defined global warming (Fig. 5) in a straightforward manner and then, later in the video (Fig. 6) explained the three factors that they found were closely related to this issue. These factors were grouped into global environmental changes naturally experienced by the planet, global environmental changes due to anthropogenic influences, and the greenhouse effect.
Fig. 5 Definition of global warming
Fig. 6 Factors influencing global warming
In the last part of the video, students recorded the following monologue:
The issue of global warming is real! Since the past two yeurn [not clear] the natural cycles of the earth have had a rapid change and have thousands of iur decades [not clear] causing damage catastrophic and irreversible for the earth, this due to the lack of awareness that respect of the man towards nature. Other factors that affect the cycles are the creation of industries and technologies that withdraw materials toxic to the environment by not giving them a management suitable to these materials and collaborating with this deterioration of the planet. The world is in your hands.
The monologue was accompanied by visual aids (e.g., Fig. 7) to help watch- ers connect what they were saying in English with the images displayed on the video.
From the beginning, students highlighted their position regarding global warming. They also attempted to use an academic style with sophisticated structures such as the present perfect (the earth have had), linking words (due to the lack of awareness), and gerunds (causing damage). They still struggled with the pronunciation of some words that were unintelligible and the order of adjectives in statements. It should be noted that the order of adjectives is different in Spanish and English.
Overall, students achieved the learning goal set for this project. Mostly, they defined the term global warming using visual aids and their own reflec- tions after searching for information and listening to videos that displayed opposed views on the topic. There was evidence of the use of both Spanish and English as vehicles for communication. Students displayed some of the
Fig. 7 Visual aid supporting monologue
words they were expected to learn, such as climate, weather, the ozone layer, global warming and showed some command of basic structures such as affir- mative sentences, gerunds, and linking words. As I see it, it is fundamental to create opportunities where students are exposed to the target language and can use their mother tongue to facilitate the learning of an additional lan- guage. When students use different languages to articulate their thinking, they start becoming aware of how important language is in their learning process. These projects were co-constructed with students, taking into account their interests and school curricula. Students felt engaged from the beginning of their projects and through the time became used to setting goals and fol- lowing procedures as scientists do.
As mentioned previously, translanguaging might become salient in the classroom, as long as there is clear planning and all languages are deemed important while building and communicating meaning. I strongly believe that CLIL practices might benefit when researchers and practitioners do not underestimate learners’ capacity to learn while using their whole linguistic repertoire. In this project, students combined not only Spanish and English but also social and academic registers to construct knowledge and language their thinking. Despite the external label given of L2 low achievers, these learners have demonstrated that their L1 played a key role to foster the devel- opment and improvement of their L2 not only in terms of language produc- tion but also in terms of register and choice.