Biodata

Thomas Somers is a doctoral researcher at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), where he is a member of the UAM-CLIL research group (uam-clil.org). His main research focus is Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), on which he has published in international journals and presented diverse papers at international conferences. Special interests include CLIL methodology, the relation between classroom discourse and academic language acquisition in CLIL classrooms, and equitable access to CLIL.

Website: alfonsolopezhernandez.com

New perspectives on old questions about integration, language support, and motivation in CLIL

This talk will explore new ways of looking at integration, language support, and motivation in CLIL. Firstly, regarding integration of content and language, what models do currently exist and how do they differ in their practical approach to integrating content and language in the classroom? Secondly, what is the role of scaffolding in all this and is the problem really always a matter of language? Or can we think of scaffolding and language support in ways that more closely resemble good content teaching? Lastly, is CLIL really a more motivating way to learn a second language? And can we even speak of L2 motivation in CLIL the way we do in the context of the L2 classroom?