Abstract:
New approaches to the teaching of Languages, such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), rely on teachers being able to identify how languages can be successfully integrated into the teaching and learning of other curriculum areas, beyond a conventional focus on language-based outcomes alone. This has required mainstream language teachers to question and rethink well-established ways of approaching curriculum and pedagogy, and instead consider what further types of professional knowledge and skills might be necessary to better engage with Languages in this changing curriculum/pedagogical context. This paper considers this challenge on two levels. First, with reference to the development of professional learning programs that aim to build capacity within the existing Victorian language teacher workforce for working with content/language integrated pedagogy, it examines the evolution of different program models to help distil what seems most salient in scaffolding professional transition from ‘pure’ language-as-subject to language-integrated teaching. Second, it includes qualitative data from course participants learning to implement CLIL in their own mainstream school settings to identify what teachers themselves perceive as being some of the greatest challenges in making this transition, as well as areas that offer potential affordances for building on their existing language teaching knowledge base.