Expert Seminar on the
« Added Value of Multilingualism and Multilingual Education »
3 – 4 June 2010, Leeuwarden/Ljouwert, Fryslân, The Netherlands
Metalinguistic processing in CLIL: an interface
for cognitive and linguistic development
in L1 and in L2
Cecilia Serra
Universités de Genève et de Lausanne
Premise
• Studies on bilingualism and on CLIL-type programmes agree
that metalinguistic capacities and cognitive development are
more advanced in bilinguals and in CLIL-type students than in
equivalent monolingual groups;
(Baetens Beardsmore, 1993; Bialystok, 1991; European Commission 2009;
Garcia 2009);
• However, when it comes to the specific role of « bilingual
speech » (Grosjean 1985), i.e. the joint use of L1 and L2 needed to
activate underlying cognitive competence, such as
metalinguistic awareness, findings and opinions diverge
according to the settings:
– The use of L1 and L2 is a highlight of bi-plurilingual communication
– The role played by L1 in bilingual education is minimized as a
transitory side effect of L2 developing competence, and
« boundaries have to be kept between the languages »
(Baker 2006: 235).
Questions
• How are thought and language related, that is
what is the function of language in the
acquisition of concepts?
• Is it possible to construct concepts in a
developing L2 without the necessary linguistic
competences to hand?
• What is the impact of learners’ previous
knowledge and of L1 in the developmental
process?
Organization of languages in CLIL
1.
2.
3.
4.
L1 and L2 are the linguistic repertoire shared by the class;
L1 and L2 form a linguistic continuum, where both
languages are in the mind, even if the focus is more on L2;
Movement along the continuum gives rise to
translanguaging (Garcia 2008), or contact phenomena
(code-switching, borrowing, etc.), which allow deeper
understandings of subject meaning and linguistic
competence to be co-constructed (Gajo & Serra 2000;
Serra 2007);
Translanguaging is exploited through metalinguistic
activities.
The metalinguistic activity
• Translanguaging is more than translating L2 by means of L1:
Transfer [...] can be considered to be a much broader process than just
the extension from one language system to another. It also involves the
generalization or use of knowledge from one domain to another
(Bialystock & Hakuta 1999: 168)
• Alternating L1/L2 in CLIL, fulfils an indexical function (Serra 2009):
the choice of the language and the way in which resources from the
language are juxtaposed becomes part of the message and not just a
vehicle for it (Clyne 2003: 44)
• Reformulating in L1 and in L2 are metalinguistic activities of
form and meaning negotiation, leading to the meta-cognitive
treatement of subject content.
History lesson: 1st year of college, L1 = French; L2 = German
T Deutschland SCHULdet Frankreich . Wiedergutmachung . Wiedergutmachung .
réparation . Deutschland muss für seine . Schuld . . SCHULD . auf Französisch
(L2) Germany owes damages to France . damages . (L1) réparation (L2) Germany must
for its guilt . guilt in French
S1 coupable
(L1) guilty
T coupable die Schuld genau also schuldEN . die Schuld heisst la culpabilité ok . ich
schulde dir etwas . je te DOIS . quelque chose . devoir wie
(L1) guilty (L2) guilt right now to owe . Shuld means (L1) guilt ok (L2) I owe you something
. (L2) I owe you something. to owe (L2) as
S2 Schuld ist auch eine Dette ein Dette une dette
(L2) guilt is also a debt (L1) a debt
T Schulden sind auch genau huh Geld dass ich ihnen zurückgeben muss genau auch es ist
meine Schuld (2 sec) ich schulde dir Geld . es gibt mehrere Aspekte und das Verb
schulden ich schulde dir . zehn Franken das heisst ich muss dir noch zehn Franken eh
zurückgeben eh ich schulde dir Respekt ich muss respektvoll zu dir sein ok also
Deutschland SCHULDET . Frankreich Wiedergutmachung das heisst . das ist eine
obligation XX muss das machen
Debts are also right huh money that I have to give them back right also it is my debt . I
owe you money . there are several aspects and the verb to owe I owe you . ten franks that
is I still have to give you ten franks back eh I owe you respect I have to be respectful
towards you ok now Germany owes . France damages that means . this is an (L1)
obligation (L2) XX must do this
Constructing concepts in L2:
Vygotski’s scientific concepts
• Scientific concepts are consciously developed during
teaching/learning content-matter knowledge, but they are
not teacheable;
• Conceptual development is a process of categorization in
which meaning is systematically worked out by way of
generalizations towards an integrated web of concepts;
• The metalinguistic activity opens up to generalization by
successive comparisons and distinctions in a gradually
decontextualized use of language;
• Scientific concepts are constructed on practical
knowledge, or out of spontaneous/everyday concepts.
Constructing concepts in L2 with L1:
Vygotski’s spontaneous/everyday concepts
• Spontaneous/everyday concepts are formed in communicative
practice and are neither conscious nor systematic: they are
used but not analyzed;
• They are relatively underdeveloped relations of language and
generality that become increasingly embedded in a network of
logical and semantic inter-connections in the process of the
development of scientific concepts (Cummins 2000: 61);
• L1 conveys not only language, but learners’ spontaneous/
everyday concepts based upon their own experience and prior
knowledge, and provides a foundation for interpreting textual
and instructional meanings;
• The contribution of L1 to the process of conceptual development
in L2, and to the related development of the language, can be
summarized as conceptual and linguistic mediation.
1st year of primary school: L1 = German; L2 = Italian
T adesso mi metti
mezzogiorno
S halb . .
T halb . was?
[silent]
T was ist giorno?9
S Tag
T allora?
S halb Tag
T was ist halb Tag
S aha Mittag
T [L2] and now you put [the
hands on] midday
S [L1] half. .
T [L1] half... [L2] what?
S [silent]
T [L1] what is [L2] day?
S [L1] day
T [L2] then?
S [L1] half day
T [L1] what is half day?
S [L1] ah midday
Organizing concepts and languages in CLIL
spontaneous/everyday concepts
unconscious
not analyzed
not systematic
metalinguistic
activity
generalize
scientifics concepts
conscious
analyzed
web of logic & semantic
interconnections
decontextualize
L1
categorize
L2
familiar
unfamiliar
transparent
opaque
analyzable
not analyzed
code-switching
How to improve students’ L1 through CLIL
• Categorizing can be taught to arouse students’ representations
(everyday concepts) and transform them into scientific concepts
by means of conceptual mapping and semantic clusters, in
(inter)disciplinary activities (Val d’Aoste);
• Metalinguistic development of language pushes students to put
their own continuum in use and to test its pertinence (Ecole
internationale de Genève, Ecole Montessori);
• Making the school’s L1 “unfamiliar” develops competence in
this language;
• Plurilingual practice and translanguaging in class legitimatize
students’ own experience, and supports ethnic and family use.
References
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Baetens Beardsmore, H. 1999. Consolidating experience in plurilingual education. In : D.
Marsh and B. Marsland (eds), CLIL Initiatives for the Millennium. University of Jyväskylä :
Continuing Education Centre, 24-30.
Baker, C. (2006). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Clevedon :
Multilingual Matters, 4th.
Bialystok, E. 1991. Language processing in bilingual children.Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
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Clyne, M. (2003) Toward a More Language-Centred Approach to Plurilingualism.
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Cummins, J. (2000). Language, Power and Pedagogy. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters.
Gajo, L. and Serra, C. (2000). Bilingual Teaching: Connecting Language and Concepts in
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Garcia, O. 2009. Bilingual Education in the 21st Century. A Global Perspective. Oxford:
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Grosjean, F. 2001. The bilingual's language modes. In Nicol, J. (ed). One Mind, Two
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