A sociocultural approach for the analysis of the interaction in CLIL (content and language integrated learning) contexts for pre-service science teachers

Abstract

The paper presents a theoretical and methodological approach to the analysis of primary science teacher education discourse developed within a CLIL context (Content and Language Integrated Learning). From an integrated perspective using both a sociocultural and a conversational analysis approaches the study undertakes the analysis of discourse produced within small group interactions during a multilingual laboratory work activity dealing with the living being model in which student teachers used three languages: Catalan, Spanish and English. The analysis strategies include the identification of discursive actions and processes within each of the three fields that characterize students’ communicative actions: the field of science, the field of English, and the field of science education.Finally the questions that orient the analysis within and across fields are presented whose general aim is constituted by the main question: How can learning in CLIL science teacher education contexts occur?