Volume 3 (2012) Issue 1
pp. 159-183
pp. 159-183
Content and Language Integrated Learning –
The case of a French Lecture on International Contract Law at a German University of Applied Sciences
Cornelia Gerhardt (Saarbrücken, Germany) /
Sybille Neumann (Saarbrücken, Germany)
Abstract (English)
This paper describes CLIL lectures at a German university of applied sciences where international contract law was lectured in French in two different international study programmes. So Context and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) was applied outside of the usual school context. Furthermore, French - and not English - was chosen as the foreign language. The local context of this programme will be presented, including the foreign language policy and linguistic landscape of Saarland
Key words: Context and Language Integrated Learning
(CLIL), French as the medium of instruction in
law lectures in Germany
Abstract (Français)
Le présent article décrit la réalisation d’un projet EMILE / CLIL (Enseignement d’une Matière Intégrée à une Langue Etrangère / Context and Language Integrated Learning) dans le cadre des cours de droit international dans deux filières internationales à une université de sciences appliquées en Allemagne. Par conséquent, l’enseignement d’une matière intégrée (généralement cité par le sigle anglais CLIL) avait lieu en dehors de l’enseignement scolaire. En outre, la langue étrangère choisie était le français et non pas l’anglais. Le context local en Sarre, à savoir son paysage et son projet linguistique, sera présenté. Des sondages ont démontré que les étudiants désirent d’avoir plus de projets EMILE. Il s’ensuit qu’il serait souhaitable de proposer plus de cours enseignés dans une langue étrangère autre que l’anglais, surtout dans les filières internationales.
Mots-clé: Enseignement
d’une Matière Intégrée à une Langue Etrangère (EMILE), le français comme
langue d’enseignement en cours
magistraux de droit en Allemagne
Abstract (Deutsch)
Der vorliegende Artikel beschreibt ein CLIL-Projekt (Context and Language Integrated Learning) im deutschen Hochschulkontext, bei dem in zwei internationalen Studiengängen juristische Fachvorlesungen in einer Fremdsprache angeboten wurden. Das integrierte Fremdsprachen- und Sachfachlernen wurde hier außerhalb des üblichen schulischen Kontexts durchgeführt. Weiterhin ist hervorzuheben, dass das Französische - und nicht das Englische - als Fremdsprache gewählt wurde. Der lokale Kontext, wie z.B. die Sprachlandschaft und das Sprachenkonzept des Saarlandes, werden vorgestellt. Weiterhin wird das Projekt vor dem Hintergrund einiger Kriterien für die erfolgreiche Einführung von CLIL diskutiert. Studierendenbefragungen zeigten, dass die Studierenden eine Ausweitung von CLIL wünschen. Aus diesen Ergebnissen kann geschlossen werden, dass vor allem in international ausgerichteten Studiengängen mehr nicht-englischsprachige Vorlesungen angeboten werden sollten.
Stichwörter: fremdsprachliche
Fachvorlesungen (CLIL), integriertes Fremdsprachen- und Sachfachlernen,
Französisch als
Unterrichtssprache in Rechtsvorlesungen in Deutschland
1 Introduction
This paper is concerned with a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) project in which students at a German university of applied sciences were lectured in French[1]. Both university level studies of CLIL as well as studies on languages other than English are rather scarce. For this reason, the present paper will describe the context and outcome of this project in detail. Furthermore, it has also been written with a view to encouraging non-English based content instruction in a foreign language at university level (outside foreign language departments).
The present article will first describe the context of the project at Saarland University of Applied Sciences (Hochschule für Wirtschaft und Technik des Saarlandes, henceforth HTW). This will be followed by a short introduction to Content and Language Integrated Learning. Since the local language situation is one important factor, the context in Saarland , a small German state located on the border to France
2 Background
Ever since 1978, HTW of Saarland, which is located in the south-western part of Germany, has offered a number of French-German bilingual and transnational courses of study in partnership with Paul-Verlaine University (Metz, France) under the umbrella of the DFHI / ISFATES (Deutsch-Französisches Hochschulinstitut für Technik und Wirtschaft / Institut Supérieur Franco-Allemand de Techniques, d’Economie et de Scienes). Furthermore, for all international study programmes at HTW, foreign language skills are an entry prerequisite and foreign language classes are obligatory elements of study. Generally, however, the language of instruction is German, with some notable exceptions in English. Because of a number of factors which will be described in the following, the university has recently started offering content classes in French in two of their general programmes. Both within the study programmes International Business Administration and International Tourism Management, students were able to choose between French-language and German-language based teaching for the two lectures Introduction to Accounting und International Contract Law.
For both study programmes, International Business Adminstration and International Tourism Management, students are required to have obtained at least level B2 for two foreign languages[2] (according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), Council of Europe 2001) when taking up their studies. Hence, advanced intermediate language proficiency is required either for English and French or for English and Spanish. This implies that a student “can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation.” (Council of Europe 2001: 24) Thus, given this level, the students’ foreign language competence should generally enable them to understand content classes in both of their foreign languages. As a result, classes in the other language (than English) seemed feasible and desirable.
Furthermore, students studying International Business Administration or International Tourism Management have mostly opted for these very courses of study precisely because of the connexion of managerial studies with foreign language and foreign culture studies. This generally positive stance on foreign language learning shows in incoming student surveys as well as in personal communication with students. Furthermore, HTW is located in the so-called SaarLorLux region, an international cross-border initiative connecting German(ic)-speaking and French-speaking territories. For these reasons, one of the authors (Sybille Neumann) decided to offer French language lectures at her university together with one of her colleagues. This was possible because of their German-French background and, hence, fluent command of French. So as of the summer term 2009, both the law as well as the business administration lectures were offered in French[3].
From the outset, the goal of the classes was not only content related, but also language based: the idea was to teach the subject proper in a foreign language so that students would also acquire the jargon and other features of the special purpose registers. As a first step, the choice of subject seems essential. A lecture on German civil law, for instance, would probably be obscured through this kind of practice since it is deeply rooted in the German language. The chosen subject, however, International Contract Law, is, by its nature, independent of German. Many norms were often first formulated in French (and English, obviously), but not in German. A case in point would be the CISG (United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods). While the original text exists in English and French, the German version is technically speaking a translation.
Because of the non-native-speaker context, both lecturers decided to make the following adjustments:
- They tried to speak more slowly and asked students throughout whether their pace was appropriate.
- Students were encouraged to raise their hands if a specific word or sentence proved to be difficult. The problematic item was then usually explained in the foreign language.
- The professor’s oral presentation was supplemented by written documents such as slides or written scripts.
The student evaluations, which will be discussed in more detail at the end of this paper, showed that students recognised and welcomed these supporting elements.
3 Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
A number of different terms[4] are used when classes or programmes in which both content and language are taught are under scrutiny. While these terms may have different foci, there is a large area of overlap between them. We have decided to adopt the abbreviation CLIL, i.e. Content and Language Integrated Learning, for this paper, an acronym also used by the European Commission.
In the middle ages, education was predominately based on Latin; hence non-native language instruction was the norm. With the advent of nation states, however, the national languages also became the languages of schooling and university teaching. In line with major societal changes caused by the internationalisation and globalisation of large parts of our world, since the early 1990s, many countries have adopted mainly English, but also other prestigious languages as languages of instruction in different contexts. The European Union and its predecessors encouraged this trend through a number of projects[5]. Meanwhile, CLIL projects have been started on all levels, from kindergarten schooling to university education. Sometimes CLIL is applied to whole programmes; often only certain subjects or modules are taught in another language:
CLIL and EMILE refer to any dual-focused educational context in which an additional language, thus not usually the first language of the learners involved, is used as a medium in the teaching and learning of nonlanguage content. (European Commission 2002: 2)
This definition also applies to French-language lectures delivered at a German university of applied sciences.
CLIL seems to represent the endpoint of a development in modern language instruction which is guided by the realisation that languages are used for communication. For this reason, the grammar-translation method adopted from Latin classes was replaced by communicative practices. CLIL now offers the further advantage that the content is given and does not have to be devised by the instructor.
Because of the dominant position of English in many domains (e.g. global business, but also in education as the lingua franca or as the most popular foreign language to be taught in schools), most publications on CLIL concentrate on projects in which English is used as the language of instruction in a non-English speaking country[6]. One publication about French as a medium of instruction in Germany
The European Commission suggests a large number of benefits when adopting CLIL. While many of these may seem applicable to most sound language class (e.g. “improves language competence...” or “diversifies methods and forms of classroom practices”) (European Commission 2011) and cannot be taken as distinctive features of CLIL, there are some that may qualify as such: those pertaining to accomplishing two different purposes by the same act. Hence, since two subjects (a foreign language and some other content) are taught at the same time, CLIL „allows learners more contact with the target language, does not require extra teaching hours,” and “complements other subjects rather than competes with them” (European Commission 2011). Since the European Union started promoting multilingualism, CLIL has been regarded as an approach which allows an increase of foreign language teaching under budgetary and curricular constraints. Hence, teaching hours, and thus money, can be saved. Furthermore, under the constraints of a given curriculum, the amount of foreign language teaching can be increased without a reduction of the hours assigned to other subjects. At the same time, according to the Eurydice network, CLIL has other advantages:
- socio-economically, the employment prospects of young Europeans are to be enhanced (Eurydice 2006: 22);
- social skills like respect for and tolerance of other cultures are to be fostered (Eurydice 2006: 22).
In the student evaluations, it will be seen that the occupational outlook is also an important motivation for students. Furthermore, studies indicate that there are also positive effects regarding the general cognitive performance of students (Coyle et al. 2010: 10f; Coyle 2002: 28). In addition, those learners who have difficulties in traditional language classes potentially benefit from CLIL and its immediacy of purpose (European Commission 2002: 10). Finally, we will see that this holds for the French language lectures at HTW: learner motivation increases considerably when CLIL is applied (Coyle et al. 2010: 11).
In CLIL classes, more emphasis can be put on language teaching or the subject proper can be focused more strongly (cf. Dalton-Puffer 2007, Genesee 2004). The French lectures held at HTW can be described as clearly content oriented, rather than language oriented. This is reflected in the final exam where International Contract Law was tested without regards to language issues. Hence, the HTW lecture is basically a class on international contract law taught in a foreign language. Some methods taken from foreign language teaching such as translanguaging (Garcia 2009; European Commission 2002: 134) were used. Generally, linguistic explanations were given mainly when requested by students. Furthermore, a short summarising account in German was often given at the end of classes or to close different topics.
4 The Status of French in Saarland
Since the local context is of importance in CLIL projects (cf. below), in the following, a short account of the status of French in Saarland Saarland is situated on the border to France France Germany Saarland
12% of the population with non-German passports in Saarland Saarland Saarland Saarland
With Saarland Saarland
Linguistically, however, Saarland Saarland Saarland
Regarding the language education policy, French is the traditional focus in schools. It is often referred to as the partner language (Partnersprache) in documents issued by state institutions. There are a number of unique institutions like the Deutsch-Französische Gymnasium / Lycée franco-allemand (i.e. German-French grammar-school) which was established in 1961. The pupils of this genuinely bi-cultural and bi-national school can take a French-German Abitur / Baccalauréat (i.e. A-level) ratified by the parliaments of both countries (Wittenbrock 2007)[12]. The increasing interest in French-based schooling is also testified though the German-Luxembourgish Schengen-Lyzeum, which was founded in Perl, a small town on the border to Luxemburg, in 2007 only.
With regard to university level education, Saarland University , the largest university of Saarland French University
The fact that French is generally emphasized in Saarland Saarland Saarland Saarland
The European commission states the following:
The ideal is to have educational tracks in which bilingual, and preferably multilingual tracks are offered from early primary to tertiary education. (De Bot 2002: 32).
The CLIL project, which will be evaluated in the following, is perfectly integrated in the local cultural, historical and political context of Saarland Saarland primary and secondary education and rounds off Saarland
5 French Lectures at HTW of Saarland
We will now describe a number of contextual features or characteristics which have a positive influence on CLIL projects. They will be discussed with regard to the HTW lectures. Some of them may be given by the wider socio-cultural, political or historical context and, hence, are unalterable with regard to a specific location. Others, however, may be influenced by the teaching staff[13].
One important aspect, which has already been mentioned, is the local historical and political context. While English may be globally relevant, for example in the eastern parts of Germany Saarland Saarland
Another contextual feature is concerned with the curriculum in which CLIL teaching is integrated. If it has a national, mono-lingual focus only, the integration of CLIL may be less clear. In our case, CLIL is offered in two courses of study that stress internationalisation: International Business Administration and International Tourism Management. For this reason, students also have language classes in their studies which contextualize the CLIL lectures.
One could, for instance, envision an additional course accompanying the respective lecture during which language teachers take up particular expressions or syntactic constructions used in the lecture (cf. also the suggestions below). Another point may be raised with regard to the integration of CLIL in an existing curriculum. The impact of the French lectures may seem small, since they represent two hours of teaching per week only. However, the quality of the teaching rather than the quantity has been shown to be of importance:
Research suggests that the intensity and timing of exposure (qualitative) may be more important than high exposure (quantitative), particularly with certain types of learners. Small-scale long-term exposure is therefore being viewed positively. (European Commission 2002: 10)
This finding seems to suggest that these two hours should not be seen as problematic. Also, as shown above, they are embedded in other foreign language elements.
One of the most critical points in CLIL is the qualification of teachers. This seems to represent one major obstacle for the implementation of more CLIL classes (Eurydice 2006: 51) since teachers must be experts in both language and content (European Commission 2002: 79f). If such highly qualified teachers cannot be found, team teaching or other cooperative forms could be an option (Dudley-Evans et al. 1981). With regards to the law lectures here, Sybille Neumann is a natural bilingual in German and French. Also, she has both German and French qualifications in law and she was a member of the bar in both countries. Hence, she is able to use the appropriate register and jargon in German and French. The fact that her qualifications are in the subject matter rather than in language teaching is quite regularly the case in CLIL (cf. Eurydice 2006: 41).
Another important factor is the choice of teaching materials. These should be authentic. Moreover, they should be typical of the setting or context they are supposed to present. Furthermore, students’ foreign language competence must be considered. With regard to the texts used in the lectures at HTW, this question did not really apply since one of the texts used was given in the form of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). One of the reasons for teaching this class in French was the fact that this convention does exist in French, but that there is no original version in German, only a translation which, however, is excellent. This allowed presenting the subject matter International Contract Law in the appropriate register. Since the law is put down in language, studying law, to a large extent, represents the acquisition of exact terms and their relationships, which is true not only for students’ foreign languages, but also for their mother tongues. Hence, German students have to acquire the appropriate specialised registres and their meanings in German as well. In other words, native speakers face the same task. For instance, the term disposition (in English and in French) generally means something other than what they signify in a legal context. Since the meaning of legal terminology is laid down in legal codes or commentaries, these texts can be seen as excellent sites for the acquisition of the legal register, its jargon and typical syntactic constructions. These remarks should also have clarified that students will, for the most part, broaden their knowledge of legal French (cf. Tinnefeld 2003 for the tension between legal French and everyday French). Although we maintain that any contact with the target language at least consolidates acquired collocations or syntactic structures, it must be admitted that the gain will probably be slight with regard to spoken French in informal settings, to quote an extreme example.
Generally, CLIL is offered in contexts with cooperative forms of teaching and learning. So a classic lecture format actually does not represent a fruitful context for the application of CLIL. However, this choice was due to curricular constraints since these classes were simply designated as lectures. However, there are also a number of interesting factors that can be seen as advantageous:
- Since lectures as a genre are prepared speeches, they encompass features of both written and spoken genres (cf. Biber 1988 e.g. Dimension 1: Involved versus informational production).
- On the one hand, the legal register with its jargon and typical grammatical construction is employed (a reflection of the prepared nature of the genre and the topic of the lectures). On the other hand, lectures are given in a face-to-face situation, albeit one-to-many, where interaction and situated negotiations of meaning are possible and valid strategies.
Hence, as Coulthard & Montgomery state:
Even without speaker change and even where both lecturer and student understand the purpose of the lecture in terms of ‘information transfer’, its discourse is in fact interactively designed; the discourse is ‘shaped’ or ‘structured’ with interactive purpose in mind. (Coulthard & Montgomery 1981: 33)
However, with regards to students’ own production, there is comparatively little student-teacher interaction and hardly any student-student interaction. The basically monological teaching style does not leave much room for cooperative learning practices (cf. below, though). Still, during the course of the term, after an initial period of hesitation, more and more students participated in class by asking questions (in French). These communicative exchanges indicate that studying content in a foreign language may be accompanied by a more active appropriation. In other words, new concepts or technical uses of terms may easily go unnoticed in mother tongue teaching, whereas in a foreign language context, there seems to be a general alertness to language and its forms. With regard to the lectures at HTW, there are some forms of cooperative learning that could easily be implemented to foster more student orientation, even in the context of a lecture. One could, for instance, implement buzz groups when closing topics during the lecture. So instead of asking students as a group whether they understood what had just been explained, they would instead be invited to explain their understanding of the matter to their neighbour(s). A larger number of students would then contribute actively. Also, the threshold for communication is much lower when students are talking to one or two of their peers than when they are talking to the teacher and the whole class all at once. Larger cooperative elements, e.g. in the form of group projects, are, however, difficult to integrate due to the context of the CLIL lectures.
6 Student Evaluations
For a more complete picture, we will now consider the student evaluations. Their perspective can give insight into some motivational issues. Moreover, their feedback may prove valuable both for the lectures in question and for similar endeavours at other institutions. Overall, the impression of the teachers of these classes was positive. Students seemed to do well. If they did not understand, (after some hesitation at the beginning of the term) they started asking questions. Also, their fluency increased during the term. Students seemed less and less reluctant to speak French in front of their peers. Some students even started working on a bilingual glossary as a means of coping with the specific demands of CLIL teaching.
In the summer term 2010, the lecture was evaluated by students with the help of a questionnaire (see Appendix). The questions were not only concerned with the lecture as such, but students were also asked some more general questions about their studies. 17 students took part in the evaluations. The main findings will be given in the following.
Most students said that they had chosen an international course of study because they wanted to improve their foreign language skills (84.62 %). Furthermore, the majority (53.84 %) considered an international approach better for their employability (cf. also the socio-economic goals of CLIL (Eurydice 2006: 22)) Hence, the general interest of students seems to fit in with CLIL teaching objectives.
None of the students felt they lacked the necessary skills to follow the lectures in French. This finding has to be stressed since it shows that foreign language lectures in languages other than English are indeed possible. There are students whose language competence is adequate for non-English CLIL. It is interesting to note that nearly two thirds (61.54 %) thought their language skills only just sufficed, whereas the rest (38.46 %) stated that they largely sufficed. On the one hand, this finding indicates that methodological aids such as translanguaging are necessary for the majority. Thus, CLIL cannot mean that a professor or instructor simply lectures in another language without making any adjustments in his or her teaching methodology. In a CLIL context, some of the time that may be spent on content in L1 instruction will be taken up by language issues. However, we believe that this apparent disadvantage may turn out to be a gain since students are forced to actively participate both practically and cognitively (more than in a mother-tongue context). Furthermore, the fact that nearly two thirds believed their language skills were only just good enough also points out that requirements were high, but attainable. Hence, the lectures represented a challenge for students, but a challenge they were able to meet. This has lead to a strong general increase in student motivation.
On the one hand, this result is reflected by the number of students stating that they would like to be offered more lectures in French (69.23 %). The subjects they proposed were all part of their curriculum: Production and Logistics, Market Research, Marketing, Business Administration, Macroeconomics, Culture, Tourism Management, and Tourism Law. It is interesting to note that there is no inherent relationship between these subjects and French language and culture. This seems to indicate that from the perspective of students, there is no need for an underlying connection between the content and the language of teaching so as to implement CLIL. Instead, students seem to have a general interest in CLIL methodology. Only a small part of the interviewees thought the current number of classes offered in French was sufficient (15.38 %). With regards to foreign languages in general, even 84.62 % of students wished for more lectures in non-L1 languages. Again, the subjects they suggested were from different fields within their studies: Macroeconomics, Tourism Law, Business Administration, Marketing, Personnel Management and Organisation, Production and Logistics, Market Research as well as Investment and Financing. Since only a minority of students (7.69%) suggested lectures in Spanish, we can deduce that there is a strong demand for lectures in English. This represents another important finding for universities or universities of applied sciences: seemingly they underestimate their students’ motivation and commitment to engage in extra work for the benefit of their foreign-language proficiency. Students’ willingness to perform should be adequately met by universities.
With regards to the lecture in International Contract Law, students positively assessed that the lecturer spoke slowly and that the lecture was clearly structured. Furthermore, the backup through slide shows and the fact that they could always asked questions was regarded positively. Another plus for students consisted in the German summaries. This fact seems to underline again that adjustments in teaching methodology have to be made as far as lecturing in a foreign language is concerned.
Interestingly enough, some students suggested vocabulary lists containing the most important technical terms for the future. We assume that students were thinking of simple bilingual wordlists handed out ready-made by their teacher. A possible way to satisfy their needs for further help might indeed consist in the creation of a virtual document centre. Students could prepare an online e-glossary of legal terminology in which they explain concepts in their own words and illustrate their use in context with the help of some example sentences. Of course, German translations could also be added.
To sum up, the students participating in the evaluations appreciated the lectures offered in French. They wanted more lectures to be held in foreign languages. All in all, this should be taken as an encouragement for universities to offer more lectures in English, but also in other foreign languages.
7 Conclusion
In general, it was a successful endeavour to lecture in French at a German university of applied sciences. Due to the local cultural and political context, there is a potential for French which has not been sufficiently recognised, all the more as the Saarland Europe . In this context, it has to be stressed that multilingualism does not mean mother tongue + English (as a lingua franca). Instead, young Europeans should acquire each others’ languages on a level which permits cultural and economic exchange. This French-based CLIL project can be regarded as a step towards achieving these goals. Furthermore, the integration of some resources from foreign language teaching methodology could be beneficial in the future: short forms of cooperative learning such as buzz groups or e-learning tools such as e-glossaries could be implemented in lectures without much effort. These forms of cooperative learning do not necessarily require a formal training in foreign language teaching, so that they could be used by professors or instructors who have their qualifications in the content subject (which is often the case in CLIL). These lectures addressed a group of students whose potential might otherwise have gone unnoticed. They voluntarily mastered a challenging situation in a demanding foreign language context. It is foremost the students’ subjective evaluation of having accomplished a difficult task that will fuel their future motivation not only in language learning, but also in their studies in general and in their future lives in a multilingual Europe. For this reason, universities should try to incorporate students’ inclination for more lectures in foreign languages, not only in English, but also in French and other locally suitable languages.
From the perspective of foreign language methodology and empirical approaches to teaching, it would be interesting to test students’ competence in French before and after taking these French lectures. For a number of organisational reasons, this is not possible in the context of these study programmes so that general criteria for successful CLIL teaching and student evaluations had to be used instead. We are convinced, though, that measurable differences could be found. On the one hand, the simple fact that students were exposed to French for two more hours per week should make a difference. On the other hand, the final exam on International Contract Law also forced students to tackle any language problems they might have encountered throughout the term.
We also wrote this article to promote non-English based CLIL in other institutions of tertiary education. The main problem for a broader implementation of CLIL seems to be the qualification of the teaching staff, even more than in primary and secondary education. There may be the rare individual who has formal qualifications both in foreign language teaching and in some other content subject[14]. Assuming that professors cannot lecture at a university without having a formal qualification in the subject taught, usually a PhD at least, knowledge of foreign language teaching methodology as well as the necessary language competence represent the main obstacles. It seems clear that the average foreign language competence acquired during schooling (B2 or C1 (cf. CEFR above) for good students) is not sufficient. The constructions and specialised registres appropriate to the special purpose register of the subject have to be accompanied by excellent general language skills. As pointed out above, team teaching could be an obvious solution: one subject teacher with a fluent command of the language and one language teacher with an interest in the subject and a sound knowledge of foreign language teaching could implement excellent CLIL programmes when working together.
APPENDIX
Student Evaluations[15]
1. Why did you decide to enter an international programme?
□ To learn foreign languages (0%)
□ To improve my foreign language skills (84,62%)
□ To increase my employability (53,84%)
2. Are you satisfied in terms of the number of foreign language lectures at your university?
□ Yes. The number is totally sufficient. (15,38%)
□ No, not really. The number of foreign language (84,62%)
lectures should be increased.
3. Which lectures or modules do you think are apt to be taught in a foreign language?
Macroeconomics, Tourism Law, Business Adminisstraction, Marketing, Personnel Management and Organisation, Production and Logistics, Market Research as well as Investment and Financing
4. Would you like to have more lectures in French, and if so, which classes would you suggest?
□ yes (69,23%)
Production and Logistics, Market Research, Marketing, Business Administration, Macroeconomics, Culture, Tourism Management, and Tourism Law
□ no (15,38%)
5. Would you like to suggest other languages (besides English and French) for foreign language lectures?
Spanish (7,69%)
6. Do you think your language skills are sufficient to follow the lectures?
□ No, they are not sufficient. (0%)
□ Yes, they are sufficient, but only so-so. (61,54%)
□ Yes, they are fully sufficient (38,46%)
7. Do you think your language skills are sufficient to follow the lecture on international contract law?
□ No, they are not sufficient. (0%)
□ Yes, they are sufficient, but ononly so-so. (61,54%)
□ Yes, they are fully sufficient.. (38,46%)
8. Do you think your language skills are sufficient to follow the Introduction to accounting?
□ No, they are not sufficient. (7,69%)
□ Yes, they are sufficient, but only so-so (15,38%)
□ Yes, they are fully sufficient.. (53,85%)
9. Do the professors generally meet the requirements which a foreign language lecture takes?
□ They fully meet the requirements. (61,54%)
□ They meet the requirements. (38,46%)
□ They do not meet the requirements. (0%)
10. Does the professor meet the requirments in international contract law?
□ She fully meets the requirements. (100%)
□ She did not fully meet the requirements. (0%)
□ I think she is not qualified to teach in a foreign language (0%)
11. What do you like most about the lecture on international contract law?
- Ms N. is especially careful to explain difficult things in German J This helps a lot!:)
- Ms N. generally does a very good job.
- Slides, pace, German explanations,
- Summaries, repetition in German
- The language, the atmosphere
- The pace was alright, questions were always answered
- Clear structure
- Interesting, nice professor, practical applications became clear!
- It is important for Ms N. that all students understand the different notions.
- She reviews the content intensively.
- Seems to be an easy topic
- We are progressing at a slow pace
12. What did you dislike?
- Law as such is not my thing.
- I would need a detailed script on the whole content
- Until now I have had no general overview (now I have an idea); more exercises needed
- Sometimes, examples /practical applications would have been nice
- I am not sure what I should review for the exam à hardly any exercises/ legal cases
- We only did a few exercises and do not have a clear idea what to expect on the exam
13. How could the lecture be improved with regards to language issues?
- It’s great as it is
- A vocabulary list should be compiled
- The professor should speak even more slowly
- A list of most important terms sould be compiled
- A list of vocabulary could be handed out in advance
14. Here is some extra space for your feedback:
Many lectures could be held in a foreign language. However, first the general language classes would have to be improved so that students’ language level is good enough for the module.
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Coyle, Do ; Hood, Philip & Marsh, David. (Hrsg.) (2010). CLIL - Content and Language Integrated Learning.
Dalton-Puffer, Christiane. (2007). Discourse in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Classrooms. Language Learning & Language Teaching 20. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.
Dafouz Milne, Emma & Llinares García, Ana. (2008). The Role of Repetition in CLIL Teacher Discourse: A Comparative Study at Secondary and Tertiary Levels. International CLIL Research Journal 1(1). 50-59.
De Bot, Kees (2002). CLIL in the European Context. In: Kommission der Europäischen Gemeinschaften (Hrsg.). CLIL / EMILE The European dimension: Actions, Trends and Foresight Potential. Brüssel, 31-32.
Dudley-Evans, Tony & Johns, Timothy F. (1981). A team teaching approach to lecture comprehension for overseas students. In: Nakic, Anuska / Rinvolucri, Mario (Hrsg.). The teaching of listening comprehension.
European Commission (2002). CLIL / EMILE The European dimension: Actions, Trends and Foresight Potential (ed. by David Marsh).
European Commission (2003). Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: an Action Plan 2004 – 2006. Brussels.
European Commission (2011). Page on Content and Langauge Integrated Learning. http://ec.europa.eu/languages/language-teaching/content-and-language-integrated-learning_en.htm (last accessed 08.12.2011).
Eurydice (2006). L’enseignement d’une matière intégré à une langue étrangère (EMILE) à l ’école en Europe. Brüssel.
Garcia, Ofelia (2009). Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford.
Genesee, Fred (2004). What do we know about bilingual education for majority language students? In: Tej K. Bhatia & William Ritchie (Hrsg.). Handbook of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 547-576.
Gerhardt, Cornelia & Neumann, Sybille (forthcoming). EMILE im deutschen Hochschulkontext – Juristische Fachvorlesungen in französischer Sprache.
Heller, Monica (2003). Globalization, the new economy, and the commodification of language and identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(4), 473-492.
Landry, Rodrigue & Richard Y. Bourhis (1997). Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16 (1), 23-49.
Marsh, David & Wolff, Dieter (Hrsg.) (2007). Diverse Contexts – Converging Goals: CLIL in Europe. Mehrsprachigkeit in Schule und Unterricht 6. Frankfurt: Lang.
Marsh, David et al. (Hrsg.) (2009). CLIL Practice: Perspectives from the Field. Jyväskylä: CCN, University of Jyväskylä.
Mehisto, Peeter et al. (Hrsg.) (2008). Uncovering CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning in Bilingual and Multilingual Education. MacMillan Book for teachers. Oxford: Macmillan.
Mentz, Olivier et al. (Hrsg.) (2007). Bilingualer Unterricht in der Zielsprache Französisch: Entwicklungen und Perspektiven. Giessener Beiträge zur Fremdsprachendidaktik. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.
Ruiz de Zarobe, Yolanda et al. (2009). Content and language integrated learning: Evidence from research in Europe. Tonawanda, NY: Multililingual matters.
Saarland Statistisches Amt (2009). Ausländische Bevölkerung nach Staatsangehörigkeit 2005 – 2009. (http://www.saarland.de/6772.htm; 10.06.2011)
Saarland Statistisches Amt (2010). Pendlerverhalten der sozialversicherungspflichtig beschäftigten Arbeitnehmer des Saarlandes am 30. Juni 2010. (http://www.saarland.de/62399.htm; 10.06.2011)
Stryker, Stephen B. & Leaver, Betty Lou (1997). Content-based instruction in foreign language education: models and methods. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press.
Sudermann, David P. & Mary A. Cisar. (1992). Foreign language across the curriculum: A critical appraisal. Modern Language Journal 76, 295-308.
Tinnefeld, Thomas (2003). Das Spannungsfeld zwischen Fach- und Gemeinsprache – aufgezeigt anhand der Grammatik(ographie) der französischen Rechts- und Verwaltungssprache. In: Jung, Udo O.H. / Kolesnikova, Angelina (Hrsg.). Fachsprachen und Hochschule. Forschung – Didaktik – Methodik. Frankfurt am Main u. a.: Lang 2003, 1-25
Wilkinson, Robert & Zegers, Vera (Hrsg.) (2008). Realizing Content and Language Integration in Higher Education. Maastricht, NL: Maastricht University Language Centre.
Wiesinger, Peter (1982). Die Einteilung der deutschen Dialekte. In: Besch, Werner / Knoop, Ulrich / Putschke, Wolfgang / Wiegand, Herbert E. (Hrsg.). Dialektologie: Ein Handbuch zur deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung. Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft 1. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 807-900.
Wittenbrock, Rolf. (2007). Die deutsch-französischen Gymnasien: binationale Fundamente und bikulturelle Strukturen zwischen nationalstaatlichen Relikten und europäischen Perspektiven. In: Mentz, Olivier / Nix, Sebastian / Palmen, Paul (Hrsg.). Bilingualer Unterricht in der Zielsprache Französisch: Entwicklungen und Perspektiven. Giessener Beiträge zur Fremdsprachendidaktik. Tübingen: Gunter Narr, 275-292.
Authors:
Dr. Cornelia Gerhardt
Senior Lecturer
Saarland University
English, American and Anglophone Studies
66041 Saarbrücken
Germany
E-Mail: c.gerhardt@mx.uni-saarland.de
Prof. Dr. Sybille Neumann
Professor of Business Law and International Contract Law
Saarland University of Applied Sciences
Business School
Waldhausweg 14
66123 Saarbrücken
Germany
E-Mail: sybille.neumann@htw-saarland.de
Senior Lecturer
Saarland University
English, American and Anglophone Studies
66041 Saarbrücken
Germany
E-Mail: c.gerhardt@mx.uni-saarland.de
Prof. Dr. Sybille Neumann
Professor of Business Law and International Contract Law
Saarland University of Applied Sciences
Business School
Waldhausweg 14
66123 Saarbrücken
Germany
E-Mail: sybille.neumann@htw-saarland.de
[1] For a German report about this project cf. Gerhardt / Neumann (forthcoming).
[2] As of the winter term 2012/2013, this requirement will be reduced to one language only (English) for International Business Administration.
[3] This article will mainly be concerned with lectures on International Contract Law.
[4] The acronyms CBI (content based (second language) instruction) (cf. Stryker et al. 1997) and (F)LAC ((Foreign) languages across the curriculum) (Sudermann et al. 1992) are also used. In Canada
[5] Cf. the action plan 2004 – 2006 promoting language learning and linguistic diversity (European Commission 2003), which mentions CLIL as one pillar of the action plan.
[6] Cf. Coyle et al. 2010, Ruiz de Zarobe et al. 2009, Mehisto et al. 2008, Marsh et al. 2007, Dalton-Puffer 2007, or the International CLIL Research Journal
[7] Under the heading CLIL, cf. Costa et al. 2010, Marsh et al. 2009, Dafouz et al. 2008, Wilkinson et al. 2008; for English as an academic language, cf. Ammon et al. 2002 and Coleman 2006; cf. also the vast fields ESP (English for special / specific purposes) and EFL / ESL (English as a foreign / second language), TEFL / TESL (Teaching English as a foreign / second language) or also TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of other languages) and ELF (English as lingua franca).
[8] Cf. the discussion about the position of English in the field (European Commission 2002: 70f).
[9] For an exception, cf. Stryker et al. (1997) who describe a number of modules or classes in adult education in which languages other than English are in the focus. The main goal of these courses, however, is language teaching and the content part of CLIL seems to be used rather as a methodological tool only (cf. below).
[10] Amongst those, a third is Germans, though, who live on the other side of the border because of taxation differences or cheaper housing.
[11] We would like to thank Daniel Pauly and Christian Ramelli of the German Department of Saarland University
[12] This should not be confused with the Abi-Bac which is represents an additional exam in the partner language. Partner schools also exist in Freiburg , Germany and Buc , France
[13] These factors were partly taken from the French-English ClIL matrix which can only be recommended (http://archive.ecml.at/mtp2/CLILmatrix/EN/qMain.html; 10.06.2011)
[14] Most foreign language departments have actually practiced this for decades since their lecturers automatically also have the necessary language competencies. For instance, in most European English departments, e.g. North-American literature or discourse analysis are almost exclusively taught in English and not in the mother tongue of the majority of students. For some reason, this practice often goes unnoticed as if those students who decide to study a foreign language are categorically different from all the others. In truth, they have, for the most part, had the same schooling as those studying other subjects. So it is unclear why language students are considered ready to have their complete studies in the foreign language whereas others who have also shown their general interest and competence in foreign languages (by choosing an international study programme) often do not have the opportunity to at least partially fulfil their requirements in a foreign language (outside of the language classrooms).
[15] This original questionnaire was conducted in German. It was translated into English for a better understanding of readers and the linguistic homogeneity of the article.