Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is characterized by using students’ additional language (L2) as the medium of instruction of non-language content subjects. In recent decades, this type of program has been gaining worldwide popularity, especially in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) contexts, because of the assumption that it can facilitate L2 learning. However, this assumption may not be realized in many classrooms in EFL contexts, where both teachers and students are often not well-prepared to cope with the heavy linguistic demands to learn content and language simultaneously. Owing to a combination of sociopolitical and socioeconomic forces, Hong Kong has a rather long history of practicing some form of CLIL in secondary schools, in the form of English-medium instruction (EMI) education. Following some recent changes in the government’s medium of instruction policies, there are different models and practices of EMI in Hong Kong schools to accommodate students with different English proficiency levels and also the expectations of different stakeholders. This chapter will illustrate these different models and practices and discuss their implications and challenges for English language learning, content learning, and teacher education. Copyright © 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Research on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes has yielded mixed results regarding their impact on students' language learning, drawing attention to the role of CLIL teachers. This study draws on teacher language awareness research to explore secondary subject content teachers' language-related pedagogical practices when teaching subject content in the medium of English in Hong Kong, with a focus on their form-focussed processing and facilitation of language learning strategies. In the study, data collected through classroom observation and interviews were analysed. The analysis revealed that the participants covered limited language forms and language learning strategies in teaching. Their (lack of) language-related pedagogical practices were further interpreted with reference to their awareness of the roles of language in teaching, their understanding of the demands of the language used for learning, and their knowledge of EFL/ESL pedagogy. These findings confirm the significance of developing subject teachers' language awareness through CLIL teacher education programmes in successfully implementing CLIL programmes. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.

This study examined the use of first language in English reading lessons and the perceptions of teachers and students towards it in three Hong Kong Chinese-medium secondary schools. The data comprised three teachers and sixty-three Form 2 students' participation and responses in (i) 3 classroom observations about how L1 was used in actual teaching and learning settings, (ii) survey forms gathering the frequency of participants using L1 teaching and learning strategies (based on the three teachers and nineteen selected students from the pool), and (iii) subsequent in-depth interviews concerning their perceptions about using L1 in English reading lessons. The findings revealed that (i) the use of L1 bottom-up language focused teaching strategies and condition-oriented teaching and learning strategies were effective for teaching and learning in English reading lessons and (ii) there was a negative relationship between students' proficiency in English and the use of L1. The study concluded that the use of first language in English reading lessons brought positive effects on the second language learning in English reading, especially when students' English proficiency and teaching contexts were taken into consideration. Copyright ©International Journal of Instruction.

In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, students learn content knowledge and a second/foreign language (L2) simultaneously. It follows that both content and language are assessed, although research on how to do so remains scarce. This study explores the interplay between cognitive and linguistic demands of CLIL assessments. Having analysed over 4900 questions in Science/Biology textbooks, workbooks and examination papers in Hong Kong, we observed that junior secondary assessments were dominated by low-level cognitive (i.e. recall of knowledge) and linguistic (i.e. no production or word-level production) demands, whereas senior secondary assessments required higher-order thinking skills (i.e. application and analysis of knowledge) expressed in sentences or even texts. Also, based on the analysis of 70 junior secondary students' performance in school examination papers, we noticed a potential hindrance of linguistic demands to students' performance in CLIL assessments. These findings together underscore the integral role of language in CLIL assessments and raise questions about the adequacy of existing pedagogical practices in preparing students to tackle both cognitive and linguistic demands in CLIL assessments, particularly when they proceed to higher grade levels where the demands in both dimensions leap. These have significant implications for CLIL assessment design, pedagogy and teacher education. Copyright ©Routledge.

In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes, students are expected to master content knowledge and language simultaneously. The worldwide popularity of this kind of programme has called for professional development, particularly for content subject teachers who have to shoulder some responsibilities of language teaching in CLIL. There have been several frameworks or proposals for professional development of CLIL teachers. Yet, empirical studies investigating the effectiveness of CLIL professional development programmes remain scarce. This gap is particularly important, since the relationship between professional development and teacher change is complicated and there are various factors affecting whether and how teacher would change. This study implemented a 6-month professional development programme for a group of content subject teachers in CLIL in Hong Kong. With data gathered with questionnaires, interviews, lesson observations and post-lesson reflections, this paper reports the trajectory of three case teachers who seemed to experience different degrees of changes in beliefs and language awareness. These differences could be explained by the influence of such factors as school context, learning experience and subject discipline. This study yields important implications for teacher education in CLIL and teacher change.
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In this paper, an excerpt of teacher–student interaction in an EFL junior secondary science classroom in Hong Kong is analysed using the conversation analytic method of sequential analysis. The fine-grained analysis reveals that in the teacher's effort to engage her students in the co-construction of a scientific proof, the students' familiar everyday discourses (e.g. students' examples and experiences as expressed in their familiar language) need to be allowed to play a significant role. It also shows how translanguaging can be well-coordinated with multimodal practices (using blackboard drawings, gestures) to facilitate students' meaning-making in the inquiry-based teacher–student dialogue.
[Copyright of International Journal of Bilingual Education & Bilingualism is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2014.988113]

In this paper, I review the four articles in this special issue, elucidate the main challenges faced by bilingual teachers when helping their Cantonese-dominant students learn both the content and target language (English) through content and language integrated learning-compatible pedagogies, and give a critical appraisal of their respective contributions to good practices and theory-building in research on translanguaging or classroom code-switching.
[Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis.]