Pathways towards Success for Novice Academic Writers in a CLIL Setting

Abstract

Courses taught in English are emerging in Japanese universities. From an English-education perspective, this raises the question of how best to prepare new undergraduates at various proficiency levels to move onto such courses. The authors investigate a class based on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) principles, with a focus on academic listening and writing tasks. Research (Dalton-Puffer, 2007) suggests that a CLIL approach may not be effective in developing the skill of writing. However, the results show that scaffolding of writing literacy assisted students towards developing autonomous academic skills. Specifically, students were encouraged to access materials and advice across the campus, with no restriction on L1 use. Consequently, in addition to linguistic development, the authors observed that the class became increasingly useful as a resource for future content classes themselves. This helped to give the class extra validity and support all students' motivation level.