Investigating cross-curricular collaboration between L2 and content subject teachers in content-based instruction programmes

Abstract

Content-based instruction programmes, where students learn some or all content subjects through a second language (L2), are becoming popular in different parts of the world (e.g. Immersion programmes in Canada, Content and Language Integrated Learning in Europe, English-medium education in Asia). As such kind of programmes involves integration of language and content learning, it follows that collaboration between L2 and content subject teachers may facilitate student learning of both L2 and subject content through L2. Hence, L2-content cross-curricular collaboration has been strongly advocated over the past few decades. Nevertheless, there have been few studies investigating such kind of collaboration, especially in Asian educational contexts, where a socio-economically valued L2 (usually English) is being used as the medium of instruction in schools. Conducted in Hong Kong, an Asian EFL context where English-medium education has been in place for decades, this study aims to investigate the extent of L2-content cross-curricular collaboration in actual school settings, and more importantly, the factors affecting the implementation and effectiveness of such collaboration. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 261 L2 and content subject teachers in 13 randomly sampled secondary schools in Hong Kong, and six semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results show that L2-content cross-curricular collaboration was not yet a common practice in schools. Even though most teachers showed positive attitudes towards collaboration, it seems that they were restricted by some externals factors such as time and workload, school policy, and internal factors like the perceived subject boundaries and their personal beliefs in content-based instruction and cross-curricular collaboration. Through revealing the popularity of L2-content cross-curricular collaboration and the factors affecting its implementation and effectiveness, this study has significant implications for teacher education and school leaders on how to facilitate effective L2-content cross-curricular collaboration in order to enhance student learning in content-based instruction programmes.