Students’ opinions towards CLIL in Leeds Metropolitan University

A survey was conducted in September and October 2004 with two groups of students all studying either International Hospitality (50%) or International Tourism Management (50%). Within the groups are a mix of both UK and International students. The international students are primarily from China, Japan and Malaysia and all study English as their second language at university and as part of their courses. The UK students all study one or more European language (French, German, Spanish or Italian) as part of their studies.

All the students had studied their chosen language for two years and then had completed a 48 week internship during their third year of the course. Some of the UK students had secured an internship in the country of their chosen language, however, many did not have confidence in their language ability so completed their placement in an English speaking country. All the International students had stayed in the UK for their internship to try and improve their English language skills.

The questionnaire asked students to rate their language skills- only 5% estimated their level as good with the majority believing they only has basic levels. However, 75% believed that they would be able to study the language through CLIL if they were given the opportunity adding that it would greatly enhance their levels and abilities to communicate more effectively in the workplace.

All students had experience of studying in a multi-cultural group as both courses recruit students from a variety of countries. Furthermore, several had taken part in exchanges and had experienced working in a multi cultural environment when during their internship. However, only the international students have experience of taking part in CLIL as all their modules are taught in English, which is their second language.

Whilst the UK students felt there would be many benefits of studying through CLIL, they had severe reservations about their abilities and competence to be successful.

Benefits outlined included more relevant vocabulary, shorter learning curves when working abroad, the ability to communicate with many levels of staff, time-saving through learning the language and the content/business language together, improving life skills and enhanced employability.

Problems outlined included that important points may be missed if knowledge of vocabulary was weak, weak understand at the beginning and hence losing confidence in language ability, confusion since terminology may be very difficult to understand and so students may struggle to follow the context of lectures and grammar too complex to grasp together with terminology.

The students who did complete an internship in a country which demanded their use of a second language believe that their competence and confidence has greatly improved and they now wish to work abroad when they graduate. However, they all commented on the quality of the language-teaching which they received before embarking on their placement and the general feelings were that it was weak and did not prepare them for the real world. The international students felt more confident with their levels of English and had few problems in the workplace.

The students then suggested teaching methods, which could be implemented to improve their language abilities. These included- one-to-one teaching, more role plays using industry examples, more hours dedicated to language teaching and team teaching using CLIL. All agreed that they would willingly participate in an exchange programme if they were confident that it would improve their language ability.

I Hodgson