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Hsin-Chieh Chen

National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

 

Abstract

Bilingual education has been gaining worldwide attention, and in line with this, "Taiwan's Bilingual 2030 Plan" has been introduced to enhance citizens' bilingual abilities. As part of this initiative, the implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been encouraged in compulsory-level schools in Taiwan. However, there is a need to establish comprehensive systems and standards for CLIL; hence, it is essential to examine the experiences of teachers who have implemented CLIL in primary school settings, especially considering that second language education officially begins in grade three in Taiwan. This study aimed to collect feedback from 42 teachers who had approximately four years of experience in teaching CLIL. A questionnaire comprising ordinal and openended questions was administered to gather the information. The results revealed that teachers had positive experiences with CLIL, scoring an average of 3.8 out of 5. Moreover, both language and content knowledge in primary-level schools were reported to have been enhanced, with an average score of 4.0 for each. On the other hand, challenges and concerns were identified and classified into three categories: curriculum, students, and teachers. The study also pinpointed the specific difficulties faced by students and provided recommendations to address them. Furthermore, teachers reflected on their opinions regarding self-improvement before, during, and after implementing CLIL. The valuable feedback from this study is expected to contribute to the successful implementation of CLIL in primary schools and enhance the overall quality of bilingual education in Taiwan.

 

Keywords

Bilingual education, CLIL, primary school, Taiwan's Bilingual 2030 Plan