CLIL, the CDF construct, and the Speech of Intercultural Studies
English medium education (EME) and content and language integrated pedagogies (CLIL) continue to expand into the tertiary undergraduate education sector in Japan, with their delivery frequently the responsibility of the language teacher. However, there is little scholarly work in this context describing the functional structuring of discourse and its
implications for academic literacy. This presentation is divided into three foci. The first focuses on CLIL pedagogy, theory, and practice, and introduces the Cognitive Discourse Function construct (CDF), a framework commonly used to conceptualise the integration aspect of CLIL. The second focus presents a long-term research project that employs the CDF to analyse the discourse of the most commonly occurring CLIL subject in the undergraduate language teaching context in Japan, intercultural studies. The project consists of analysis of over 1500 minutes of speech, the largest corpus using this methodology to date. The final focus identifies the most commonly occurring cognitive discourse functions within the corpus, discusses realiser roles in discourse construction, and illustrates the influence of genre on discourse. This focus also demonstrates how mono-functional discourse moves combine in complex, patterned manners in dialogic speech. This presentation will be of interest to teachers who deliver content-based lessons in the language classroom, as well as to those interested in cognitive-linguistic studies in general.
Stephen McNamara’s research focuses on the integration of cognition, discourse, and function, in undergraduate intercultural content and language integrated (CLIL) syllabi. His research findings have been presented across Japan, as well as in Europe and Asia. Stephen has worked in language-learning in Japan for around twenty years and is currently an instructor of English as a Foreign Language at the Kwansei Gakuin University. Stephen is a member of the University of Vienna Doktoratsschule für Philologisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche, is a reviewer for the Asian Journal of Content and Language Integrated Learning (Asian CLIL) and the Japan Association of Language Teachers (JALT) PanSIG, and is a member of CLIL study groups in Vienna, Spain, and Japan.
Selected works:
McNamara, S. (2023). Pilot: cognitive discourse functions in intercultural studies lessons. Kwansei Gakuin University Humanities Review. (28) Nishinomiya, Japan
McNamara, S. & Griffiths, M. (2022) A tale of two syllabi: towards theory driven CLIL. PanSIG Journal. Pp. 35-46
McNamara, S. (2021). Locating content, language, and cognition in a CLIL art history biography activity. The Journal of the Institute of Language and Culture, Konan University, (25).
McNamara, S. (2018). Developing cognitive assessment objectives in language syllabus design. 6th International Conference on Modern Approach in the Humanities. The Sorbonne University of Paris. Paris, France. Pp.69-81
