Secondary schools in Greece and Cyprus welcome numerous refugees and migrants from various countries. These young learners often complain that they would have performed better in their tests, exams and coursework if their teachers would have allowed them to use their mother tongue, English (second/foreign language to most teenagers due to their engagement in online gaming) and the target language (Greek/Cypriot Greek) when they tried to make sense of the instructions for their assignments, the theories involved and the assessment criteria. They also protest that their assignments are monotonous and always aim to improve student writing only. This disadvantages certain students, i.e., migrants, refugees, and even neurodiverse students.
In terms of the current study, 2 secondary school teachers used Content-and-Language-Integrated Learning (CLIL) and Digital Storytelling (DS) as inclusive learning strategies for speakers of Greek/Cypriot-Greek as foreign and/or second languages for one school year (longitudinal study) to support the development of multilingual disciplinary literacies. During this learning intervention, fifty (25 in Cyprus and 25 in Greece) 13-14 year-old (first year of secondary school) students from different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds were taught history using a combination of Greek/Cypriot-Greek (language of schooling in Greece and Cyprus respectively) and English and were asked to prepare a digital story on a topic of their choice working in groups of four students instead of an individual written assignment. Students were encouraged to use their mother tongue, English and their target language (Greek/Cypriot Greek) to discuss their assignment with their peers. The overall aim was to help these multilingual and multicultural students achieve the competence to use a foreign/second language (Greek) confidently without underestimating the importance of their mother tongue and their second language (English) and identify good practices in terms of supporting multilingual disciplinary literacies in CLIL classes within secondary school education. The teachers delivering the History sessions acknowledged the importance of students using their mother tongue and English for assessment purposes. This was also confirmed by several studies which have used translanguaging (Lewis, Jones, and Baker, 2012). The researcher used a mixed-method approach and asked students to write a pre-test (before the implementation) and a post-test (after the implementation) and provide anonymous feedback via Mentimeter throughout the implementation. The researchers also kept field notes in the form of a diary to triangulate all data (from teachers and students).
The current study indicated that the use of CLIL improved students’ writing performance by 30% in one school year (comparing pre-test and post-test scores), enhanced students’ attitudes towards learning (students revealed that they felt supported, included and valued) and supported their well-being in the post-Covid-19 era (students felt less intimidated to interact with their peers as they felt that CLIL facilitated their transition from primary to secondary school). Based on the outcomes of this international multiple case study, we provide recommendations for training teachers and students in using a combination of CLIL and digital storytelling in secondary education and offer suggestions for future research into CLIL via the use of digital game-based learning. This EALTA conference presentation is funded by the CA21114 CLILNetLE Cost Action (CLIL Network for languages in Education: Towards Bi- and Multilingual Disciplinary Literacies).