CLIL at upper secondary: strategizing foreign language for the deep reading of complex academic L1-text

In this article I would like to discuss the challenges facing deep-reading and literacy development and illustrate how the use of a foreign language, as in the case of CLIL – Content and Language Integrated Learning – makes it possible to strategically use foreign languages to help students navigate their challenging L1 textbooks and, at the same time, cultivate literacy and prompt critical thinking in both the foreign language as well as the mother tongue. Content-education at upper secondary is already difficult, even in the mother tongue: CLIL at secondary is the challenging prospect of learning unknown content through a foreign language. While we cannot modify the inherent complexity of the content-concepts that students must learn, we can modulate the linguistic codes through which students access such concepts. This awareness opens a trove of possibilities whereby language experts can optimize the presence of two languages plus their respective registers to delineate literacy-tools students can use to not only access complex academic text in L1 but also evaluate complex propositions presented through an academic foreign language. This article illustrates how translanguaging strategies for deep-reading can help content teachers to comfortably “completare la programma” and language experts to optimize content complexity for cultivating academic literacy and critical thinking in a foreign language.

Questo articolo parte dalla sfida del deep-reading, la lettura profonda, per illustrare come unalingua straniera possa essere usata strategicamente per aiutare gli studenti non solo a navigareattraverso l’impegnativo linguaggio academico dei loro manuali in L1, ma anche per coltivarel’alfabetizzazione e il pensiero critico. Sebbene non possiamo modificare la complessità intrinsecadei concetti contenutistici che gli studenti dovranno apprendere, potremmo modulare i codicilinguistici attraverso i quali gli studenti accedono a tali concetti. Questo articolo illustra come ilCLIL ci fornisca un range di codici-linguistici alternativi, che possiamo ottimizzare per permettereagli studenti di comprendere il testo accademico complesso sia in Italiano che in lingua stranieraCLIL.