Evaluación de la competencia del lenguaje académico para la construcción de significado en Física-Química: un caso de estudio en educación bilingüe

Cristina Morilla Garcia

Authors

Cristina Morilla Garcia University of Córdoba

Keywords:

bilingual education, academic language, CLIL, descriptive genre, disciplinary subject

Agencies: The funding entity for the project is the European Union, through the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE), which is a State Agency located in Brussels, Belgium. This project is a competitive initiative titled "Towards an Integrated Bilingualism Model" (KA203-5248A159), aimed at providing a language proficiency assessment model that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of academic subjects. The participating entities in this project include the University of Porto, the Santos Mártires Foundation (Córdoba), Eurolingue Schools (Palermo), and the University of Córdoba.

Abstract

Research on bilingual education has gained increasing relevance in recent years, highlighting the need to investigate the linguistic processes involved in bilingual educational contexts. Academic language plays a pivotal role in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). This study aims to evaluate students' academic language proficiency in the cognitive-discourse elements and functions of the descriptive text genre within a content subject, specifically Physics-Chemistry, through the development of digital assessment tools. This empirical study was conducted at a bilingual secondary education center in Porto, Portugal, with a sample of 50 students. The results indicate that students' academic language competence in meaning construction within this content subject was optimal in listening comprehension skills and moderate in written expression. However, their academic language proficiency in vocabulary and grammar was comparatively lower. This discrepancy underscores the need for further development of the descriptive aspects of language, particularly vocabulary and grammar, to enhance students' ability to construct meaning in this disciplinary subject.

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Author Biography

Cristina Morilla Garcia, University of Córdoba

PhD in Bilingual Education, with expertise in Multiple Intelligences and Emotional Intelligence. Lecturer at the Department of English and German Philology at the University of Córdoba. Coordinator of the Double Degree in English Studies and Primary Education. Lecturer and member of the Quality Assurance Committee in the Master’s Program in Advanced English and Bilingual Education. Researcher in projects funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Union. Research contributions include publications in high-impact journals, SPI-Q1 book chapters and monographs.

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