The suitability of foreign language teaching in childhood according to the CLIL approach: the foreign language teachers' attitudes

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a research into the foreign teachers' attitudes towards the first foreign language (FL 1) teaching according to the CLIL approach. The first foreign language teachers (FL 1 teachers) should have carried out their FL 1 lessons using the CLIL approach. The results of the twelve interviews: teachers agree upon the importance of the education process of teachers-to-be, for any teacher working at an early level should have completed a BA in class teaching and should have acquired a degree in the methodology of early language teaching. Most teachers who used the CLIL approach in the first year of its introduction (school year 2014–2015), refrained from it in the second year, or only used some elements of the CLIL approach, for they felt that it was impossible to follow the guidelines of the “hard” CLIL. Consequently, they only used some elements or strategies of the CLIL approach, which some authors call “soft” CLIL. Although some teachers claimed to have encountered numerous obstacles in teaching according to CLIL, they nevertheless considered it to be a suitable approach in the FL 1 classroom.A well-prepared abstract enables the reader to identify the basic content of a document quickly and accurately, to determine its relevance to their interests, and thus to decide whether to read the document in its entirety.

Keywords

• attitudes
• early age
• foreign language teacher
• foreign language teaching
• the CLIL approach