An Comparative Study On The Evolving Perceptions Of Clil Class On The Part Of English Major Teachers And Students

In the context of internalization,in response to the new needs of English majors,many universities in China are carrying out curriculum reform and trying to implement foreign language teaching with the Content and Language Integrated Learning(CLIL)model.In recent years,as one of the important factors that affect teaching effect and learning outcome,participants' perceptions of CLIL class have attracted more and more attention from foreign scholars and studies are conducted involving all aspects of the class.However,there are few such studies in our country.Meanwhile,with the rise of Dynamic Systems Theory(DST),it quickly becomes a new way to study second language acquisition(SLA).Analyzing the perception changes with DST enables us to grasp the whole changing process and elaborate on the perception situation.In view of this,the current study proposes the following three research questions:(1)How do English major teachers and students perceive CLIL class? Are there any differences between their perceptions?(2)How do teachers' perceptions of CLIL class change over their CLIL teaching experience?(3)How do students' perceptions of CLIL class change over one semester?In order to answer the above-mentioned research questions,a mixed research method is adopted in this study.Taking the adapted English major teachers' and students' perception questionnaire for CLIL class as a quantitative research tool,surveys were conducted on 30 teachers and 152 first-year students chosen from a foreign language university in northeast China.Additionally,taking semi-structured interview as a qualitative research tool,three teachers and six students were interviewed.Research findings show that: First,teachers and students of English major truly have some perception differences of CLIL class and significant differences are captured in three dimensions,namely materials and resources,evaluation,teachers' English ability and class teaching.The English level of teachers and students,students' traditional foreign language learning concept and the expected benefit of the class are the predominant reasons for the differences.Second,in the long-term teaching career,CLIL teachers have some perception changes to CLIL class.Such changes mainly focus on students' class participation,teaching resources,teaching ability and class teaching.Third,students' perceptions of CLIL class also change within a varied degree after onesemester's contact with CLIL class.Major perception changes center on class participation,evaluation and class teaching.From the perspective of DST,perception presents a dynamic changing process,which is influenced by a number of factors such as teaching environment,teaching experience,time,etc.The perception changes of teachers and students reflect various characteristics of a dynamic system,which are,interconnectedness,nonlinearity,self-organization,sensitivity to initial conditions and the like.To some extent,this study yields results that English major teachers' and students' perceptions of CLIL class are generally positive and there are indeed striking perception differences regarding certain aspects.Moreover,this study is of great help to understand the development of teachers' and students' perceptions,enriching domestic empirical research of CLIL perception and providing a basis for CLIL class reform which can promote the sustainable development of CLIL model in Chinese context.