Speaker
Description
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been increasingly promoted in Vietnam’s education system as part of broader efforts to strengthen learners’ English proficiency. However, teachers report ongoing challenges in integrating subject content and language meaningfully within exam-orientated and resource-constrained contexts. This doctoral study examines how participation in the Change Laboratory impacts upon CLIL teaching practices in two Vietnamese primary schools and identifies mediating conditions shaping these impacts.
Grounded in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, this study engaged maths–English teachers and other stakeholders in activity system analysis across three phases with four Change Laboratory workshops and one joint training workshop. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, classroom observation, reflective journals, workshop recordings and other documents and artefacts, the study found that the Change Laboratory played a significant role in facilitating teachers’ pedagogical renewal. They developed a more robust understanding of CLIL and its dual focus on content and language integration. The findings also indicate expanded use of mediating tools, including the 4Cs framework, for lesson planning and delivery together with the emergence of a collaborative and reflective professional learning culture.
However, the impacts of the intervention were uneven and shaped by systemic factors, including limited CLIL preparation, uneven leadership engagement, and workload pressures. This study contributes new empirical evidence on the application of Change Laboratory as a bottom-up, intervention-based approach in CLIL settings and discusses implications for designing context-sensitive professional development to strengthen CLIL teachers’ capacity in Vietnam and similar EFL–ESL transition contexts.
Biography
Thi Hoa Le is a PhD candidate at the School of Education, the University of New South Wales, Australia, fully funded by a Vietnamese Government scholarship. She has over a decade of experience as an English language teacher at Ha Tinh University, Vietnam, where she has worked since 2012.
Her academic background includes a Bachelor’s degree in English Language Teaching from Hue University of Foreign Languages and a Master’s degree in TESOL from the University of Aberdeen, UK. She was also a recipient of the prestigious Chevening Scholarship awarded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Her research interests include teacher professional development, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory informed approaches, particularly the Change Laboratory intervention.
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