A CASE STUDY EXPLORING ORAL LANGUAGE CHOICE BETWEEN THE TARGET LANGUAGE AND THE L1s IN MAINSTREAM CLIL AND EFL SECONDARY EDUCATION

This case study explores the purposes for which the target language (TL) and the L1s were used orally by students (N=60) and teachers (N=3) in a mainstream CLIL secondary education context compared to EFL instruction in the Balearic Islands (Spain). Data were gathered by means of questionnaires addressed to students and teachers, oral interviews to instructors and observations of class sessions. The findings show some differences in the languages chosen to speak according to pedagogical functions –i.e. planned subject-based discourse– and real functions –i.e. unplanned discourse such as disciplinary or organizational matters– (Chavez 2003), with the TL being much more spoken in the former and with much lesser presence of the TL in the latter, especially in the case of the pupils. Moreover, specialized subject-matter terminology was almost always used in the TL by both the students and the teachers, even when speaking in the L1.