Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in the Implementation of CLIL in an Indonesian Primary School
Keywords:
Cambridge curriculum, CLIL, primary school, teacher’s beliefAbstract
This study investigates teachers’ beliefs and practices in the implementation of CLIL in an Indonesian primary school context. Drawing on narrative inquiry, fruitful themes and subthemes were generated from the thematic analysis of teachers’ stories, which represented their teaching experiences in CLIL classes. Involving four CLIL teachers with 5–11 years of teaching experience, this study reveals that the teachers believed that CLIL was a good approach for encouraging students and teachers to improve their competencies, both in English and content subjects. As students had different levels of English proficiency and motivation, the teachers believed that CLIL classes should be carried out in meaningful and engaging ways. They also believed that school stakeholders and teacher colleagues’ support was very prominent in assisting them to teach in CLIL classes. In its implementation, CLIL classes were carried out for mathematics, natural science, citizenship, and social science subjects, while other subjects were delivered in Bahasa Indonesia. As English was the main language for classroom instruction and daily communication, the school stakeholders provided several supporting programs to familiarize teachers and students with the use of English both inside and outside classrooms. Beyond the current implementation of CLIL, the teachers hoped for improvements in school facilities and more time allotment for teacher professional development and teaching preparation. The findings also imply that the implementation of CLIL requires complex competencies of the teachers and adequate support from the school stakeholders.
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