Abstract:

The purpose of this research project is to investigate some of the relevant variables that may determine the efficacy of English Medium Instruction in the context of a federal institution in the UAE. Based on Roussel et al.’s (2017) study, and following, it is hypothesized that reading tasks in a second language can be considered a challenge for learners’. Research is needed to establish what kinds of support speakers of English as a second or additional language (L2) might need to fully access content knowledge in English without burdening learning. Our empirical work hypothesizes that learning content through L2 may lead to sub-optimal results if the L1 is not explicitly drawn upon as a resource in addition to the L2.

Many researchers in the field of bilingual education believe that written sources play a supportive role in supporting knowledge and language development in CLIL contexts, this study seeks to challenge this belief by comparing three instructional conditions. Students participating in the study are attending content courses taught through the medium of English, with Arabic as the L1 for the majority of students.

Method:
90 students enrolled in four sections of the same course participated in the experiment. The initial level in English was pretested by using online language tests. After these pretests, students were divided into three experimental groups with equal, average scores on the pretests.

In order to test the hypothesis, a learning task was presented under three different conditions, namely materials presented in the learners’ L1 (L1 condition), materials presented in the learners’ L2 (L2 condition), and materials presented in both languages (L1 and L2 condition). The same learning materials were presented to all participants in the study with the same amount of time allocated for each of the conditions. The learning materials consisted of a piece of text related to make-believe play as part of a middle childhood development course students were enrolled in. The posttest involved learners translating of some of the English (L2) words from the learning materials into Arabic (L1), content questions asked and answered in Arabic (L1), and a translation transfer test from Arabic (L1) to English (L2) of similar words and phrases to those found in the learning context but from a different context.

Results:
ANOVAs on the language, content and transfer test scores showed an effect of the experimental condition on language, content and transfer. Post-hoc comparisons were carried out to test for individual differences between means. The results indicate that the third condition can be helpful in learning both content and language in this context.

Keywords:

Translanguaging, higher education, reading skills, second language learning.