Textbook analysis for literacy development in CLIL

Abstract

The flourishing of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL/bilingual) programs in Spain has led national and international textbook publishers to see a market niche and to launch into publishing textbooks for CLIL contexts (López-Medina, 2016). The general objective of this study is to analyse the contents of 24 CLIL textbooks used in the teaching and learning of the subject of Biology and Geology as an academic discipline in the region of Andalusia (Spain) in order to identify their internal coherence with respect to the methodological principles related to the cognitive discourse functions (CDFs) and the textual genres that predominate in the work plans- namely, tasks, activities and academic questions- present in these textbooks that characterize the subject of Biology and Geology. To address the research questions, a quantitative analysis was conducted. Overall, in relation to the text genres present in most work plans (tasks, activities and questions) no text genre was specified; moreover, results also reveal a preponderance of the CDF "describe". The implications of the results are that sole reliance on textbooks could be detrimental to the development of academic literacy if CDFs and genres to which students should be exposed are limited.