Content and language integrated learning: A case study on simultaneous teaching of English literature and language in a private university in Bangladesh

Abstract

Students studying English literature at the tertiary level in Bangladesh seem to struggle considerably to comprehend literary lessons for their ‘lack of competence’ in the English language. To equip students with adequate skills in this language for communicating and transferring knowledge, adapting Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), with equal emphasis on subject and language teaching, appears to be more effective than just lecture-based literary content teaching. This research intends to explore whether adapting task-oriented use of literary materials, integrating content and language teaching, is effective in developing students’ literary cognition and enhancing English language skills simultaneously. A group of students enrolled in English literature courses in a private university in Dhaka participated in this research. To collect data a mixed-method approach was adapted which included pre-test and post-test, questionnaire and interviews. The qualitative data collected were thematically analyzed while the quantitative data were analyzed using Excel spreadsheet. The findings suggest that CLIL lessons in undergraduate English literature classes helped improve majority of the learners’ knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure as well as the knowledge of literary content. But CLIL was not much effective for those with better English skills, and they did not enjoy CLIL in literature classes and preferred lecture-based lessons to CLIL.