Management of the linguistic repertoires in the Technology class in English: Learning content, languages and values

Abstract

This article seeks to describe how a Technology teacher uses different languages of her language repertoire to teach this subject to students in the second year of compulsory secondary education in the Pardinyes neighbourhood of the city of Lleida. Aware of what a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach entails, the teacher strives to teach new specific technology content while at the same time helping to improve the different foreign language levels of the students. However, it is seen that she uses Catalan to make sure the students with the lowest levels of English do not miss out on information which she regards as especially important. One also observes an effort to create a positive and helpful working environment and rapport with students through episodes of linguistic creativity and humour, which occur in different languages of the repertoire, and which contribute, to a greater or lesser degree, to create this good environment.