Investigating Students and Teachers Experiences in the Content and Language Integrated Learning Program at Moonshot Academy

Abstract

Moonshot Academy (MSA) Beijing is an innovative boarding high school that offers Chinese-English Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program. The school finds that the current practices of the CLIL program do not meet its prescribed program expectations. This study aims to find out if the current practices in the CLIL program promote the learners’ motivation in three domains: learning environment, learner identity/self, and learner engagement, as suggested by the Bower’s Process Motivation Model (2013). Based on the information required by the research questions, the research instruments to be used to collect the data are student and teacher surveys, student focus groups, teacher semi-structured interviews, and journey mapping. Overall, the students reported positive experiences in the CLIL program, despite two areas for improvement and three demotivating aspects of the program that they identified. The teachers found that teaching in the CLIL program is challenging. They reported a lack of knowledge and skillsets to teach the CLIL classes and showed a desire for program improvements that focus on program expectations, language standards, a support system, and learning outside the classroom.