Using CEFR/CV Mediation Descriptors to Navigate Meaning in a Mixed-Level CLIL Class

This chapter reports the results after two cycles of a CEFR-focused Action Research Model (CARM) project (see Chap. 1 ) aiming to explain the ways first-year students navigate meaning to understand texts and lectures in a mixed-level CLIL classroom by utilizing the CEFR Companion Volume (CEFR/CV) scales (Council of Europe, 2020a). The process of determining student CEFR levels, adapting and rewriting texts, and discussing specific strategies as outlined by the CEFR/CV mediation descriptors is also discussed. In addition, this chapter reflects on ways collaborative efforts supported and reshaped that process. The study explores strategies employed in two CLIL-based content courses (Introduction to Art History and Introduction to Literature) at Miyazaki International University, an English Medium of Instruction (EMI) institution. Students were made explicitly aware of note-taking and summarizing skills, encouraged to collaborate to understand lectures and readings, and were asked explicit questions about their learning strategies in a learning journal. In addition, at the end of each semester, they were surveyed about which strategies aided them best. Survey questions directly correlate to a specific mediation descriptor and the process of survey question formulation is also discussed. The aim of the study was to provide insight into ways students understand material that is often above their language level and how raising learner awareness aids the process. As a result, curriculum goals for CLIL courses were revised to include the mediation goals of note-taking, collaborative learning, and increased learner autonomy. As the number of EMI and CLIL institutions are increasing globally, instructors often face challenges to teach material above student language ability in order to retain a higher academic level while at the risk of lowering the quality of education they could in their own language (Breeze, 2014). The CEFR/CV descriptors provide explanations of strategies students employ to facilitate their learning, including mediation activities of processing texts and lectures, note-taking, and group-work collaboration. In CLIL classroom situations, students often need to rely on such methods to attain understanding.