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guage integrated learning (CLIL)? and secondly What are pupils' affective learning
factors, such as motivation and self esteem, in CLIL? The study showed that there
were no major differences in learning and that pupils of different intelligence levels
had similar chances to succeed in both cases. Again, the results in the Finnish language
(the students’ mother tongue), were not negatively affected by CLIL. In terms of the
affective factors, the study indicated that CLIL students had a low self concept, that is,
that they thought they were not good at learning foreign languages, although they had
a strong motivation to learn.
2.5.6 Malaysia: failed bilingual teaching
A cautionary tale comes out of Malaysia. In 2003, English was re-adopted as a medium
of instruction for science and mathematics. There were two reasons for this, (1)
to keep abreast with scientific and technological developments which are in English
and (2) to increase students’ English proficiency. Arguments for this move were, for
example, that “teaching mathematics and science provides a rich context for genuine
language use… and… serves as a focal point around which oral language and literacy
can develop” (Pandian & Ramiah, 2003: 2).
There were concerns about the English proficiency and competency of all the teachers
at the time; teachers were concerned about their own English level, but most (76,1%)
teachers were positive towards the changes. Further worries were that there wasn’t
enough material availably and that students weren’t proficient in English and therefore
wouldn’t be able to follow the lessons in English. Another problem was that teachers –
although they knew about vocabulary and grammar - were not clear about the linguistic
features of their content subject and thus couldn’t communicate this to their students.
In 2009, the Malaysian Ministry of Education announced that this innovation was
unfortunately not working and would be reversed. Science and mathematics would
no longer be taught in English by 2012. The main reason for the decision was the
poor English competence among teachers and the widening performance gap between
rural schools and urban schools, although some sources say that it was a political
decision.
There are important lessons to learn from the Malaysian failure to implement bilingual
education for science and maths. Firstly, we can conclude that - when implementing
a bilingual programme - it is vital to work initially on improving the lan-
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