Irene Guzmán-Alcón, Helena Roquet and Lidija Cvikić have published the article Understanding and applying CEFR-aligned descriptors for science cognitive discourse functions in CLIL classrooms in Applied Linguistics Review.
The study examines how pre-service and in-service teachers understand and use CEFR-aligned Cognitive Discourse Function (CDF) descriptors in CLIL science education. The research combines data from 40 pre-service teachers from Spain and Croatia with interviews with four in-service science and English teachers.
The findings reveal differences in teachers’ perceived preparedness to teach individual CDFs and in how the descriptors are interpreted according to teachers’ disciplinary backgrounds. While language teachers tend to pay greater attention to linguistic aspects, science teachers place greater emphasis on content knowledge and scientific reasoning. The findings highlight the importance of explicit teacher education on CDFs and greater collaboration between language and content specialists to support integrated assessment practices in CLIL education.
