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Examining L1 ability in a Finnish secondary education context

A comparison of CLIL and non-CLIL students’ oral production

ORCiD logo with link | University of Turku
Published online: 14 April 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.24016.lau
Abstract
This article examines the relationship between L1 ability and CLIL in a lower secondary education context in Finland. In the study, 31 participants responded to a verbal fluency task, a picture-naming task and a survey comprising L1 self-evaluation questions. The results were analysed quantitatively in light of additional variables such as socioeconomic status and L1 grades. The CLIL students outperformed the non-CLIL students in the verbal fluency task, whereas the results of the picture-naming task were not suggestive of group-level differences. Additionally, the CLIL students’ picture-naming task results were less reflective of within-group differences than those of the non-CLIL students. This study sheds light on the relationship between CLIL and L1 ability, while highlighting the possible role of CLIL in mitigating the impact of individual differences on L1 ability.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.CLIL, bilingualism, and L1: Bilingual advantages and costs in CLIL students
  • 3.Ability to access and retrieve lexis in bilinguals
  • 4.Factors related to L1 ability in bilingual education
  • 5.Methods
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Data collection and analysis
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1The relationship between L1 self-evaluations and academic achievement
    • 6.2Performance in the verbal fluency task
    • 6.3Performance in the picture-naming task
    • 6.4Picture-based analysis of naming task results
    • 6.5Correlation analysis for both tasks
  • 7.Discussion and conclusions
  • References
References (63)
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