As bilingual and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) initiatives continue to expand internationally, research has tended to foreground pedagogical innovation while paying less attention to structural conditions shaping how CLIL unfolds in practice. This study addresses that imbalance by examining how multimodal translanguaging is taken up across contrasting school contexts and subject areas. It approaches CLIL as a process of policy–practice translation, where classroom practices are shaped through interaction between institutional conditions and semiotic resources. Drawing on a social semiotic perspective, meaning-making is understood as distributed across linguistic and non-linguistic modes. The study adopts a qualitative multiple-case design involving four primary school teachers in central Taiwan, in both urban and remote settings teaching science and health. Data from interviews, classroom observations, teaching materials, and a follow-up focus group are analyzed across cases, with classroom observations offering interactional evidence of how multimodal and translanguaging practices are used, including their frequency, functions, and pedagogical purposes. Findings reveal CLIL as a structurally stratified pedagogical assemblage. Urban classrooms enact more expansive, interaction-oriented integrations of language and content, whereas remote classrooms rely on constrained, teacher-directed mediation to sustain participation under conditions of reduced exposure to English, uneven proficiency, and limited resources. Disciplinary differences further influence these patterns: science lessons emphasize inquiry and reasoning, while health lessons draw more on experience and participation. The study advances a context-sensitive theorization of CLIL by foregrounding the interplay of structure, modality, and discipline. It highlights the need for more differentiated teacher education and more equitable policy design.

Authors:
Aihua Gina Chen, Providence University, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Aihua Gina Chen is an Associate Professor in the College of Foreign Languages at Providence University, Taiwan.

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