Wenhsien Yang*

Department of Applied English

National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, Taiwan
[email protected]

ESP vs. CLIL: A COIN OF TWO SIDES

OR A CONTINUUM OF TWO EXTREMES?

Abstract

Contributed to by the strong drivers of socio-economic globalisation, CLIL (Content

and Language Integrated Learning) programmes with a dual-purpose of
accommodating both language and content learning have increased at speed
recently in Taiwan’s tertiary education. However, compared to ESP (English for
Specific Purposes), which also emphasises language learning as well as some 43
content knowledge, and has received much attention in both research and practice,
research on CLIL and comparisons of the two teaching approaches are still rather
underrepresented in Taiwan. To bridge this gap, the present study aims to examine
the actual practices of both approaches, looking at the status of language and
content in individual classrooms. A total of 21 CLIL and ESP courses were
observed, and teachers’ viewpoints were collected to understand how teachers
implemented the two approaches in the classroom. Moreover, variables of course
type, teacher’s first language and expertise were analysed to measure any possible
significant differences. The results indicate that CLIL teachers spend much more
time on content teaching but pay less attention to language teaching; in contrast
ESP teachers normally attend to both learners’ language development and
disciplinary knowledge. Detailed discussion of the results and further suggestions
are provided.

Key words

CLIL, ESP, comparative study, Taiwan tertiary education.

* Corresponding address: Wenhsien Yang, 1, Hsung-ho Rd. Hsiao-kang Dist., 812, Taiwan.

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e-ISSN:2334-9050
WENHSIEN YANG

Sažetak

Pod snažnim uticajem društveno-ekonomske globalizacije u Tajvanu od skora

ubrzano raste broj programa za integrisano učenje nastavnog sadržaja i stranog
jezika (CLIL) u tercijarnom obrazovanju. Ipak, u poređenju sa engleskim jezikom
struke (ESP), koji takođe podrazumeva učenje jezika i određeno znanje nastavnog
sadržaja, i čija je teorija i praksa predmet brojnih studija, istraživanja integrisanog
učenja nastavnog sadržaja i jezika, kao i poređenje dva navedena pristupa nastavi,
još uvek su nedovoljni u Tajvanu. Kako bi premostila taj jaz, ova studija ima za cilj
da istraži aktuelnu praksu oba pristupa i ispita status jezika i nastavnog sadržaja u
pojedinačnim programima. U radu se analizira ukupno 21 kurs integrisanog učenja
nastavnog sadržaja i jezika i engleskog jezika struke, te su prikupljena mišljenja
nastavnika o primeni ta dva pristupa u učionici. Uz to, analizirane su varijable kao
što su vrsta kursa, maternji jezik i stručnost nastavnika da bi se utvrdilo
eventualno postojanje značajnih razlika. Rezultati pokazuju da nastavnici CLIL-a
provode mnogo više vremena u predavanju nastavnog sadržaja a poklanjaju manje
pažnje jezičkim instrukcijama; nasuprot tome, nastavnici engleskog jezika struke
obično se podjednako bave jezičkim razvojem učenika i predmetnim znanjem. U
radu se detaljno diskutuje o rezultatima i daju predlozi za buduća istraživanja.

44
Ključne reči

integrisano učenje nastavnog sadržaja i stranog jezika (CLIL), engleski jezik struke
(ESP), komparativno istraživanje, tercijarno obrazovanje u Tajvanu.

1. INTRODUCTION
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an umbrella term, referring to
an innovative educational approach by which a subject is taught in an additional
language (Lasagabaster & Sierra, 2010). CLIL is always dual-focused, namely
content and language. Its purpose is crucial for EFL contexts such as Taiwan where
English is mainly used in the classroom rather than in the students’ real lives, and
where EFL learners are eagerly trying to advance their English proficiency, as
described by Yang and Gosling (2014). Contributed to by the strong drivers of
socio-economic globalisation, CLIL programmes have increased at speed in the last
decade, and CLIL has also become a mainstream form of education in many
European countries (Gefaell & Unterberger, 2010). In tertiary education in Taiwan,
the establishment of CLIL programmes has been encouraged by the educational
authorities to drive the goal of internationalised higher education forward (Yang &
Gosling, 2014). However, apart from European contexts, investigations of

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implementing and evaluating CLIL programmes on a large scale have been rarely
documented in the literature (Perez-Canado, 2012), in particular in Asian EFL
situations like Taiwan.
On the other hand, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in Taiwan has
received much more attention in both research and practice. A number of tertiary
institutions, in particular polytechnic universities, have transformed many of the
4-skills-focused language courses into language-plus-content forms, and many of
these courses are taught by departments of English and international inter-
disciplinary programmes. What differentiates ESP from CLIL is that the latter has
dual focuses, i.e. both language and content, while the former places emphasis on
providing learners with sufficient language skills to master content knowledge.
Thus, ESP is one category of English Language Teaching (ELT), while CLIL is not. In
fact, many other aspects of both approaches also differ greatly such as course
materials, teaching strategies and teacher preparation. While the ultimate goal of
the two approaches is largely similar, that is, providing learners with mobility and
employability in the globalised society, there are questions regarding which is
more effective in terms of helping Taiwanese learners compete with international
professionals. In other words, can ESP and CLIL be integrated, and are they
mutually supportive like the two sides of a coin, or are they two extremes of a
continuum with contrasting aims accommodating different learners’ needs?
Unfortunately, studies on their implementation and actual effects through a
cross comparison are still underrepresented in the literature. The issue of how
stakeholders such as students and practitioners view their CLIL and ESP education 45
is generally overlooked. Thus, to bridge this gap, this study attempts to combine
both qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate CLIL and ESP education
considering the stakeholders’ variables, and to triangulate the programme efficacy
from various sources of data by comparing and contrasting a number of CLIL and
ESP programmes in Taiwan. To be specific, the research focuses on the following
questions (Arnó-Macià & Mancho-Barés, 2015: 65):

1. What is the status of CLIL and ESP implementation in Taiwanese

undergraduate degree-based programmes?
2. For the CLIL and ESP classes observed in Taiwan, are there any expected
linguistic outcomes? How explicit is the teacher’s focus on learners’ language
performance in the two types of classroom? To what extent are the learners’
language proficiency and content achievements explicitly focused on in
classroom interactions?
3. Do any of the above results show statistical significance by the different
variables of course type, teacher’s first language, and teacher’s area of
expertise?

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2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Although ESP and CLIL are traditionally viewed as two different teaching
approaches with varying focuses, and discussion of the likely overlap or
compatibility of these approaches in the literature is limited, some researchers
have noticed that ESP and CLIL are not absolute opposites but may in fact share
some similarities and complement each other. For instance, courses in English for
academic purposes could be beneficial for CLIL beginners in terms of shortening
their adaptation to the CLIL approach in Asian EFL settings (Yang, 2015a). The
following sections compare and contrast the common features and the
differentiations between ESP and CLIL.

2.1. Differences between ESP and CLIL

Most researchers believe that the differences are greater than the similarities
between the two approaches, and have relatively negative attitudes regarding their
compatibility. As argued by Fortanet-Gómez and Bellés-Fortuño (2008), ESP has
the single main aim of teaching and learning a foreign language, while CLIL places
importance on content matter as well as the status of the language, which also
raises the issue of who is qualified to teach CLIL, language teachers or content
teachers, and the issue of teacher identity while teaching ESP and CLIL. Torregrosa 183
46
Benavent and Sánchez-Reyes Peñamaría (2011: 92) claimed that “connections
between ESP and CLIL can easily be drawn for both are more closely related than
is often realised. Even so, CLIL explicitly places a greater emphasis on the content
than ESP because in this case teachers have joint content and language expertise
that ESP practitioners commonly lack”. In addition, Cenoz, Genesee, and Gorter
(2014) argued that, due to a broader concept of CLIL, many different language
learning types of using English as the medium of instruction such as ESP turn CLIL
into a rather narrow vision. Thus, they argue that any attempt to distinguish CLIL
from other language approaches is always misguided. They examine the
ambiguities and call for clarification of the definition of CLIL. Jendrych (2013)
mainly discusses the complexity of ESP teaching today and attributes the
emergence of CLIL to the development of ESP. She claims that the new
developments of ESP have brought challenges for traditional ESP teachers as it
requires higher qualifications such as content knowledge and transferable skills,
and these new demands can cause difficulties, constraints and negative attitudes
on the part of language teachers, which may prevent them from agreeing to teach
CLIL courses.
Also, Bruton and Woźniak (2013) described their course using two
approaches in a university, and discussed their interconnections, mutual
influences and benefits as well as the problems they raised. They argued that
courses combining the two new approaches are time consuming for both language

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and content teachers. However, they also found that content teachers are
becoming increasingly confident about using English in the classroom, while
language teachers are becoming more confident about their grasp of content
matter. Similarly, Gonzalez Ardeo (2013) examined the coexistence of ESP and
CLIL courses in a Spanish university. Although CLIL seems to be preferred by
students in the researched setting, both types of course can be compatible. Yet,
both approaches also create some challenges for content teachers, language
teachers and learners. Furthermore, in Brebera and Hlousková’s (2012) discussion
of how to apply principles of CLIL to ESP in higher education, they argue that
providing a uniform CLIL guideline for carrying out its content and language
teaching is nearly impossible in tertiary contexts, and thus call for more research
at the local, national and international levels to help teachers cope with the
demands of this new approach.
Other researchers believe that in spite of their greater differences, there are
still possible similarities between ESP and CLIL, in particular, the theory of needs
analysis (NA) in ESP. NA can be successfully applied to CLIL as well to define the
programme and to establish the needs of teacher training, materials and specific
means (Ruiz-Garrido & Fortanet-Gómez, 2009). Theoretically, it is clear that ESP is
focused solely on language, while CLIL simultaneously accommodates both
language and content subjects. Yet, some scholars argue that the distinction
between the two is not clear. Both ESP and CLIL practitioners have to find a
balance between the target language culture and professional subject matter in
their instruction (Poręcka, 2011). Likewise, Liew and Khor (2014) argued that
47
CLIL and ESP are indeed two separate approaches, but university learners expect
to learn content knowledge in language courses, which moves ESP closer to CLIL.
They define CLIL as an integrated ESP model and believe that integrated ESP has
the potential to address some shortcomings of traditional ESP, and the
transformation of ESP to CLIL is only possible when there is careful collaboration
between discipline teachers and language teachers (Riley, 2013). As Lara-Garrido
(2000) also argued, although the learning goals of the two differ to a certain extent,
CLIL also has a close connection to the ESP movement. That is, both greatly
emphasise learners’ needs and interest in communication. CLIL can even be
viewed as a new and interactive approach to teaching English.

2.2. Possible similarities between ESP and CLIL

Despite the aforementioned arguments, some researchers hold a relatively more

positive attitude towards the similarities of the two approaches. First of all,
Fernández (2009) claimed that CLIL can be a generic term, covering many
different similar notions, even including ESP. The interpretation of different tracks
of CLIL mainly lies in the ontological and epistemological beliefs. Some researchers
believe that ESP and CLIL share similar principles in terms of theories. As claimed

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by Tarnopolsky (2013), the most common feature of the two approaches is

integrating language learning with content matter of non-linguistic disciplines
where CLIL has a broader scope and ESP is usually posited as a language course.
Also, Jendrych and Wisniewska (2010) consider that in some cases teaching ESP is
similar to teaching CLIL as both approaches emphasise teaching language skills
and professional skills.
Although similarities between ESP and CLIL are likely, an urgent call for
collaboration between ESP and CLIL practitioners and balanced weighting
between content and language teaching is greatly emphasised. For instance,
Nashaat-Sobhy, Berzosa, and Crean (2013) proposed that collaboration between
content teachers and language teaching in designing teaching materials is needed,
and the schema theory, focusing on social constructivism, helps learners scaffold
their language development and facilitate peer collaboration. They believe there
are more areas of convergence than divergence between ESP and CLIL. Similarly,
using a Russian university as the research context, Gavrilova and Trostina (2014)
advocated that only an integrated interdisciplinary approach between language
and subject matter can create the synergy needed to prepare highly-qualified
specialists in a particular field of knowledge. Finally, Arnó-Macià and Mancho-
Barés (2015) explored the importance of language learning in CLIL programmes
and the implications derived for ESP. They proposed that the programmes engage
in collaboration with content teachers to develop learners’ English proficiency.
This collaboration can occur both through integrating language in content courses
and integrating content in ESP courses to make them more relevant to disciplines’
48
communicative needs.
In general, most authors believe that there are distinct variations between
CLIL and ESP. The major difference is the diverse emphases of the two approaches.
However, there are also similarities between the two methods. For instance, needs
analysis derived from ESP can be applied to CLIL, and teacher preparation for the
two approaches can follow the same process as well. Moreover, both confront
similar difficulties in implementation such as teacher training, teaching
qualifications, peer collaboration, students’ motivation and material design.

2.3. Bridging the gap between ESP and CLIL in practice

As previously mentioned, most studies investigating the comparison of CLIL and

ESP have been carried out in European contexts where CLIL programmes are
increasing in number, but similar examinations in Asian EFL contexts are much
less common. In Taiwan, both CLIL and ESP courses or programmes are increasing
as the education authorities concerned and tertiary education providers assume
that high levels of English proficiency and professional content knowledge
contribute to graduates’ mobility and employability in the globalised labour
market (Yang, 2015b, 2015d). Research on Taiwan tertiary CLIL can be found

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mainly in Yang’s (2015a, 2015b, 2016) and Yang and Gosling’s (2013, 2014)
works. They have investigated undergraduate CLIL programmes and their
learners, and concluded that, compared to non-CLIL learners, CLIL learners
outperform their counterparts and make significant progress in terms of linguistic
performance and content outcomes. In addition, their employment of English
learning strategies is also different from that of their ESP peers. In contrast, studies
on ESP issues in Taiwan are relatively extensive due to its widespread
implementation. Most of them focus on the investigations of course
development/evaluation, material design (courseware), stakeholders’ perceptions
or attitudes, needs analysis, teaching performance, and learning outcomes. The
local research on ESP is comparatively more broad-focused, experience-based and
effectiveness-oriented than the global interest in researching ESP (Yang, 2015c).
However, to the best of our knowledge, so far no study has compared their
actual practices in the classroom in Taiwan. The present study hopes to bridge this
gap in the literature and to offer suggestions for their further implementation.

3. RESEARCH METHODS

3.1. Context

The researched context is a national polytechnic university, located in southern 49

Taiwan and well-known for its sandwich curriculum in which all the students are
required to complete a full one-year placement in overseas or domestic hospitality
or tourism industries in their third year. After the placement, they come back to
the university to resume their final year of study. Having the placement abroad is
encouraged by the University to not only broaden the students’ global vision but
also to apply what they have learnt in a globalised environment. Hence, equipping
the students with a better command of English proficiency has become one of the
major aims of the English courses in the University. Most ESP courses are offered
only by the English department and language training institutes to prepare the
students for learning, studying and working, in particular in countries where
English is the first or official language, such as the UK, the US, Canada, Singapore,
or New Zealand. These language courses are provided separately across various
disciplines such as tourism, hospitality, MICE (meeting, incentives, convention and
exhibition) or aviation.
Apart from ESP courses, the University also runs several CLIL course-based
and two degree-based CLIL programmes, i.e. tourism management and culinary
arts. To respond to the demands of internationalisation and globalisation, which
require high mobility and employability of graduates, and to attract international
students, the University decided to implement courses and programmes
integrating both content and language learning with a dual focus on developing

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learners’ content knowledge via the instruction of the target language (mainly
English). Course-based CLIL is always teacher-initiated, that is, those who are
willing to teach a CLIL course can apply to teach one. On the other hand, degree-
based CLIL programmes are policy-initiated, where all the courses are instructed
according to a strong CLIL model, i.e. with extremely high English exposure. To
increase teachers’ motivation to teach CLIL courses, a subsidiary incentive is
provided. The educational authorities in Taiwan also financially support the
establishment of degree-based CLIL programmes in tertiary institutions to
increase local students’ English proficiency and to attract foreign students to study
in Taiwan. In the researched context, in contrast to the provision of ESP courses,
CLIL courses are offered across various disciplines in different academic
departments.

3.2. Teachers

At present, all ESP courses in the university are instructed by language teachers,
including both native and non-native English speakers, with the latter greatly
outnumbering the former. However, nearly all of the CLIL courses are lectured by
content teachers with the exception of a few language teachers who are equipped
with the content expertise and who are certified to teach it. Normally, an ESP
course is two hours per week while a CLIL course is three hours per week. In the
present research, we observed 21 ESP and CLIL courses conducted by 21 teachers 50
in the university. Table 1 shows the course type, teacher’s first language and
teacher’s area of expertise.

COURSE TYPE NUMBER OF COURSES PER CENT

ESP 10 47.6
CLIL 11 52.4
Total 21 100.0
TEACHER’S NATIVE LANGUAGE NUMBER OF TEACHERS PER CENT
NNES 18 85.7
NES 3 14.3
TEACHER’S AREA OF EXPERTISE NUMBER OF TEACHERS PER CENT
Language 14 66.7
Content 7 33.3
Total 21 100.0

Table 1. Courses and teachers observed

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3.3. Instruments and analysis

In total, we observed 21 courses after obtaining each teacher’s permission. All the
observations were conducted in the least intrusive way. That is, the observer sat at
the back of the classroom and used a voice recorder to record the class with a self-
developed observation sheet (see Appendix 1). Interaction between teachers and
students in class was noted down by the observer. The main focus was on
scrutinising how much the target language was used in class by both teachers and
learners. The recordings were transcribed and the duration of English usage was
calculated. For analysis purposes, the duration was converted to a scale of 0 to 10
based on the length of the class based on percentages. For example, an ESP class
normally lasts for 100 minutes, so 55 to 64 minutes of English (55% to 64% of 100
minutes) use was recorded as 6. On the other hand, 60 minutes of English in a 150-
minute CLIL class was indicated as 4. Native English-speaking teachers were all
ranked as 10 since they only used English in class.
The same procedure was applied to gauge how much time was spent on the
teacher’s instruction of language or content, and on the learners’ use of English.
Due to the observer’s expertise in English language teaching, it was not difficult to
identify whether the teacher was teaching content or language. When the students
were given time to dominate, i.e. to read, discuss, present, or write in class, this
was counted as the students using English. In other words, in the present research,
listening to lectures or asking the teacher for clarification was not considered as
students using English productively, but rather the teacher using English. Question 51
items 1, 2, 3 and 7 in Appendix 1 were used to record the time spent by teachers
and learners in class.
Directly after the class observation, all of the teachers were individually
interviewed for about 15 to 20 minutes. This short interview focused on examining
to what extent they emphasised the learning of content or language in the course,
how much they tolerated the students’ use of their mother tongue in class, the ratio
of evaluating students’ content knowledge and language skills in their formal
assessment, and how much progress students had made in terms of target
language learning in the course. The interviewees were asked to rate their answers
to these six questions on a scale of 1 to 10 based on their perceptions as shown in
question items 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 on the observation sheet (see Appendix 1).
After collecting all the data from the teachers, their responses were analysed
quantitatively. Each teacher’s responses were marked on a numeric scale as shown
in Appendix 1. Then, besides the descriptive analysis, SPSS t-tests were performed
to study if different variables (i.e., course type, teacher’s first language and area of
expertise) resulted in any significant differences. Hence, the present study
combined both qualitative and quantitative methods, following a QUAL  QUAN
mixed model (Creswell, 2003). Following are the results and discussion of the
findings.

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4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Descriptive results of both ESP and CLIL courses

Table 2 displays the overall statistical results of the ten items (see Appendices 2.1
to 2.10 for the descriptive results of each question item). First of all, a majority of
teachers mainly used English to deliver the courses; in other words, students
taught in both types of course are exposed to English to a relatively high degree. It
is obvious that teachers would use English to teach ESP courses since they are
defined as language courses. However, English exposure may vary greatly across
different settings under the CLIL approach (Feng, 2010); according to these
results, Taiwanese CLIL learners have relatively high English exposure in class (see
Appendix 2.1), which may differ from other Chinese-speaking EFL contexts.
The results regarding how much time is allocated to training learners’
English skills in the two approaches are divided (see Appendix 2.2); those at the
high extreme are the ESP teachers who are expected to spend time training
learners’ language skills for specific purposes, while those at the lower end are
CLIL teachers. They focus much more on instructing content knowledge, while
spending less time catering to learners’ linguistic development in class, although
both language and content are claimed to be equally developed in CLIL courses.
Nevertheless, this does not necessarily mean that content knowledge is not valued
in ESP courses. On the contrary, content knowledge for specific disciplines or 52
purposes is emphasised by most teachers (see Appendix 2.3). ESP teachers tend to
combine language and content teaching with a more balanced time allocation,
while in CLIL classes English is mainly used to deliver content knowledge without
the explicit intention of integrating linguistic skills into content teaching. Thus,
English is more like a medium of instruction in Taiwanese CLIL classes rather than
a proficiency to be developed. These findings are in line with the results shown in
Appendix 2.4. In ESP courses, students are given many more chances to use
(mainly write, speak, and read) English. Following the principles of ELT
methodology, in particular the communicative approach, teachers are more willing
to allocate more time for students to practice English in class via different
communicative activities such as group discussion, presentation, or information
gap. Besides, it was also found that in the ESP courses, students are given chances
to use English after class, mainly when completing reading and writing
assignments, which was rarely found in the CLIL courses. In addition, most CLIL
courses are delivered in a lecture-based way, so it is uncommon to observe
students using English actively and productively in class. Yet, receptive skills such
as listening or vocabulary are able to be developed.

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MINIMUM MAX. VALUE MEAN STD. DEVIATION

1. Time of T* using
3.00 10.00 8.0476 2.01187
English
2. Time training S English 1.00 10.00 5.5238 2.69479
3. Time teaching content 3.00 10.00 7.4762 2.40040
4. Tolerance of S using MT 1.00 10.00 4.9048 3.11295
5. Emphasising accuracy
1.00 10.00 5.8095 2.37948
in S use of English
6. Emphasising S content
3.00 10.00 8.0476 2.15583
acquisition
7. S use of English 1.00 9.00 6.1429 2.41424
8. T assessing S English 3.00 10.00 5.9524 2.06098
9. T assessing S content 3.00 10.00 7.3333 2.22111
10. S progress in English 3.00 10.00 6.6190 2.06098
*T: Teacher; S: Student; MT: Mother tongue; items 1, 2, 3 and 7 relate to the time spent as recorded in the class observations
while the rest of the items relate to weighting the importance as recorded during the teacher interviews.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the questions (N=21)

The results of the short interviews with teachers conducted immediately after each
class observation are presented in Appendices 2.5 to 2.10. Teachers’ attitudes
towards learners’ use of their mother tongue in ESP or CLIL varied greatly. It was
found that it is not the teacher’s first language (i.e., Mandarin Chinese or English)
that decides their tolerance of students using their mother tongue but rather the 53
courses they teach. In ESP courses, teachers show relatively lower tolerance as
they argue that ESP is a language course and the main purpose is to use the target
language in class, while they have more tolerant attitudes towards using the
mother tongue in CLIL classrooms. The teachers argued that it might be too
demanding for learners to use English all the time in class and they would pay
more attention to their English instruction and learners’ content learning rather
than which language the learners use to access the content learning. Using their
mother tongue in CLIL classes is not strictly forbidden, but is in fact sometimes
even encouraged in order to facilitate content and language learning.
It is interesting to note that teachers do not overly emphasise the accuracy of
the target language use in either ESP or CLIL classes. Teachers of both courses
believe that fluency comes before accuracy. Yet, accuracy is still far more
frequently stressed in ESP than in CLIL courses. Comparatively, CLIL teachers
showed a more tolerant attitude towards learners’ linguistic output in terms of
erroneous production. However, they strongly emphasised the importance of
learning content knowledge, as did the ESP teachers. Both ESP and CLIL teachers
claimed that content knowledge plays a very important part in both types of
course. Surprisingly, ESP teachers in the present study seemed to pay more
attention to both language and content in their teaching, while the CLIL teachers
treated the two elements in a very unbalanced manner. Hence, ESP courses here

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have become more like real CLIL courses, while CLIL courses have become more
like English taught courses. This finding is very similar to what is happening in
European countries now; that is, CLIL is gradually replacing ESP courses (Arnó-
Macià & Mancho-Barés, 2015). In Taiwan, ESP courses are transforming into a CLIL
mode at present on the basis of what ESP teachers actually practice in class.
When it comes to assessment, both ESP and CLIL teachers expressed similar
opinions as above. ESP teachers more frequently assessed learners’ linguistic
performance since using the target language is the main aim of ESP courses. As for
the CLIL teachers, they showed less focus on assessing learners’ language
production. Some even remarked that they did not care much about whether
students’ language use was accurate or not in the course assessment; as long as
their answers are understandable, then they get points. Yet, over two-thirds of all
the teachers said they would assess learners’ content knowledge. Content
assessment has become essential in evaluating if students have learnt in either an
ESP or a CLIL course.
Finally, over two-thirds of the teachers believed that learners’ English
proficiency had improved due to the course. However, it is interesting to find that
nearly all of the CLIL teachers said that they sensed good progress in learners’
linguistic performance even though they did not emphasise production or assess
the students’ language achievements. They naturally assumed that the learners’
English would make progress in an all English-speaking environment, even if they
did not have explicit evidence to prove so. Differing from CLIL teachers, ESP
teachers who believed that students made progress can present solid evidence in
54
the form of the students’ test results. However, about one-third of the teachers said
that their students did not make obvious progress, all of whom were ESP teachers.
They showed a rather dubious attitude towards whether students can learn better
in ESP courses compared to the traditional four skills English courses. They also
expressed somewhat reluctant attitudes towards the trend of combining language
teaching with specific purposes; some of them argued that ESP courses are better
for those who have higher English proficiency, while for those with a lower level,
traditional language training courses are more urgently needed.
Another concern is that they felt that they had been forced to give up their
language professionalism to acquire additional content subjects to teach ESP
courses. This is rather different from their training as language teachers and why
they were employed by the University. It is likely that the University’s policy of
encouraging the use of English for instruction seems unfair to them. Content
teachers who are willing to teach CLIL courses are offered financial incentives, but
language teachers who use English to teach ESP courses do not enjoy the same
incentives. ESP teachers believed that ESP courses in the researched University are
not very different from CLIL courses in that they also have to cover content and
language teaching, which is very similar to what content teachers are doing in CLIL
courses.

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 ESP VS. CLIL: A COIN OF TWO SIDES OR A CONTINUUM OF TWO EXTREMES?

In short, in the present study, combining/integrating language and content

seems to be more common in ESP than in CLIL courses. In addition, different
factors, i.e. course type, teacher’s first language and area of expertise, led to some
significant differences in the responses to the researched questions. The following
sections present these variations in detail.

4.2. Differences by course type

Figure 1 presents the descriptive results comparing the ESP and CLIL courses. Five
question items were found to have significant differences between groups.
Compared to ESP courses, content learning is much more highlighted in CLIL
courses; hence, question 3 (instructing content knowledge, t=-4.561, <.005),
question 6 (emphasising the acquisition of content knowledge, t=-4.289, <.001),
and question 9 (assessing students’ content knowledge, t=-3.982, <.005) revealed
obvious variations between the two types of course. On the contrary, for students’
actual use of English in class (t=1.612, <.001) and progress in learners’ English
skills (t=.80, <.005), ESP courses scored significantly higher than CLIL courses.

55

Figure 1. Descriptive statistics by course group

These divergences between groups indicate that firstly, content learning is

overwhelmingly stressed in CLIL courses, which means that language learning
receives less attention, thus violating the dual-focus of the CLIL approach where both

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WENHSIEN YANG

language and content are supposed to be developed within one course

simultaneously. Furthermore, language skills are rarely assessed in CLIL classrooms,
which seems to indicate that language is not one of the teaching targets and teachers
may have no clear idea of how to assess learners’ language skills in CLIL courses. This
may be due to the fact that nearly all of the CLIL teachers in the researched context are
content teachers who may lack training in language assessment. However, students in
ESP courses have greater opportunities to use English in class. Accordingly, ESP
students are believed to make better progress in their English skills.
The above results raise several concerns about the current CLIL practices in
Taiwan. One major aim of establishing CLIL programmes by the Taiwanese
educational authorities is to develop students’ English proficiency via using the
target language while learning content knowledge. Yet, CLIL courses now seem to
have become immersion courses in which students are supposed to acquire the
target language ‘automatically’ when they are immersed in it. Actually, there seems
to be no environment for implementing English immersion programmes in Taiwan
since English is mainly used in the classroom at present. The major problem may be
that content teachers are not trained as CLIL teachers in Taiwan; thus, for them, CLIL
courses are merely content instruction in the target language. They seem to use
English just because they feel they have to. However, even if CLIL learners’ English
proficiency is not assessed in class, their command of English together with non-
linguistic effects such as mobility and employability do improve significantly
compared to non-CLIL students (English majors not included) (Yang, 2015a, 2015b).
Hence, it can be concluded that both ESP and CLIL can have a positive effect on
56
learners’ language performance, but to a varying extent. A comparison study of both
groups’ actual language proficiency may be desirable in the near future.

4.3. Differences by teacher’s first language

Figure 2 displays the differences in the descriptive results of the NES and NNES
teachers. In this factor, there is no statistical significance between the two groups,
although it should be noted that the numbers of NES and NNES are hugely
divergent, i.e. 3 vs. 18, which may have led to these results. This indicates that no
matter whether the target language is the teacher’s first language or instructional
language there should be no significant impact on how the ESP/CLIL course is
practiced in class. This finding is, however, very different from what learners have
been reported to perceive in previous studies (e.g., Yang & Gosling, 2013, 2014)
where they believe CLIL courses should be instructed by NES because NNES tend
to have difficulties using the target language to teach content knowledge; in
particular, their accent, fluency and accuracy are questioned. This makes the
learners insist that CLIL be instructed by native speakers in order to achieve its
utmost benefit, i.e. improving English skills. Hence, it is interesting to find that in
fact the expectations and perceptions of ESP/CLIL courses are not significantly

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 ESP VS. CLIL: A COIN OF TWO SIDES OR A CONTINUUM OF TWO EXTREMES?

diverse. This exhibits the fact that NNES teachers clearly understand the dual focus
of CLIL, but due to their limitations of English proficiency or lack of training in how
to teach CLIL courses, they focus on content instruction while ignoring the
development of the learners’ language skills in class. These results, again, evidence
the urgent need to provide CLIL teacher education in Taiwan.

57

Figure 2. Descriptive statistics by teacher’s native language

(NNES: Non-native English speaker; NES: Native English speaker)

Although no statistical difference was identified, there are still some subtle
but interesting differences between the NES and NNES teachers. For instance, the
NNES teachers demand higher English accuracy from students than their NES
counterparts do. It is assumed that this is based on their educational experience. At
the time these teachers were learning English in Taiwan, it was mainly in
preparation for tests, so accuracy was always the priority. This may have affected
their perceptions of how English should be used by their students today.
Another slight difference was how much NES and NNES teachers view the
progress of the learners’ English skills. NES teachers seemed to believe that their
students made better progress in English than the NNES teachers did. The reasons
may be that learners’ English is better trained and catered for by NES teachers as
they are all language teachers (and some teach both ESP and CLIL courses) and
clearly know ELT methodology to develop students’ English proficiency, which

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WENHSIEN YANG

would help increase learners’ English skills naturally. Another reason might be the
higher tolerance of NES teachers for learners’ linguistic errors. They may show
higher tolerance or appreciation of students’ language performance and
achievements than NNES teachers do, a phenomenon which has been extensively
documented (e.g., Sheorey, 1986; Shi, 2001). In other words, the results of this
section highlight several concerns regarding NNES teachers of ESP/CLIL courses,
in particular, the lack of preparation of CLIL teachers, the insufficient command of
or confidence in instructing courses via English, and the overemphasis on the
accuracy of learners’ language output.

4.4. Differences by teacher’s area of expertise

The final variable tested was teachers’ self-identification as a language or a content

teacher. Figure 3 shows the differences in the descriptive results of language and
content teachers. Significant differences were found in the responses to the four
question items: instructing content knowledge (t=-2.842, <.05), emphasising
acquisition of content knowledge (t=-.2.284, <.005), students’ actual use of English
in class (t=1.160, <.05), and teachers’ assessment of content knowledge (t=-2.199,
<.005). These significant items are very similar to the results in section 5.2.

58

Figure 3. Descriptive statistics for language teacher (Lang T) vs. content teacher (Cont T)

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 ESP VS. CLIL: A COIN OF TWO SIDES OR A CONTINUUM OF TWO EXTREMES?

The results indicate that there is a crystal-clear line between language and content
teachers. That is, once positioned as content teachers, they naturally place content
teaching as their top priority. This would not be a problem if content teachers
taught content courses via the learners’ mother tongue; however, the CLIL
approach involves not only content knowledge but also language development. It is
likely that CLIL courses are viewed simply as content courses instructed via the
target language. Thus, using the target language for content instruction is what
content teachers are chiefly concerned about rather than attending to the
development of the learners’ language skills. In other words, content teachers may
misplace the focus of CLIL courses, considering them as English taught courses.
This tendency might explain why English is less frequently used by learners in
CLIL classes. Content teachers overemphasise the instruction, learning and
assessment of the content knowledge, and pay much less attention to developing
the learners’ language skills.
However, an interesting point worth discussing is that content teachers
believe their students make better progress than language teachers do, although
the difference is not statistically significant. The reasons are unclear since content
teachers also reported that they seldom assess learners’ language skills in CLIL
courses. Hence, how they are convinced that CLIL learners make progress in
linguistic skills is not clear. They may assume that learners’ English develops
naturally in an English-instruction learning environment. On the contrary, language
teachers see less progress in ESP learners’ English performance even though they
believe that these students are provided with more opportunities to use the target
59
language. A likely reason may be that language teachers demand more progress
from learners in an ESP course so their higher expectations may lower their
judgement of learners’ actual progress in English. In short, due to the fact that most
CLIL courses are still taught by content teachers who are not well prepared to teach
CLIL courses, they exercise similar practices in teaching CLIL courses as they do
teaching content courses in Mandarin. The only difference is the language used for
instruction. Thus, the overemphasis on content knowledge and lack of focus on
linguistic skills form a peculiar CLIL mode in the Taiwanese context.

5. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1. Conclusion

The present research investigated the similarities and differences of two types of
course, namely, ESP and CLIL. In total, 10 ESP and 11 CLIL courses in one national
polytechnic university were observed, and follow-up interviews with the teachers
were also conducted. The results revealed that, in general, CLIL teachers spent
much more time on content teaching but unfortunately less on language teaching,

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WENHSIEN YANG

which makes them mainly assess learners’ content knowledge and not their
linguistic achievements. Contrarily, ESP teachers normally attend to learners’
language development as well as to their disciplinary knowledge. This divergence
affects the opportunities students are given to use the target language in class,
with ESP learners having more chances to use English than their counterparts do.
However, CLIL teachers show more positive attitudes towards learners’ linguistic
achievements than ESP teachers do. The descriptive results indicate that CLIL
courses in Taiwan are more like English taught courses, while ESP courses are
delivered using a CLIL-oriented approach.
The t-test results concluded that, firstly, content teaching greatly overrides
language teaching in CLIL courses, but both ESP and CLIL can have positive effects
on learners’ linguistic performance, although they vary to some extent. Secondly,
no significant difference was found for the variable of teacher’s first language,
suggesting that the teacher’s native language does not affect how ESP or CLIL
courses are presented. Yet, the findings also suggest the urgent need for CLIL
teacher education. Finally, teacher’s expertise in language or disciplinary subject
also significantly affected how ESP and CLIL courses were conducted. Language
teachers seemingly demand more in terms of learners’ linguistic production and
have lower satisfaction with their achievements; contrarily, subject teachers
overwhelmingly stress the instruction of disciplinary knowledge, and believe
learners made better progress on their language skills even if they did not assess
their linguistic production at all in class. It was found that for content teachers the
target language of CLIL courses, i.e. English, is more like a medium of teaching and
60
not an aim for students to achieve.

5.2. Suggestions for tertiary education providers

and course practitioners

It is suggested that universities which provide CLIL courses, in particular degree-

based programmes, offer supports to teachers, students and other stakeholders,
preparing them well for the new educational approach. In addition to the
incentives given to those teachers who would like to deliver CLIL courses, what
teachers particularly need is appropriate training to become qualified CLIL
teachers. Universities have to consider the possibilities of co-teaching between
language and content teachers in an ESP or a CLIL course, providing suitable CLIL
training including language teaching methodology and strategies of language
assessment, and also appraising CLIL and ESP teachers’ teaching performance in
class to offer timely support and advice.
In addition, supports are needed for learners as well. The CLIL learners in
many settings may come from a relatively less favourable background like the
students studying in polytechnic universities in Taiwan. Thus, to bridge this gap,
CLIL has to be implemented at an adjunct level (Räsänen, 2011) in the beginning

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 ESP VS. CLIL: A COIN OF TWO SIDES OR A CONTINUUM OF TWO EXTREMES?

whereby teachers create and promote more supporting and scaffolding activities
enabling learners to learn the content while also having the expected exposure to
the target language.
Also, communication with other stakeholders such as students’ parents, who
usually intervene in their children’s decision to choose an undergraduate degree or
programme, and the public is also needed in Taiwan. Similar communication has to
be made to the public. Universities have to clearly explain why more is spent on
CLIL programmes and students compared to others, and most importantly have to
address the concerns of why English is increasingly dominating other languages,
including the learners’ mother tongues, and why teaching CLIL has become
manifest in higher education. Several other Asian contexts such as Japan, the
Philippines, Malaysia and Hong Kong have already confronted such doubts when
implementing the CLIL approach, as argued by Yang (2015b).
Finally, teachers are the most influential factor deciding the success or failure
of an educational change. Traditionally, teachers defined themselves as language
teachers or content teachers, but their roles may be becoming increasingly blurred
as both ESP and CLIL courses grow in number. Thus, inevitably more teachers in
Taiwan are required to teach ESP or CLIL courses no matter which area of
expertise they may have. Arguably, being able to deliver a content course in
English or teach a language course with content knowledge, i.e. catering to the
focuses of content and language in a course, will soon become a university
teacher’s required skills. Therefore, it is advised that teachers adjust their beliefs
and attitudes towards their profession.
61
[Paper submitted 27 Jan 2016]
[Revised version received 28 Mar 2016]
[Revised version accepted for publication 4 Apr 2016]

Acknowledgements

The research was sponsored by the Research Institute for the Humanities and
Social Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan.

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WENHSIEN YANG

WENHSIEN YANG is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied English at

National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, Taiwan. His main
research and teaching interests include the areas of ESP, genre analysis, corpus
linguistics, second language writing and CLIL. His papers have appeared in
relevant academic journals, including English for Specific Purposes, Asian ESP
Journal, Taiwan International ESP Journal, ESP World, LSP Journal, International
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Appendices
Appendix 1. Observation sheet of language and content teaching in ESP and CLIL courses

□ ESP course □ CLIL course

□ Taiwanese teacher □ Native English-speaking teacher
□ Language teacher □ Content teacher
Course title:____________________________________________________________________

Please identify the rating of each observed question and circle the number where 1 point = 10% of the total class
time (10: the highest rating)
1. Time spent using English to instruct the course
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
2. Time spent training students’ English skills in the course
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 64
3. Time spent instructing content knowledge in the course
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4. Degree of tolerating students’ use of their mother tongue in class
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5. Degree of emphasising the accuracy of students’ English use in class
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
6. Degree of emphasising the acquisition of content knowledge in class
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
7. Actual use of English by students in class
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
8. Assessment of students’ language abilities
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
9. Assessment of students’ content knowledge
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
10. The degree of students’ progress in English in the course
|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|--------|--------|---------|---------|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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 ESP VS. CLIL: A COIN OF TWO SIDES OR A CONTINUUM OF TWO EXTREMES?

Appendix 2. (Note: Appendix number does not correspond to the question order in Appendix 1)

Appendix 2.1. English usage in course instruction

Frequency Per cent
Valid 3.00 2 9.5
6.00 1 4.8
7.00 2 9.5
8.00 6 28.6
9.00 5 23.8
10.00 5 23.8
Total 21 100.0

Appendix 2.2. Training of students’ English skills

Frequency Per cent
Valid 1.00 1 4.8
2.00 2 9.5
3.00 5 23.8
5.00 1 4.8
6.00 2 9.5
7.00 5 23.8
8.00 2 9.5
9.00 2 9.5 65
10.00 1 4.8
Total 21 100.0

Appendix 2.3. Instructing content knowledge

Frequency Per cent
Valid 3.00 2 9.5
4.00 2 9.5
5.00 1 4.8
6.00 1 4.8
7.00 3 14.3
8.00 1 4.8
9.00 7 33.3
10.00 4 19.0
Total 21 100.0

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WENHSIEN YANG

Appendix 2.4. Students’ English use

Frequency Per cent
Valid 1.00 1 4.8
2.00 2 9.5
3.00 1 4.8
4.00 1 4.8
5.00 2 9.5
7.00 7 33.3
8.00 5 23.8
9.00 2 9.5
Total 21 100.0

Appendix 2.5. Toleration of students’ use of their mother tongue in class

Frequency Per cent
Valid 1.00 4 19.0
2.00 2 9.5
3.00 3 14.3
4.00 2 9.5
6.00 2 9.5
7.00 3 14.3
8.00 2 9.5
9.00 1 4.8
10.00 66
2 9.5
Total 21 100.0

Appendix 2.6. Emphasis on the accuracy of students’ English use in class

Frequency Per cent
Valid 1.00 1 4.8
3.00 3 14.3
4.00 1 4.8
5.00 6 28.6
6.00 2 9.5
7.00 3 14.3
8.00 2 9.5
9.00 1 4.8
10.00 2 9.5
Total 21 100.0

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 ESP VS. CLIL: A COIN OF TWO SIDES OR A CONTINUUM OF TWO EXTREMES?

Appendix 2.7. Emphasis on the acquisition of content knowledge in class

Frequency Per cent
Valid 3.00 1 4.8
4.00 1 4.8
5.00 2 9.5
6.00 1 4.8
8.00 4 19.0
9.00 6 28.6
10.00 6 28.6
Total 21 100.0

Appendix 2.8. Assessment of students’ language abilities

Frequency Per cent
Valid 3.00 4 19.0
4.00 1 4.8
5.00 4 19.0
6.00 3 14.3
7.00 4 19.0
8.00 3 14.3
9.00 1 4.8
10.00 1 4.8
Total 21 100.0
67

Appendix 2.9. Assessment of students’ content knowledge

Frequency Per cent
Valid 3.00 2 9.5
4.00 1 4.8
5.00 3 14.3
7.00 1 4.8
8.00 6 28.6
9.00 6 28.6
10.00 2 9.5
Total 21 100.0

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WENHSIEN YANG

Appendix 2.10. Students’ English language progress

Frequency Per cent
Valid 3.00 3 14.3
5.00 3 14.3
6.00 3 14.3
7.00 4 19.0
8.00 4 19.0
9.00 3 14.3
10.00 1 4.8
Total 21 100.0

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