The integration of content and language in students’ task answer production in the bilingual classroom

The notion of content and language integration has recently become a key topic of inquiry in research on content and language integrated learning and other kinds of bilingual educational programmes. Understanding what integration is and how it happens is of fundamental importance not only for researchers interested in gauging the possibilities and limitations of bilingual programmes, but also for practitioners seeking optimal ways to support student development. This study investigates integration as it takes place in the context of collaborative writing in the classroom. Drawing on conversation analytic methodology, text production is investigated as a social and sequentially evolving phenomenon. The analysis focuses on interactional sequences through which secondary school students produce and revise written task answer formulations. Sequential analyses of selected interactions describe the interactional organisation of the focal practice and show how, in their negotiation about what and how to write, students integrate content and language in everyday school work. It is argued that an investigation of what is at stake to students when they produce texts can shed light on their practical orientations to content and language integration. Based on such perspectives, integration appears a more complex phenomenon than the interface of form and meaning.