CLIL in Mathematics:

An experiment in developing mathematical literacy in secondary education in Turkey

Abstract

As reported by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a mathematically literate student can recognise the role that mathematics plays in making well-founded judgments and decisions needed by constructive, engaged and reflective citizens. This case study aims to elucidate the steps that can be followed to develop mathematics literacy for bilingual education in Turkey which contributes to the COST Action CA21114-CLIL Network for Languages in Education: Towards bi- and multilingual disciplinary literacies (CLILNetLE), and discussions on how to integrate CLIL in mathematics education worldwide. In this study, ten mathematics questions in both English and Turkish were prepared by a mathematics teacher for 11th and 12thgrade students (n=38) whose native language was Turkish in a state secondary school. There were target words in mathematics questions in English that were identified through a needs analysis conducted on students, such as tangent, circular, exponential, pendulum, stationary and constant, which students reported as unknown English words and had to know in order to understand the questions in mathematics. Feedback was collected from experts in CLIL and students of CLIL application in mathematics. Sample data are provided, accompanied by photos to show how CLIL can be utilized to teach mathematics.