Cognitive Discourse Functions meet historical competences

Abstract

This paper combines the perspectives of applied linguistics and history education in order to explore the viability of a genuinely non-binary pedagogy for content and language integration. Cognitive Discourse Functions (CDFs) are mapped against the model of historical competences underlying the current Austrian secondary history curriculum. The theoretical analysis shows the performance of CDFs as central to the constitution of historical competences. For the empirical part of the study, two complete didactic units on the topic of the Industrial Revolution were recorded, and oral and written utterances by students were analysed both in terms of CDF use and historical competences. The results confirm a significant connection between competences and CDFs. We argue that some explicit attention to CDFs and the linguistic resources necessary for their competent verbalization could significantly enhance the subject literacy level of Austrian CLIL history learners in both oral and written production.