PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE AND ECONOMICS: BUILDING CROSS-DISCIPLINARY COMPETENCE FOR 21ST-CENTURY LEARNERS

Abstract

The integration of language and economics education represents a promising pedagogical strategy for developing cross-disciplinary competence among 21st-century learners, particularly in linguistically diverse contexts like Nigeria. This study examined the effectiveness of integrated language-economics pedagogy on students’ economic literacy, language application skills, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities. Two hundred senior secondary school students (SS2) from public schools participated in the study. Participants were assigned to either an experimental group (n = 100) that received 12 weeks of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) or a control group (n = 100) that followed conventional separate-subject instruction. Results indicated statistically significant gains in the experimental group, with post-test mean scores rising from 52.4 (SD = 8.7) to 78.6 (SD = 7.2), compared to a modest increase in the control group from 51.8 (SD = 9.1) to 58.3 (SD = 8.5). The between-group difference was highly significant, t(198) = 9.87, p < .001, with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.40). Qualitative reflections further revealed enhanced student confidence in articulating economic ideas and applying knowledge to real-world scenarios. Findings demonstrate that deliberate integration of language and economics instruction substantially strengthens cross-disciplinary competence. The study recommends curriculum reforms and teacher training programs that embed interdisciplinary approaches to better prepare Nigerian learners for the demands of the global economy.