READING 7: CLIL and Foreign Language Learning

READING 7: CLIL and Foreign Language Learning

by Yolanda Ruiz

CLIL has a very important relevance in Europe, where it is being used in many schools as a source to create a multilingual population.  CLIL has the common goal in everywhere it is used and it is seen as a flexible system which can be adapted to children necessities. Besides, CLIL develops the communicative competence by using the language to study a content-based subject.

However, CLIL has some negatives point, like the lack of formation of the teachers, who are in most cases not able to develop a subject through a foreign language. Despite of that, these ones who teach though CLIL programmes obtains better results than these ones who teach English as a foreign language.

In Spain CLIL programmes have been increasing since it could help students to use the language in a meaningful way so it would be easier to learn.

We can consult a research that compare the linguistic competence of students that use CLIL programmes with the linguistic competence of these ones who don't use them. Three groups of different school students were evaluated of five categories: Pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, fluency and content.

The results show that CLIL students have better speech productions than these ones who don't participate in CLIL programmes. So Content and Language integrated learning could help students to develop their communicative competence and to be effective in their communicative situations. 

READING 6: Integrate content into primary language learning

READING 6: Integrate content into primary language learning

By Carol Read

Recently schools which use CLIL programmes have increased a lot. Remember that CLIL is teach a subject through another language, in this way, there are objectives which relate the subject and the language. In fact, we should think about the subjects as a vehicle for developing language.

It is important to plan engaging activities that can motivate student to learn. We have to choose carefully which areas of the curriculum are we going to teach. If we create enjoyable activities children will be encouraged to use the language as a tool to do things which are relevant for them.

In order to plan good lessons we should take into account that the activities developed in the lesson need to have a logical sequence and have to be linked between them. These activities will help students to learn in a challenging way.

It is important to organize activities in this points to link them in a good way:

-          - Concepts

-        -   Cognitive demands and thinking skills

-         -  Language demands and skills

-          - Other learning skills and strategies

-          -  Attitudes

It would be also useful to use this learning sequence:

Things I already know about the contentà what I’m going to doà How I’m going to do ità Doing the activityà Talking about what I’ve doneà Evaluating what I have done

Benefits of content-based learning

- Some benefits of content-based learning are:

-          - More interesting lessons

-        -   Increased motivation

-         -  Language is used with a concrete purpose

-         -  Children use different combinations of intelligences

-         -  It encourages children to work more independently

Reflections

- We have to analyze and plan each content-based activity in terms of:

-          - Curriculum links

-         -  Cognitive demands

-          - Language demands

-          - Interest

-          - Learning sequence

-         -  Aims and outcomes

-        -   Classroom communication 

READING 5: Managing CLIL Programming

READING 5: Managing CLIL Programming

By Peeter Mehisto

It is not easy to develop correctly a CLIL unit. Because of that we have to be open minded and take profit of all the materials that schools’ can offer.

Planning a CLIL unit means to have a big amount of changes during the year, not only the teacher has to change, but also the whole school. Moreover, it is important to have a good knowledge about CLIL and to exchange information with other schools which use this methodology.

Some parents and people involved are worried about the consequences that could have CLIL methodology. But it’s important to emphasize that CLIL will not affect the mother tongue of CLIL students and also that CLIL students achieve the same objectives as this ones who learn in their mother tongue. Besides, thanks to scaffolding, all students can achieve the goals, not only gifted students.

Before starting a CLIL programme it is important to ensure that there are enough students, there is enough space, classrooms are large enough, there are enough qualified teachers and a pool of qualified potential CLIL teachers.

Moreover, school needs to be prepared for receiving many visitors, sharing the experience, releasing teachers for professional development, helping parents and students to develop realistic expectation, ensuring that strategies are in place to support students in difficulty and purchasing new learning materials.

There are 4 methods for admitting students to a CLIL programme: first come, first served; a lottery; choosing students with the highest grades; and testing. The most used is first come, first served because it is less elitist. Schools usually offer some presentations for parents and students in order to allow them to know what their children will do in this programme.

When the CLIL programme starts it is important to maintain the school as a whole and not to create a two-schools-in-one phenomenon. What it means is that CLIL has to be integrated in the school. Because of that CLIL programme and non CLIL programme should be represented equally in all the events related to the school.

Finally it is important that the teachers have some skills, like having a good command of the CLIL language, having subject area qualifications and being flexible, hardworking and a team player. Because of that schools should sign up teachers who are aware of how to develop CLIL methodology. 

READING 4: Planning CLIL lessons

READING 4:  Planning CLIL lessons

By John Clegg

The first important point is that language support is need as well as content teaching on CLIL. When you are teaching a subject in a first language you can count on two things:

a.       Basic language ability: Students have good skills in listening, reading, writing and speaking in their first language. Teaching in a second language (L2) is different, students don’t have the previous fluency with language. They are not fluent, so they need scaffolding, teachers’ help.

b.      Academic language proficiency: Students have cognitive academic language proficiency although it is not always true. Students don’t use to take notes when they are reading or listening, which is very helpful to develop academic skills. Students also need scaffolding to develop this ability.

Learning in L2 can be stressful for students because they are still learning the L2 basics skills and it is difficult for them to use this skills in other subjects. Students learning in L2 are developing their social language skills, so it is hard to manage in other situations.

Because of that, what students need is some support for learning, scaffolding. Teacher has to teach in a different way and should motivate students to learn the subject. So it’s important to use some strategies which are:

•           Recognizing language problems
•           Helping learners by providing support.

Students will have problems with their basic skills learning in L2, so teacher have to predict which problems the students could have.

Teachers’ and student’s skills will be improving gradually while they are practicing CLIL and teachers will have new strategies to provide support for their students.

Strategies samples:

1.       Listening: Use visuals and adapt talking styles. As well as enumerate points, give examples, explain, summarise more than they would in L1.

2.       Speaking: Adjust questions, provide vocabulary, listing key words, sentence starters, tables…

3.       Reading: Check that they understand key vocabulary, provide them with pre-reading questions, and give them a chart to fill.

4.       Writing: Vocabulary list, sentence starters or writing frame.

To sum up, lesson planning in CLIL requires teachers to anticipate language problems and help learners solve them.

READING 3: Integrating Art into teaching english at a primary Level: A case study

READING 3: Integrating Art into teaching english at a primary Level: A case study

By Zuzana Straková

CLIL brings meaningfulness into foreign language teaching. Because of that it would be a good idea to teach art through another language since this subjects give us the opportunity of use the language in a free way. 

CLIL started at 1990 approximately. It have two ways of act: It can weave into the content subject with the focus on learning and language skills or vice versa through the foreign language lessons focusing on the content areas as well as learning skills. The ideal situation is a teacher who can develop a content at the same time that teach a language. The most common situation is a teamwork of content and language teachers.

The most important focus in creating a supportive CLIL environment (Mehisto):

•         Grade-appropriate levels of academic achievement.

•           Grade-appropriate functional proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

•       Age appropriate levels of first language competence in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

•       An understanding and appreciation of the cultures associated with the CLIL language and the student’s first language.

•         The cognitive and social skills and habits required for success in an ever-changing world.

It emerges a worry about the students’ understanding.  One of the most significant methodological issues in language teaching is the issue whether we learn language in order to use it or whether we learn a language through using it. 

Teaching art with CLIL offers the possibility of using the language in a freeway. New technologies are very useful for teaching arts. The CLIL unit was organized in lead-in lesson, the theme lesson and the feedback lesson.

We have to provide learners with meaningful tasks and they will try to use the language to create meaningful messages. Thanks to scaffolding the language level does not limit activity of the learners and CLIL activities can be used even with lower proficiency levels. 

In my view, teaching content through another language can help the students to learn a lot about the content and also about the language. Because of that I believe that it is perfect to teach art through CLIL as it is a free subject that allow students to show their feelings and also to express themselves in a free way. 

Reading 2: Exploring CLIL

Reading 2: Exploring CLIL

by Peeter Mehisto

Nowadays language and cross-cultural communication skills are considered basic skills which are a necessity in our lifestyle. CLIL can help us to develop our students cultural skills and because of that we should help them to learn the language through CLIL, since it is a very efficient methodology. 

CLIL is a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language. CLIL programmes help student to achieve grade-appropriate levels of subjects taught through CLIL and of the CLIL language. Besides them help students to appreciate other cultures and to acquire cognitive and social skills required for success in an ever-changing word.

The learning in CLIL is scaffolded which mean that language and content are presented in manageable chunks, one step at a time, to make sure that students understand and apply new knowledge and skills.  Besides, the language has a gradual progress, first with visuals and gestures and then including new words and expressions. It is not recommended to do translation due to it can eliminate the need for learning CLIL language.

Integration and cooperation is the CLIL's spirit. Work in group in order to get the proposed objectives.  Teachers shouldn't be expected to do it all.

CLIL programmes cater all students because language and cross-cultural skills are needed by all. They do not just belong to a select few.

CLIL is respectful of other languages. First language is not influenced by the second one. In fact the first language skills of CLIL students can even be better the skills of others that not use CLIL in their learning process.

CLIL doesn't affect negatively to the content learning, but CLIL students can lag behind their mates in non-CLIL programmes when they start learning through a second language. Despite of that the lag is temporary.

CLIL allow teachers to be creative as it is not an inflexible methodology. It is important that time is used efficiently.

Some ways of supporting language development: word walls, peer self-repair, brainstorming language...

I have never been involved in real CLIL lessons but I believe that it is a big challenge to achieve the aim of allow the students to learn a content through another language which is not their L1. I think that they will need a lot of help but because of that they need the teacher to scaffold their process. 

READING 1: Traditional ELT Versus CLIL: Mind the Gap

READING 1: Traditional ELT Versus CLIL: Mind the Gap

by Salvador Rodríguez Almendros

A CLIL pedagogy is need to improve our students skills in the English language. It is not enought with the 3p's methodology, so we have to practise in order to allow a good CLIL methodology in our classrooms.

Some important point in the article are the following ones:

PEDAGOGY: Systematized learning or instruction concerning principles and methods of teaching.

CLIL: Any activity in which a foreign language is used as a tool in the learning of a non-language subject in which both language and the subject have a joint role. It moves away from the traditional way of teaching. Emphasis is placed on content with its owns linguistic demands, no longer necessary to use controlled input and practice.

"Integration is a powerful pedagogic tool which aims to safeguard the subject being taught whilst promoting language as a medium for learning as well as an objective of the learning process itself" (Coyle, 2002 in Coyle, 2007).

CLIL is mainly focused on fluency rather than accuracy, since teachers provide students with language but they have freedom to make up their own productions spontaneously.

PPP model: Presentation - Practice - Production.

The 4Cs conceptual framework and the linguistic approach

There are four guiding principles strictly linked to the 4Cs upon which CLIL programs can be designed:

·         Content: Meaning progression in acquiring knowledge, skills and understanding.

·         Communication: Meaning involving learners in language use. It has to be efficient for the students to be able to use the language and to use the language to learn.

·         Cognition: Meaning engagement between thinking and understanding.

·         Culture: Meaning to fain self and other awareness.

Content, Communication, Cognition and Culture are integrated as a whole and this is why coherence is implied in the knowledge building process taking place.

Get communication beyond the grammatical system:

·         The language of learning: The language needed to access the basic concepts and skills relating to the subject theme: Key vocabulary and key phrases.

·         The language for learning: The language your pupils will need to carry out the tasks you set: communication structures.

·         The language through learning: language that cannot be controlled or predicted.

The Matrix tools and Bloom's Taxonomy

CLIL matrix means that it is important to make content access through a lower linguistic level gradually working towards highest linguistic demands. Cognitive demanding tasks will have to be designed to promote the development of thinking skills.

It's important that Content, communication and cognition set the environment where CLIL takes place and culture shows intercultural understanding and provides stability.

The fact of contextualizing learning helps learners to use abilities knowledge and skills from other disciplines, that is to say, to use all channels of learning and not just the linguistic one.

Important aspects to take into account in learning process:

·         Zone of proximal development and scaffolding

·         Social learning

·         Language

·         Culture

Scaffolding in CLIL

Scaffolding illustrates the support that teachers give to learners trying to help them with their learning.

·         Theoretical Background: It is with proper scaffolding and expert guidance that an individual learner can be moved forward to become self-independent. Teacher has to present the content in an accurate way in order to adjust it to the student's level of understanding. It's important to move task responsibility from the tutor to the learner (tutor modifies the task until the pupil can manage it).

·         Scaffolding on CLIL: Language and content need to be explicitly and deliberately scaffolded and supported.


In my view, CLIL is a new methodology which we have to learn how to use it. I believe that using CLIL in primary education lessons could be very positive for the students if we manage the lesson correctly, with the appropriate scaffolding and also planning funny and engaging activities which allow the students to use the language in a communicative way. I will be prepared to use CLIL in the future since I think that it is a great tool to improve our students knowledge of the language.