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.