CLIL

1. CLIL Content and language Integrated Learning

2. CLIL - Classroom principles • Language is used to learn as well as to communicate • It is the subject matter which determines the language needed to learn

3. CLIL • Subject – in simple, easily comprehensible ways, using diagrams, illustrations, graphs, practice and highlighting terms. • Language – subject based vocabulary, texts and discussion.

4. WHY? • The ability to use a language is much more than knowing its words and grammar, and speaking in perfectly formed sentences. • Language learning is surrounded by myths. • We could usefully re-consider some of these beliefs and views.

5. Main aims • Acquire knowledge using target language • Acquire necessary skills in the target language • Acquire necessary skills in the mother tongue • Understand and value both cultures • Develop cognitive and social skills

6. A successful CLIL lesson should combine elements of the following: • Content - Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to specific elements of a defined curriculum • Communication - Using language to learn whilst learning to use language

7. A successful CLIL lesson should combine elements of the following: • Cognition - Developing thinking skills which link concept formation (abstract and concrete), understanding and language • Culture - Exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings, which deepen awareness of otherness and self.

8. Can do • In CLIL, we provide a situation in which the attention of the child is on a form of learning activity which is not the language itself. • It can be very successful in enhancing the learning of languages and subjects, and developing in the youngsters a positive ‘can do’ attitude towards themselves as language learners.

9. Outcome • The language classroom is essential for the learner to understand the ‘nuts and bolts’ of language – the architectural plans. • Learners need time to build things with the ‘nuts and bolts’ – to build the house which they see in theory on paper.

10. CLIL - methods • Can learn to play football or the piano without kicking a ball or touching the keys? • Kids learn mother tongue using the resources surrounding them (deaf children in Nicaragua, reading the lips, sign language)

11. CLIL - methods • Changing the perspective (Robin William, Dead Poets’ Society) • Talk and discuss, write and express, explore and share • Support – mind maps, word clouds, graphs

12. CLIL - obstacles • New concepts always difficult to accept • Lack of qualified teachers • Heavy load and shortage of materials • Lack of support

13. CLIL - best practices • Subject or language teacher? • Groups or whole class? • Materials? • Benefits and prospects for the future NB! the learning of language and subjects is mixed: there are two main aims, one related to the subject, topic, or theme, and one linked to the language

14. CLIL model

15. CLIL – main aspects • Multiple focus – integration of subject and language teching, blending subjects and topics, out-of-class projects, analysis • Learning environment – typical tasks, lots of aids, overcoming fear, authentic materials

16. CLIL – main aspects • Authenticity – student is the speaker, topics related to their needs, everyday life and interest; contacts with target language users; use of authentic materials • Active learning – students talk more, help to rephrase the outcomes, assess progress, co-operate, discuss. Teacher is a guide and provider.

17. CLIL – main aspects • Support structure – learning is based on prior knowledge, skills, attitudes, interests and experience; information is provided in student-friendly forms paying attention to different learning styles; critical and creative thinking is supported; new challenging tasks

18. CLIL – main aspects • Co-operation – courses / classes / topics are planned in co-operation with subject and language teachers; parents are informed and invited to support students; learning reaches outside the common classroom

19. How – a dozen ways • Language camps • Student exchange • Project work • Language practice abroad • Immersion (keelekümblus) • Language showers • One or several subjects • CLIL modules

20. In a CLIL lesson, all language skills should be combined and seen as: • Listening is a normal input activity, vital for language learning • Reading, using meaningful material, is the major source of input • Speaking focuses on fluency. Accuracy is seen as subordinate • Writing is a series of lexical activities through which grammar is recycled.

21. CLIL lessons exhibit the following characteristics: • Integrate language and skills, and receptive and productive skills • Lessons are often based on reading or listening texts / passages • The language focus in a lesson does not consider structural grading

22. CLIL lessons exhibit the following characteristics: • Language is functional and dictated by the context of the subject • Language is approached lexically rather than grammatically • Learner styles are taken into account in task types.

23. How to begin • Lesson framework • A CLIL lesson looks at content and language in equal measure, and often follows a four-stage framework.

24. Processing the text • The best texts are those accompanied by illustrations. • When working in a foreign language, learners need structural markers in texts to help them find their way through the content. • Once a 'core knowledge' has been identified, the organisation of the text can be analysed.

25. Identification and organisation of knowledge • Texts are often represented diagrammatically. • Diagram types include tree diagrams for classification, groups, hierarchies, flow diagrams and timelines for sequenced thinking such as instructions and historical information, tabular diagrams describing people and places, and combinations of these.

26. Language identification • Learners are expected to be able to reproduce the core of the text in their own words. • There is no grading of language • Highlight useful language in the text and categorise it according to function. • Pay attention to collocations, semi-fixed expressions, set phrases and subject-specific and academic vocabulary.

27. Tasks for students • There is little difference in task-type between a CLIL lesson and a skills-based ELT lesson. A variety of tasks should be provided, taking into account the learning purpose and learner styles and preferences • Tasks designed for production need to be subject-orientated, so that both content and language are recycled.

28. Typical listening activities include: • Listen and label a diagram / picture / map / graph / chart • Listen and fill in a table • Listen and make notes on specific information (dates, figures, times) • Listen and reorder information • Listen and identify location / speakers • Listen and label the stages of a process / instructions / sequences Listen and fill in the gaps in a text

29. Typical speaking activities include: • Question loops - questions and answers, terms and definitions, halves of sentences • Information gap activities with a question sheet to support • Trivia search - 'things you know' and 'things you want to know'

30. Typical speaking activities include: • Word guessing games • Class surveys using questionnaires • 20 Questions - provide language support frame for questions • Students present information from a visual using a language support handout.

31. Planning CLIL lessons • Teaching a subject in the first language of your learners there are at least two things which you can count on: basic language ability and academic language proficiency. • Learners in CLIL programmesarelearning basic language skills, academic language skills and new subject concepts all at the same time.

32. Planning CLIL lessons • To overcome the language barrier, CLIL teachers need to plan their lessons to include language support as well as content teaching.

33. Difficulties Learners have to be able to: • listen to and understand teachers talking about subjects – can they do that? • talk about subjects themselves – to each other in groups and to the teacher in the plenary classroom– can they do that? • read subject textbooks, and write about subjects – can they do that?

34. Language problems • The language is likely to be an issue at either the word or text level (grammar is less of an obstacle to listening or reading).

35. Support strategies for listening • To help learners listen, subject teachers highlight or explicitly teach vocabulary. At the text level they help learners to follow them by using visuals and by adjusting their talking style: they enumerate points, give examples, explain, summarise, more then they would in L1.

36. Support strategies for speaking • To help students talk in the plenary classroom, teachers adjust their questions (asking, perhaps, some cognitively demanding but short answer questions); they prompt (for example they start learners’ responses for them); they provide vocabulary, they may allow some L1 responses.

37. Support strategies for speaking • To help them talk in groups, they provide support at the word level by listing key words to use; to help with making sentences they can offer supportive task types such as talking frames, sentence starters or substitution tables; or they ask students to use their L1 when discussing but their L2 when reporting.

38. Support strategies for reading • To help students with reading teachers may check that students understand key vocabulary before they read; they may provide them with pre-reading questions to reduce the reading demands of the text; or they may offer help at the text level by giving reading support tasks, such as a chart to fill in, a diagram to label, etc.

39. Support strategies for writing • To students with writing, teachers can offer support at all three levels by providing a vocabulary list, sentence starters, or a writing frame. They can also ensure that the learners talk through their writing at the word, sentence and text level, with each other, probably in L1, before they write.

40. Conclusion From a language point of view the CLIL 'approach' contains nothing new to the EL teacher. CLIL aims to guide language processing and 'support language production in the same way as ELT by teaching strategies for reading and listening and structures and lexis for spoken or written language.

41. Conclusion What is different is that the language teacher is also the subject teacher, or that the subject teacher is also able to exploit opportunities for developing language skills. This is the essence of the CLIL teacher training issue.

42. Sources: • Uncovering CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning in Bilingual and Multilingual Education by Peeter Mehisto, Maria J. F. Martin, David Marsh • CLIL: A lesson framework by Steve Darn, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey • Further reading: CLIL by D. Coyle, P. Hood, D. Marsh (Cambridge)