CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning. In other words, the students study content (geography, physics, music, maths, etc.) through and with a second language, and they study language through and with the content. Although both language and content are important in CLIL, we organise lessons on the basis of content. However, CLIL is successful when the content and the language are closely connected.
CLIL is different from general English teaching, because students use language to learn rather than learning language to use later. Language serves to communicate meaning. All aspects of language help communicate meaning, e.g. skills, discourse, lexis, grammar, functions. Language is learnt mainly through acquisition and through using it. The view of language learning in CLIL methodology is that language is learnt best when you use language to learn something else.
CLIL focuses on four special areas: CONTENT (the subject itself), COMMUNICATION (using language effectively), COGNITION (thinking skills – how we learn), and CULTURE (understanding our own culture and its relationship to other cultures).
There isn’t a lot of difference between good general language teaching and the teaching techniques which are necessary for successful CLIL lessons. In CLIL classrooms the syllabus is based round learning about the subject matter and cognitive (thinking and learning) skills related to a school subject, e.g. maths, history, art. The school subject is taught in the L2, sometimes L3/L4. The specific kinds of language learnt are the language needed for learning about the subject. In CLIL approach the lessons focus on the subject rather than on language.
CLIL experts say that teachers should stress social interaction in the classroom: between teacher and students, and between students and students. In CLIL lessons, the students should collaborate with each other, often working in pairs and groups to solve problems, do research or report back on what they have found out. CLIL teachers try to support their students by scaffolding their learning, getting the students to experience things in stages to help them understand. In CLIL lessons, the students are asked to use metacognitive skills (to think about how they learn) and to think creatively.
The language of CLIL
Students need various different kinds of language to study a CLIL subject. Teachers need to be able to identify what these language types and items are when they are planning CLIL activities and lessons. When students are learning in the CLIL language, they will need content-obligatory language. This consists of words, structures and functions which are essential for the particular topic they are studying. In general English language learning we often decide to teach more frequent vocabulary items first, but in a CLIL lesson the topic will help us to decide what words to teach even if they are not very frequent for other situations. For example, if students are learning about elephants, they will need specific vocabulary, such as African elephant, Asian elephant, poacher, ivory, trunk, tusk, etc.
CLIL students will also need content-compatible language, the everyday kind of language which is useful both for the study of a specific topic and also for general language use. When the students are learning about orchestral instruments and procedures they will use verbs such as blow, hit, play, start, stop, sit, etc. all of which are also used in everyday situations.
Grammar and CLIL
Students need to be able to use appropriate grammar structures in the CLIL language:
• students can use the present continuous to talk about something happening now:
I am exposing the phosphorus to the air. – chemistry
The water is getting warmer. – physics
• the present simple can be used to talk about processes and general truths:
A viola has four strings. – music
Orangutangs live in the tropical rainforests. – geography
• we use passive constructions to talk about processes and events when we wants to stress the action and the result:
Atahualpa was executed by the Spanish conquistadores in 1533. – history
The cocoa beans are dried in the sun. – science
• past tenses can be used to talk about historical events or to describe what happened in the classroom:
Benito Juarez lived from 1806 until 1872. – history
While Hiromi was preparing the experiment, Keiko was reporting on her actions. – science
• modal auxiliary verbs are used to express concepts such as certainty, possibility, obligation:
Conditions below decks on the ship ‘La Amistad’ must have been terrible. – history
The potatoes can be boiled or roasted. – domestic science
• conditional sentences are used for expressing a general rule, prediction or hypotheticality:
If you multiply four by seven, you get twenty-eight. – mathematics
If Archduke Ferdinand had not been assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914, Europe might not have gone to war. – history
Planning CLIL lessons
As with all lesson planning, we need to consider the learning outcomes of any lesson we are going to teach. We want to know what our students will know or be able to do better at the end of the lesson than they knew or were able to do at the beginning. When we plan CLIL lessons, we need to balance the demands of the 4Cs: CONTENT, COMMUNICATION, COGNITION AND CULTURE. If the level of cognition (the amount of thinking that the students have to do) is high, we may want to make sure that we don’t ask too much of them in terms of their communication skills, because we don’t want to make things too difficult for them. If our lesson has a lot of new content for the students to absorb, then we try not to make them work too hard on the other three Cs. In successful CLIL lessons, the students should be encouraged to think about the content they are learning – and about learning in general.
First of all, we need to decide what the CONTENT of our lesson is. Content means things such as geometrical shapes (mathematics), different kinds of musical instruments (music), a historical event (history), the cultivation of maize (geography) or what objects are magnetic (science). Then, we need to decide on our learning aims for the students. We may want to divide our learning outcomes into three sections: what the students will know at the end of the lessson, what the students will be able to do at the end of the lesson, and what they will be aware of at the end of the lesson. Also, we will want to plan what VOCABULARY, GRAMMAR STRUCTURES or LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS the students will need to use in the lesson. We will think of the LANGUAGE EXPONENTS that the students will want to use. It is important to be aware of the COGNITIVE SKILLS that the students are expected to display and we have to decide what CULTURAL ELEMENTS we will include in the lesson. We might refer to other cultures and worlds, or to the student’s own world.
We need to think of what CLASSROOM RESOURCES our lesson needs. For example, we might need paints, large sheets of paper and tape if our lesson is art-based. On the other hand, we will need computers and internet access if the students are going to be using a LEARNING PLATFORM.
One of the main teachers role in the CLIL classroom is to help the sudents learn the language that applies to the CONTENT they are learning. We need to highlight and model SUBJECT-SPECIFIC VOCABULARY and SUBJECT-SPECIFIC SENTENCES. We can model the language that the students need to know. We need to help the students to develop their CONCRETE THINKING SKILLS so that they can classify and organise information with the help of visual organisers such as tables, word maps and venn diagrams. When students are working on difficult content areas, our job is to reduce their anxiety so that they have a good chance of success. We will encourage collaboration through pairwork and groupwork. We will monitor learning and give positive and encouraging support and feedback during and after tasks. CLIL classes should foster co-operation rather than competition in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
CLIL sections in Uniscan Courses
The Uniscan courses designed for young learners that we use in our school incorporate a variety of CLIL sections such as Go Green!, Our World, Our School. These three sections present cross-curricular material. The pupils use English to complete tasks related to other subject areas, e.g. Geography, Maths, Technology, Literature and Science. This reinforces their language learning, and promotes learner independence and peer cooperation.
The Go Green! section promotes an affinity with nature and makes the pupils more aware of the environmental issues in a fun and creative way. Our World lessons explore aspects of life in other countries and broaden the pupil’s horizons. At the end of every unit, the pupils have the opportunity to read short texts about aspects of life in other countries. In the Our School section the pupils explore other fields of study (e.g. Art, Maths, Science, etc) through English. In this way, the pupils learn how to use English as avehicle to approach other subject matters.
In the courses for more advanced learners, from the 5th grade to the 8th grade, each module is accompanied by a CLIL section. Each CLIL section enables students to link the themes of the module to a subject from their school curriculum (Art, Citizenship, History, Music etc.) thus helping them contextualise the language they have learnt by relating it to their own personal frame of reference. Lively and creative tasks stimulate students and allow them to consolidate the language they have learnt throughout the module.
Bibliography
Ministerul Educației, Comunicare in limba modernă engleză Clasa I – Clasa a VIII-a, Jenny Dooley, Virginia Evans, Uniscan Grup Educational (Pupil’s Book, Digital Book, Teacher’s Book)
Mary Spratt, Alan Pulverness, Melanie Williams, The Teaching Knowledge Test Course, Second edition, Cambridge University Press, 2011
Jeremy Harmer, Essential Teacher Knowledge, Pearson Education Limited, 2012
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman 2007
Jim Scrivener, Learning Teaching, Second Edition, Macmillan, 2005