CLIL Methodology Unit 3 CLIL - Essentials Task 1 BENEFITS OF CLIL Work in pairs. Student A reads benefits 1 and 2, student B benefits 3 and 4. Identify and summarise the main benefits described in your paragraphs, then cooperate with your partner to fill in the table. 1. Learning a subject through another language can provide extra motivation for the subject – a subject taught in another language may be more appealing to learners simply because they feel they are developing language skills along with the subject. Learners blossom and feel challenged because they are learning both a subject and a language. They develop a strong sense of achievement as they notice their rapid progress in other languages. 2. Constructivist theories of learning suggest learners build up knowledge for themselves and that learning involves making personal meaning of new material and combining it with what is already known. Learning takes place when learners themselves make sense of what they are learning. In CLIL lessons, learners link new information or ideas in another language to previous content or language knowledge in their first language. 3. Cognitive learning theories suggest that people remember things more effectively if their brains have to work harder to complete a task. For example, it is likely that bilinguals form more connections in the brain, make new connections and expand their memory because they are learning in another language. Learning a subject through another language may broaden and deepen CLIL learners´ understanding of subject concepts, their thinking skills and creativity. 4. Social constructivist theories of learning emphasise that learning is a social, dynamic process, and that learners learn when interacting with one another. Meaningful interaction is also important in CLIL. Learners who focus on communicating about the meaning of what they are learning are likely to be more effective language learners than those who concentrate on grammatical accuracy. CLIL is, therefore, ideal for language acquisition because it provides meaningful interaction about both the content and the language. 1. 2. 3. 4. Task 2 CLIL specifics There are certain differences between content-based language teaching (CBLT) and CLIL, the main one being that CBLT deals with teaching content in language lessons, whereas CLIL deals with teaching a subject at the same time as teaching language. CLIL is also different from immersion, where learners learn all their subjects in another language and there is no focus on language in subject lessons, e.g.in an international school. These ideas can be visualised as a continuum. CLIL can be placed somewhere in the middle of the continuum: learners are learning content through another language (as opposed to what you do in monolingual classes where you teach in a language). By this, we mean that CLIL teachers pay attention to both language and content in their lessons, to help learners learn both language and content as they learn a school subject. Complete the table. More language More content CBLT CLIL Immersion Who teaches? Language teachers Subject teachers What kind of language work do they do? Language through content Little or no attention is paid to language per se What is the aim? To teach language To teach content What do they teach? Extra topics (non-curricular subject matter) Curricular subject matter Who do they work with? Alone or with their department colleagues Alone or with their subject department colleagues How do they assess? Assess and mark language Assess and mark content What do they give feedback on? Feedback on language Feedback on content Task 3 Issues in CLIL Read the responses to questions raised by teachers preparing to teach CLIL lessons. What were the questions they asked? 1. …………………………………………………………………………….. ? Make very easy tasks, where learners have to respond with only one or two words, and gradually build up to sentence level. As learners progress, create questions which involve higher-order thinking skills. Encourage every effort and praise learners who really try to speak. Allow some learners time before you insist they speak in the language in which they are learning: some learners need this ´silent period´. 2. …………………………………………………………………………….. ? Use English and ´ignore´ learners who don´t speak it. Provide useful phrases. Give learners thinking time to prepare for speaking. Use pair and group work often. Set tasks which include information gaps so learners have to communicate. 3. …………………………………………………………………………….. ? If you feel uncertain about your own grammar, work with the language teachers in your school to look at grammar in your material. If you notice grammar mistakes that your learners make, go ahead! Create activities with the language teacher to practise the content using the grammar in your materials. 4. ………………………………………………………………………………. ? Pre-teach only the key words that which you think learners really need to understand new input. Help them to guess the meaning of new vocabulary by looking at how a word is formed (e.g. – ion often means the word is a noun) or the context surrounding the word. Recycle vocabulary, reminding learners about words they learned in previous lessons. Create tasks that use the new vocabulary so that learners see and use it. Ensure that learners write new words in their notebooks.