CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING (CLIL)

In a CLIL program, learners gain knowledge of the curricular subject (for example, Science) while simultaneously learning and using the target language (for example, Italian). CLIL has the advantage of addressing all or part of one or more curriculum areas, and thereby extends the time on task for language learning.

However, there are important factors which need to be considered before a school commits to the introduction of a CLIL program. These include:

• The availability of qualified languages teaching staff with the required knowledge of the CLIL approach and the appropriate level of competence in the target language.

• Ensuring students can also understand the key terms and concepts in content areas in both languages.

• The need to manage parental perceptions.

• The resources and potential timetabling changes required to implement a CLIL programs (including curriculum planning time).

From here, we are going to explain an example of students at Coatesville Primary School, who usually learn French. But in this case, they were provided with four 50 minute introductory lessons in Spanish. For the six weeks of the project, the teacher focused on the skills of listening, and responding orally and in writing. Students could learn by demonstrations, gap-filling exercises, flash cards, opportunities to revise and rehearse, and providing summaries.

A POINT OF CAUTION

Adapting existing English units to be suitable in the CLIL context

Because CLIL works on the principle of matching content against what students would normally cover in the corresponding monolingual curriculum, it it understandable that existing mainstream units of work are used as initial reference points for developing CLIL adaptations on the same topic. It is also useful to identify key learning objectives and topics.

However, it became apparent that the most productive way of working with previous units of work is to see them as points for inspiration, and then attempting to follow them too closely as the basis for the CLIL unit.

For example, the unit of work in this case, when taught in English, introduces cause and effect through a storybook around social relationships: the person wakes up grumpy (cause), and then becomes angry at the supermarket attendant (effect). But the key conceptual point -cause and effect- need not be taught based on same materials or tasks, and it is often more productive to focus on other ways of arriving at the same learning outcome.

CHALLENGES

Sharing learning spaces

Where there is no dedicated language classroom, it is difficult to establish a culture and set of expectations where teaching and learning takes plane in another language. 

It would therefore be helpful for schools to commit a dedicated space for CLIL, where teachers can build a rich learning environment specifically for the target language and content. The fact of having materials only in one class would also be better than distributing them into the different classes where the teacher works with.

Isolation and impact of the wider school community

Even with considerable whole school support, there is usually very few other CLIL staff in the school to discuss problems or issues that makes it difficult to offer additional support or time.

In developing a CLIL program, it is necessary to think through these topics and if that is not possible, then the languages teacher will not have to rely so heavily on others to ensure the program can be delivered.

CONCLUSION

We live in a community that is constantly in touch with the entire world. It is therefore necessary that since we born, we start getting adjust to other languages.

Talking about CLIL, students learn by the same way as native speakers do. The language is used as a motivational tool to learn the contents of the subject, because lessons are based around highly familiar topics to them and multiple intelligences. So children focus on fluency and communication and have the opportunity to experiment with the language.

For that reason, teachers should have a good command of the first and foreign language. By this way, they would be able to appreciate the learners' language difficulties and have the ability to deal with them.

To sum up, this text is an invitation to reflect about what is needed to implement different methods so that students and teachers can succeed by becoming involved in academic performance, critical thinking, collaboration, and multiculturalism through interactions in the classroom.

We leave you an interesting video to finish understanding the CLIL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIRZWn7-x2Y




Text based on these links:

• http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/curriculum/Pages/languageclil.aspx
• http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/curriculum/Pages/clilcoatesville.aspx

By: Gemma Cuenca Casacuberta and Paula García Morán.