CLIL workshop 1

From February 20th to 27th, I ran a series of three workshops for Macmillan and the Language Centre of Universidad de Piura. The first session was about basic definitions of CLIL and CLIL Geography. This is a summary of the most important CLIL definitions.

CLIL(Content Language Integrated Learning): Teaching subjects as Science, History and Geography to students through a foreign language. This can be by the English teacher using cross-curricular content or the subject/content teacher using English as the language of instruction.

 Conceptualisation of CLIL: There is a shift from language learning to language using by which all teachers are teachers of language.

 

 

Students need the language to communicate with the teacher and one another so as to access or apply content. If the tasks are cognitively demanding, this would require students to call upon the knowledge they already have which includes concepts, skills and strategies.

By doing so, students strengthen the connections between language and the previous knowledge increasing learning and retention, a form of acquiring knowledge in a friendly way for the brain.

Language can be defined as:

Language of learning: the language needed for learners to access basic concepts and skills relating to the topic.

Language for learning: the language all learners need in order to operate in a foreign language environment.
Language through learning: learning cannot take place without active involvement of language and thinking.

Scaffolding: the process of helping learners move “into the new by using a little of the old”.

 

 

 

Projects: bring together content and language. The finished product can be displayed in class, included in a portfolio and often include collaborative tasks. Projects tend to consolidate information from different parts of the curriculum in a natural way and provide variety for both students and teachers. They also integrate the four skills while, at the same time, promote learner autonomy and cooperation.

Summing up:

CLIL  has a dual focus: introducing students to content areas such as science, music, art, maths or geography using a foreign language to teach all or part of the subject curriculum.

CLIL learners need language to assist their thinking and they need to develop their higher-order thinking skills to assist their language learning.