Lesson 5. CLIL approach. A closer look

v Task 5.1. Speaking. How can a CLIL lesson be planned? What activities may it include? Have pair discussions and propose brief scenarios of CLIL lessons for schools.

v Task 5.2. Reading. Read the following text and say how close your ideas were to the ones described below.

Classroom principles

Some of the basic principles of CLIL are that in the CLIL classroom:

· Language is used to learn as well as to communicate.

· It is the subject matter which determines the language needed to learn.

A successful CLIL lesson should combine elements of the following:

· Content – Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to defined curriculum

· Communication – Using language to learn whilst learning to use language

· 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.

In a CLIL lesson, all four language skills should be combined. The skills are seen thus:

· 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.

For teachers from “traditional” English Language Teaching background, 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

· 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.

Lesson framework

A CLIL lesson looks at content and language in equal measure, and often follows a four-stage framework.

Processing the text

The best texts are those accompanied by illustrations so that learners can visualise what they are reading. When working in a foreign language, learners need structural markers in texts to help them find their way through the content. These markers may be linguistic (headings, sub-headings) and/or diagrammatic. Once a ' core knowledge' has been identified, the organisation of the text can be analysed.

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. The structure of the text is used to facilitate learning and the creation of activities which focus on both language development and core content knowledge.

Language identification

Learners are expected to be able to reproduce the core of the text in their own words. Since learners will need to use both simple and more complex language, there is no grading of language involved, but it is a good idea for the teacher to highlight useful language in the text and to categorise it according to function. Learners may need the language of comparison and contrast, location or describing a process, but may also need certain discourse markers, adverb phrases or prepositional phrases. Collocations, semi-fixed expressions and set phrases may also be given attention as well as subject-specific and academic vocabulary.

Tasks for students

A variety of tasks should be provided, taking into account the learning purpose and learner styles and preferences. Receptive skill activities are of the 'read/listen and do' genre. A menu of listening activities might be:

· 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/places

· Listen and label the stages of a process/instructions/sequences of a text

· Listen and fill in the gaps in a text

Tasks designed for production need to be subject-orientated, so that both content and language are recycled.

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'

· 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.

Conclusion

From a language point of view, the CLIL 'approach' contains nothing new to the EL teacher. 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.

(Source: British Council, Teaching English. CLIL: a Framework:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/clil-a-lesson-framework)

v Task 5.3. Say if the following information is true (T), false (F) or not given in the text (0).

1. Learning about other points of view and experiences is important in CLIL.

2. Abilities to speak fluently and to be grammatically correct are equally important in CLIL.

3. In CLIL, productive skills are seen as more important than receptive ones.

4. Type of tasks given to students depends on the style of learning they prefer.

5. Visualization of the text plays an important role in preparing material for a CLIL lesson.

6. Timelines are used less frequently than flow diagrams or tables.

7. Learners are usually asked to keep to the original language of the text as close as possible when retelling it.

8. Students are given vocabulary and structures best suited to reproduce and discuss the content, usually regardless of their “difficulty”.

9.  Tasks for production are designed to recycle new vocabulary and grammar and don’t always focus on the current topic.

10. Receptive skills activity include reading or listening for specific information activities.

11. CLIL approach doesn’t suit physical training lessons.

v Task 5.4. Speaking. Discuss with your partner(s).

1. What features make CLIL an increasingly popular approach in the world?

2. Why is ability to use a new language is just as important as excellence in a subject?

3. Why is it generally believed that cognitive skills are more efficiently trained in CLIL than in traditional approaches to teaching subjects?

4. Why is visualisation of information preferred in CLIL to plain texts?

5. What activities, from your point of view, focus on culture more than others?

 

v Task 5. 5. Vocabulary work.

5. 5.1. Provide suitable word-combinations:

writing reading listening speaking  text vocabulary communication

1. Facilitate _______________________

2. Receptive skills include:_____________________________________

3. Productive skills include:_______________________________

4. to highlight ___________________________

5. subject-specific ____________________

 

5.5.2 Match the words and their definitions:

A.

1. questionnaire	a. the main
2. set phrase	b. to categorise smth according to its quality etc.
3. exposure to	c. in a less important position
4. otherness	d. a line curving back towards itself
5. fluency	e. correctness; ability to use language without errors
6. subordinate	f. experiencing smth. directly
7. to grade	g. a written set of questions given to people to collect information
8. take into account	h. ability to speak very well
9. core	i. fixed, unchangeable expression
10. loop	j. a sense of being different
11. accuracy	k. to consider smth.

B.

1. information gap activities	a. an activity to understand what the words using pictures, verbal descriptions etc.
2. handout	b. a chart to show dynamic relationships in a system
3. flow diagrams	c. a way some words are often used together
4. timeline	d. to write a name of smth. to indicate what it is
5. word guessing game	e. arrangement of data in rows and columns or more complex graphic structures
6. to label	f. а system of division of smth. into levels of importance
7. Trivia	g. detailed facts about smth. (history, famous people etc.)
8. tabular diagram	h. a list of events in chronological order
9. collocation	i. something given to others freely
10. hierarchy	j. a technique in language teaching where students are missing information necessary to complete a task or solve a problem, and must communicate with their classmates to fill in the gaps

v Task 5.6. Learning about CLIL practically. Practice a CLIL lesson in biology for senior school students with B1-B2 level of English.

Below, you will find a suggested scenario of a CLIL lesson so that you could practice it from a student’s position. As a result, you will be able to understand better how CLIL works; also, you will revise a number of concepts from molecular biology and genetics.