WHAT IS CLIL? WHAT IS NOT CLIL?

-

 Hi, everyone!

Some weeks ago in Twitter and Instagram, I read some tweets and posts by teachers and parents complaining about bilingual education in Spain. They wondered if it was really worthful to teach the contents of a subject (Arts, Science, Maths...) in English. I could see that those people were really concerned with this issue and that the majority of the opinions were against bilingualism. Their opinions were based on their experience.

 One of my followers in Instagram sent me the link of one of these posts and I couldn't help giving my opinion. I told them about how I thought a subject in a language differen from L1 should be taught. As many of you know, I am a CLIL Science teacher and I consider I have enough experience on this issue. That day I decided I had to write a post on what I consider CLIL is and what CLIL is not.



Let's get on with it!

From my point of view, CLIL is NOT:

-Translating contents from L1 to L2

-Repeating contents which have already been taught in L1

-Simplifying the langage or the content to be taught

-Using a textbook as if you were teaching in L1 

On the other hand, CLIL IS applying the principles of CLIL:

-Planning the 4Cs: Communication, Content, Cognition and Culture. We can not forget that our students are learning both language and content at the same time.

-Scaffolding content and language. At the beginning of the learning process students need support whereas they are learning content or language

-Planning language using the 3 As tool: Language OF Learning, Language FOR Learning and Language THROUGH Learning... Remember that our students are learning the language, so they need this support to allow them to use the language when needed and to learn the content.

-Planning activities bearing in mind Bloom's Taxonomy, so that the activities go from low to high thinking levels. This will avoid simplifying the content our students are going to learn.

-Using the CLIL Matrix (based on Cummin's Matrix) to measure the combination of cognitive and linguistic levels of the different tasks.

I started teaching CLIL in 2009 and I promise that if you plan all these steps, your student will be able to understand the content and they will eventually start using English. It is also very important that you are a good language model for them too. I mean that you should use English as much as possible. You can find strategies to make yourself understood.

I hope this information is useful for you.

Eva💖


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ACTIVITIES BASED ON BLOOM'S TAXONOMY

-
Image
Hi! I'm back!  Yes, I know. It has been a long time since my last post, but this school year is being a bit tricky for me. Today I would like to share to go on with ACTIVITIES BASED ON BLOOM'S TAXONOMY .  I am going to give examples for each level of the Bloom's taxonomy from low to high demanding.  Here I go: REMEMBERING :   It refers to recalling facts and basic concepts Filling in the gaps Multiple choice Spelling list Matching worksheet Labelling the pictures Name the parts of... UNDERSTANDING : It refers to explaining ideas and concepts Retelling the story in your words Collage Book report Speech overview Math computation Do a chart of similarities and differences APPLYING : It means using information in new situations Practising playing a board game Doing an experiment Planning a model construction Interviewing someone who... Solving a problem solving ANALYSING : This is drawing connections between ideas Constructing a graph to illustrate selected information M...
Read more

THE 3 As TOOL IN CLIL: Language FOR, Language OF and Language TRHOUGH

-
Image
  GOOD AFTERNOON! 💕 Well... or good evening or good morning, depending on when you are reading this post 😊 In this blog, I have already dealt with the following principles of CLIL: ☑ The 4 Cs ☑ Scaffolding ☑ Bloom's Taxonomy Today's post is about " The 3 As tool in CLIL ". Are you ready? 😉 The 3 As tool is used for planning CLIL lessons. Whereas the 4 Cs helps us in the overall planning of the unit, the 3 As tool is of great help when we plan the language our students will need in the activities we have planned. The 3 As stands for A nalyse,  A dd and A pply. Let's have a look at the three stages: 👉 Stage 1 : ANALYSE content for the language OF learning. This means the key phrases and the vocabulary needed. 👉 Stage 2 : ADD to content language FOR learning. This refers to metacognitive or learner's strategies, language for group/pairwork, understanding instructions, how to deal with not understanding... To me, this stage is highly important. If we wa...
Read more

TEACHING VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR IN CLIL

-
Image
  Hi teachers, Today I would like to talk to you about teaching VOCABULARY and GRAMMAR in CLIL . Should we teach vocabulary and structures before starting a Science or Arts unit?  After years of teaching with a CLIL approach, I confess there isn't a specific way to do so. I am going to tell you about my experience as a CLIL Science teacher. From my point of view, it depends on the age you are teaching and your students' level of English. When I teach 6-9 year-olds , I usually spend the first two sessions to teach and revise the new vocabulary that they are going to need in the new unit. And you may wonder how I do it. At these ages, I like using flashcards or realia and to play games with them. You can find some ideas about how to use flashcards in the post my dear friend and colleague Núria and I prepared: Let's see it with an example. The CLIL unit " A Healthy Mind into a Healthy Body " was divided into differents parts: 1) Introduction to Food 2) Where does it ...
Read more