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

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 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 Analyse,  Add and Apply. 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 want our learners to communicate in English during our CLIL lessons and not only to complete the tasks, we have to provide them the language FOR learning too.

👉 Stage 3: APPLY to content language THROUGH learning. This is the language that emerges THROUGH the learning process.

See the image below for examples of the different stages. They are from two different units.





As CLIL teachers, we have to plan the language our students will need in all the tasks we have planned. Remember that they will learn Science, PE, Art or Music through English. So, if we want students to learn the content of a particular subject, we must provide them with the appropriate vocabulary and structures.

I hope you find this post useful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in comments and I will be very happy to help.

Eva💓





Comments

  1. kayle jamesNovember 27, 2025 at 1:38 PM

    The concept of the 3 As Tool in CLIL—Language For , Language Of and Language Through —is incredibly useful for both teachers and learners aiming to build stronger academic communication skills. Language For learning prepares students with the functions they need to engage in tasks, while Language Of learning strengthens subject-specific vocabulary and structures. Meanwhile, Language Through learning helps students naturally acquire language as they engage with meaningful content. For students in Adelaide who find it challenging to balance both language and subject knowledge, seeking guidance can make a huge difference. Services like assignment help in adelaide can provide valuable support, especially when dealing with CLIL-based assignments that require strong linguistic and analytical skills.

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