CLIL in Secondary Classrooms: History Contents on the Move

Abstract

New teaching and learning scenarios like Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) require innovative approaches and studies that highlight the creative nature of CLIL methodology (Llinares, A. (2015). Integration in CLIL: A proposal to inform research and successful pedagogy. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 28(1), 58–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2014.1000925) compared to other approaches to content and foreign language teaching and learning (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, CLIL. Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). While many studies have focused on language learning outcomes, fewer studies have analyzed the effectiveness of teaching content subjects such as history through English (Coffin, Historical Discourse. London: Continuum, 2006), particularly students’ written production through history projects in secondary schools. This chapter presents a teaching experience which aimed to enhance the learning of history, combining the CLIL approach with project work with secondary students in the Madrid region. The design of projects and activities followed Dalton-Puffer’s cognitive discourse functions (CDF) for conceptualizing content and language in CLIL (Dalton-Puffer, A construct of cognitive discourse functions for conceptualising content-language integration in CLIL and multilingual education. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 1–38, 2013). The chapter concludes that meaningful learning in the history subject happens through language- and content-focused tasks which aim to activate prior knowledge, the development of oral and written competences, and the use of project-based and cooperative learning.