Abstract
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become widespread in many countries around the world in an effort to improve learners’ communicative competence in a foreign language (FL) and content acquisition in non-language areas (NLA). A successful CLIL programme must integrate the 4Cs, i.e., content, communication, cognition and culture. In this study, we focus on the synergies of developing thinking skills by combining language, content and cognition. Specifically, the aim of this study is to examine CLIL teachers’ development of low-order cognitive skills (LOTS) in the subjects of Science and Social Science in the first two years of primary education in the Region of Murcia, Spain. For this purpose, we use a mixed method that combines qualitative and quantitative techniques to test the extent to which LOTS are developed within this integrated approach. The results show that most of the cognitive processes promoted by CLIL teachers are those related to fostering understanding among pupils, which sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses of these programmes and on a wide range of related factors on which further reviews are needed.
Highlights
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) does not follow traditional foreign language teaching methodologies, and can bring about a change in teaching and learning processes, which involves the articulation of guiding principles that provide motivating classroom practice (Pinner, 2013)
We show the results of the analysis of the three individual cognitive categories and the opinions expressed by CLIL teachers to foster them in class, which may define the implementation of lower order thinking skills (LOTS) in the first two years of primary education in the Region of Murcia
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) teaching revolves around certain principles to enhance its scope for the effective development of thinking skills (Ito, 2019; Valverde Caravaca, 2019)
Summary
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) does not follow traditional foreign language teaching methodologies, and can bring about a change in teaching and learning processes, which involves the articulation of guiding principles that provide motivating classroom practice (Pinner, 2013). Thanks to its multifaceted character that rests on the pillars of content, communication, cognition, and culture, this methodological approach departs from the conventional methodological orientations inherent in the concept of foreign language (FL) teaching, not because the lesson is taught in a language that is not the learners’ mother tongue, but because its dual-focus objectives involve the simultaneous learning of FL and non-linguistic content within the same teaching practice (Mehisto et al, 2008) For this methodology to be effective, it must challenge learners sufficiently to develop their thinking skills and engage them in the learning process in a cooperative way (Cenoz et al, 2014; Schietroma, 2019). This hierarchical structure implies progressive mastery of each simple category as an essential prerequisite for moving on to the more complex category, and this can help learners’ self-assessment by providing them with information on the extent to which they have achieved the proposed objectives
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