Content And Language Integrated Learning Lessons Research Articles

A Model for Applying the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Methodology in Teaching Chemistry in English in the Bulgarian Secondary School

One of the most up-to-date approaches to modern education for acquiring a foreign language through the study of a non-language subject is Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). This approach gives the opportunity to develop a variety of learning strategies, application of innovative teaching methods and techniques, as well as increasing the motivation to learn. On the other hand, this approach provides the opportunity for learners to familiarize and expand their intercultural knowledge and understanding, while improving their skills to communicate in the language, other than their mother tongue. Being an educational approach, based on competences, CLIL is extremely well received by educators in Europe and around the world. One of the best-known models for CLIL implementation is the 4C’s conceptual framework developed by Do Coyle - Content, Communication, Cognition, Culture. Given the specificity of science teaching and in particular chemistry teaching in English, the article proposes to expand the model on the 4C’s frame to 6С’s frame- Content, Communication, Cognition, Culture, Key Competencies, Collaboration. On the basis of this frame, a CLIL lesson planning matrix for teaching chemistry in English was developed.

The ups and downs of CLIL lessons: a qualitative study on 21st century skills promotion in physical education

The promotion of 21st century key skills is crucial to build 21st century citizenship. The purpose of this research was to examine teachers’ and students’ views on the use of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach in Physical Education regarding the development of 21st century skills and the syllabus covered in lessons. In-depth open-ended interviews were carried out with 25 participants, who shared their understandings based on their experiences when using CLIL. The findings give an in-depth insight into what 21st century skills are more used and the extent to which they are developed. While creativity and collaboration were promoted thanks to CLIL, interest and engagement depended on each student, and self-reflection was barely fostered. In addition, the lessons developed both linguistic and Physical Education knowledge, including body language, a specific content of the subject that has often been neglected. Some practical implications are inferred, highlighting the need to promote high-quality CLIL teacher training in order to ensure that CLIL is adequately applied and students can develop all the 21st century skills.

STEAM pedagogy in foreign language education: An endeavour to broaden CLIL pedagogy through 6E’s framework

This study addressed the dilemma in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) teaching. It argued that a STEAM pedagogy (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) can inform and broaden CLIL pedagogy through 6E’s framework (engage, explore, explain, engineer, enrich, and evaluate). The authors first theoretically highlighted how STEAM pedagogy addressed some of the issues concerning CLIL instruction and showed that 6E’s framework cohered with the 4C’s (culture, content, cognition, and communication) of pluriliteracies approach to CLIL. We then actuated this conceptualization through a case study exploring Indonesian EFL learners’ engagement in 16-meeting CLIL lessons by examining their multidimensional learning experiences, affectivity, and emotionality. Data were oriented to the contextual variables of effective learning from learners’ standpoint and collected through Academic Emotion Questionnaire (AEQ), language learning attitude battery, and reflection sheet distributed to 204 college learners in six CLIL classes with 6E’s framework. The findings demonstrated the potency of 6E’s framework to provide vital scaffolding for discipline-specific literacies through scientific inquiry in language learning. The framework stimulated intensive multidimensional learning, positive academic emotions, and positive attitudes toward CLIL lessons. Students’ reflections underscored how the framework paved engaging authentic language tasks and science projects as essential drives for intrinsic motivation to learn content and language despite limited linguistic repertoires.

Three Taiwanese elementary school English teachers’ pedagogical and collaborative practice of glocalization in CLIL lessons

ABSTRACT This case study explored three Taiwanese elementary school English teachers’ pedagogical and collaborative practice of glocalization in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) lessons. Based on the framework on English teachers’ designs and implementing glocalized CLIL lessons, the thematic analysis of the documents, observations of classroom practices and post-observation conferences, and interviews reached the following conclusion. Firstly, food was the major glocalized CLIL topic. Secondly, these three English teachers had positive attitudes towards their multimodal presentations of glocalized CLIL lessons. Thirdly, these three teachers possessed different levels of English language skills in their collaborative lesson planning. Fourthly, these teachers faced challenges in providing their learners with authentic tasks for pushed output (learners’ production of the language of learning and content knowledge for contextualized and meaningful use) and using English as the medium of instruction.

Teaching Thai University Students How to Write Research Abstracts and Research Reports: The Case for Science Using CLIL

This study examines the effectiveness of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) implementation in science subjects and reports on the challenges that content teachers encountered during CLIL instruction. In addition, the study attempts to investigate students’ perceived knowledge of and satisfaction towards the implementation of CLIL. To accomplish these goals, relevant CLIL instructional materials were developed by the researchers and subject content teachers. Content teachers received training in English to apply the designed material and implement the CLIL instruction prior to CLIL classes. A convenience sample of 24 university students participated in this study. They were required to write research abstracts and reports in English according to the knowledge of genre and move-based structure. The data collection was conducted using a mixed qualitative and quantitative method. Student abstracts written in English were also analysed qualitatively to investigate the use of linguistic features, structural elements, and vocabulary. Additionally, six subject content teachers and six students were interviewed about their perceptions of and challenges from CLIL implementation. Student questionnaires about their attitudes towards CLIL implementation were then used to collect quantitative data. Over the seven weeks of CLIL lessons, the interview results revealed that close collaboration between content and language teachers prior to CLIL implementation was necessary to affirm the steps and procedures to be applied in the classroom. Some of the content teachers conveyed the importance of advancing students’ language-related knowledge in expressing scientific ideas in English. Most students also expressed their satisfaction towards CLIL instruction as it facilitates the learning process, helping them improve their writing and reading skills as well as their ability to use academic vocabulary. The findings of this study advance our understanding of how to implement CLIL lessons, including the importance of CLIL-related training, creating instructional materials, and language integration of content and language learning in science at the university level.

Content and language integrated learning in bachelor programs in linguistics: Prospects and potentials

Communicative and active learning is recognized as a dominant didactic model in foreign languages teaching and learning paradigm, wherein Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) seems to be very promising. The key principle of CLIL is its dual focus: learning a subject through a language and learning a language through a subject. The focus of a CLIL lesson is on the subject content, which students need not only to understand and learn, but to interiorize in a foreign language. Being placed in a specific cultural context, the content gains certain linguistic and cultural features which are country specific for each professional sphere. The article also addresses how the students develop Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). The students not only master the subject but also improve foreign language skills by mastering lexico-grammatical patterns and discourse formulas focused on a specific subject area. Using several foreign languages (plurilingual approach) would allow the students to master the subject even more effectively.

Promoting content and English learning in a bilingual curriculum at the elementary school level

ABSTRACT This study examined the implementation of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) as a bilingual approach to a school subject at the elementary level in Taiwan. The findings show that the CLIL lessons, that is, bilingual lessons were led by the language teacher (i.e. the native English-speaking teacher in this study) and were favourably perceived by the content teachers. However, the content teachers and the language teacher were not familiar with bilingual approaches, and the instruction of the bilingual lessons was language-focused. Additionally, the bilingual lessons were disconnected from the regular curriculum of the subject. Given the findings, the author made suggestions for the implementation of bilingual curricula and bilingual teacher education, such as jointly developing bilingual curricula by the content teacher and language teacher, equipping teachers with knowledge about the underpinnings of bilingual approaches, and catering to the content teachers’ needs by providing English language training.

Content and Language Integrated Learning from the Perspectives of English Language Teachers

The aim of the study is to explore the perspectives of English language teachers about content and language integrated learning (CLIL) after their preparation of lesson plans and accompanying materials in line with the language-driven CLIL approach. The participants are five English language teachers who are enrolled in the MA program in the department of English Language Teaching (ELT) at a state university in Turkey. After receiving adequate theoretical background, they were given time to develop three language-driven CLIL lesson plans following the steps of a lesson template. When the participants completed each lesson plan based on the contents they chose, they received feedback from their peers and revised their lesson plans accordingly. At the end of the whole lesson planning procedure, their lesson plans were analyzed to uncover their CLIL lesson plan preferences in terms of content. Also, by means of semi-structured interviews, their perspectives about the lesson planning process and in what ways the process contributed to their improvement were revealed. It was found that the CLIL lesson planning process and its contribution to their improvement in certain areas were generally perceived positively. Thus, it can be suggested that English language teachers should be encouraged to develop CLIL lesson plans.

Systematic Review of CLIL in Computer Science: Past, Present, and Future — with a Special Focus on Using ICT

Computer science is regarded one of the subjects best suited for teaching with ICT-supported CLIL, as the English language is the lingua franca of computing, and the computer science classroom is an ideal place to apply digital technologies. This paper aims to explore the role of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in the teaching and learning of computer science in English – focusing especially on using information and communication technology (ICT). For this purpose, a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA protocol was carried out. A total of 31 documents published in the period 2011–2021 on CLIL in computer science and ICT in the CLIL environment were analysed. In this article, first, the advantages of using CLIL in computer science will be discussed, followed by illustrating the benefits and challenges of applying ICT in CLIL lessons. Finally, trends in research on technology enhanced CLIL will be presented, outlining existing findings as well as identifying research gaps in the field. The most important shortcomings and difficulties outlined in the related literature are the limited research on both CLIL and ICT supported CLIL in the subject of computer science, the inconsistent terminology for using ICT in CLIL, and the need in CLIL teacher training courses for the effective use of digital technologies. Therefore, the findings of this paper identify a variety of future research agendas in order to increase the effective, ICT-supported CLIL in the subject of computer science.

¿Influye el análisis de vídeo en la posición de los maestros en formación en contextos AICLE?

Positioning theory helps to understand pre-service teachers’ performance and their professional identity. In the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach, studying teachers’ praxis from the positioning theory is relevant as integrating language and content is problematic for both in-service and pre-service teachers. Moreover, positioning theory could help teachers understand their teaching position. Video technology, as a valuable tool for teacher training, facilitates teachers’ analysis of their own teaching praxis and more importantly, it can help develop teaching awareness. However, scarce literature is found on how video-analysis from the positioning theory may benefit teachers in CLIL contexts. The objective of this paper is to analyse the influence of self video-analysis on pre-service teachers’ positions within CLIL settings. To conduct this research, pre-service teachers recorded and analysed a simulated CLIL lesson. Interviews were designed and administered to know the influence of video on participating teachers’ positions. Video supported pre-service teachers noticing their praxis and the meaning of CLIL while operating changes on their positions. Knowing the evolution of pre-service teachers’ positioning may contribute to, on the one hand, understanding professional identity and, on the other hand, to implement video-technology actions in pre-service programmes to support pre-service teachers’ noticing.

CLIL APPROACH IN BILINGUAL EDUCATION

The article deals with a newly implemented method of teaching a foreign language – Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) which has become the trendy approach of bilingual education. CLIL is gaining more importance across Europe and Ukraine in terms of both: the number of educational establishments implementing it and related studies done in this field. The term scaffolding has been overviewed and analysed. An important fact about CLIL is that it combines both language and subject teaching. Students do not just study a foreign language, but use it to study subject related authentic content. The article also deals with such important task as lesson planning process which is of vital importance for the successful development of the class. CLIL has profound methodological implications in terms of planning, teaching strategies and the role of the teacher. CLIL lesson is supposed to require a precise and extensive preparation. Six stages of the effective CLIL planning has been analyzed and researched. Moreover, CLIL planning requires a change of the traditional concepts of lesson planning. The results prove that looking at the issue from a broader perspective brings us to the conclusion that, if there is a proper development of legal and regulatory framework for CLIL implementation in Ukrainian higher educational establishments, there will not be any problems for teachers interested in applying CLIL theoretical basis to the existing experience and realising enormous perspectives this approach yields to the educational system.

Motivation towards the foreign language (English) and regional language (Basque) in immersion schools: Does CLIL in the foreign language make a difference?

Motivation to learn languages strongly correlates with language achievement, and the school context has a great influence on the motivation of young learners (YLs). A key rationale for the implementation of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programs, therefore, was pupil motivation. Very few studies have measured motivation in this context, especially in primary schools. Even fewer have done so in bilingual areas, where the continuation of widespread use of the regional language often depends on its presence in the school system and where CLIL reduces this presence. To address these gaps, motivation towards the foreign language (FL), English, and the regional language, Basque, was measured in 399 YLs of English (aged 10–12 years) in Basque immersion schools. The learners were divided into a CLIL group ( n = 230), with English as a foreign language (EFL) and CLIL lessons, and a non-CLIL group ( n = 169), which received only EFL lessons. Results showed that the CLIL learners had a more positive attitude towards English and a slightly lower motivation towards Basque. This suggests that increasing the amount of exposure to the foreign language (FL) via CLIL lessons improves the motivation towards English but could decrease the instrumental motivation towards the regional language.

TEACHERS’ WAY OF COMMUNICATIONS WITH STUDENTS IN CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARING (CLIL) CLASSES

The fact of learning a language that is not our own, opens the mind. One of the most important language in the world is English. English has become the most used language of communication. Teacher as the facilitator need to support the learning environment in the classroom effectively. It has created the dire need to explore new teaching methodology that can increase learners’ command of foreign language. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a method that is used to develop the proficiency both target language and content, it can help students to be mastering their foreign language and content from other subjects beside English. This research is aimed to investigate teachers’ way for communication with students in CLIL classes. This research was conducted at SMP-SMA Cahaya Rancamaya Islamic Boarding School. There were 2 participants involved in this research, which were Physics and Biology teachers who used CLIL as the teaching and learning method. The writer used qualitative method and descriptive analysis in conducting this research. To gain the research data, she used three research instruments: documentation, interview and interview. Documentation instrument was used to analyze teachers’ CLIL lesson plans. Two interviews also conducted to confirm and avoid misunderstanding. Both interviews were conducted online because of the Covid-19 situation. This study reveals that teachers’ way for communication with students in CLIL classes happened in the three stages of classroom activities which are in pre-activity, while activity and post-activity. The communication aspect in the CLIL classroom used English as the medium in the interaction. Teachers’ ways of communication with students influenced by the classroom activities and questioning techniques which are Conceptual Checking Question (CCQ) and instructional Checking Question (ICQ) to make students participate to communicate which will affect the English communication in the CLIL classroom.

Bringing food sustainability issues into English classes: Preservice teachers’ plans and strategies

The inclusion of content is not new in the world of language teaching. Studies on sustainability issue alone in the world of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) have reached up to 1.500 studies in google scholar search. With focus rests on the content and less on the language teaching, it is interesting to analyse whether a group of Indonesian preservice English teachers are ready to plan and implement CLIL in their classes. The article reported a document analysis of 13 CLIL lesson plans on food sustainability designed by preservice English teachers after a three-week lesson planning workshop. The lesson plans were analysed by following the 3 iterative steps of qualitative document analysis research methods, i.e. skimming, reading, and interpretation and the 4 frameworks of CLIL lesson planning: content, cognition, communication, and culture. The analysis revealed the preservice teachers’ inadequate understanding of food sustainability issues and disparities in developing activities that would support students’ higher order thinking skills. Despite what seems to be a grim portrayal of the preservice teachers’ understanding of the issue, it is worth acknowledging that most lesson plans explicitly offered collaborative learning activities and refreshing ideas on how to integrate food sustainability in the foreign language classes.

Comic-based Digital Storytelling for Content and Language Integrated Learning

ABSTRACT This work explores how comic-based digital storytelling can support children and teachers in combining foreign language and content teaching in the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) framework. In particular, we focus on investigating three specific aspects: (1) the use of digital storytelling in terms of collaboration, engagement and ease of use, (2) the adoption of comic-based digital storytelling in the CLIL framework, and (3) the benefits and limitations in using digital storytelling in comparison to a paper-based version. In order to investigate these aspects, we develop a case study in a primary school in Italy. A class of 18 children and 2 teachers used a digital tool, named ComicsCLIL, with the aim of creating digital narratives in the CLIL framework. The results provide some evidences that comicbased digital storytelling can be a beneficial educational tool for approaching CLIL lessons. It emerged, in fact, that digital storytelling, as supported by ComicsCLIL, can facilitate this practice by being engaging, easy to use, fully educational while considering the collaborative aspect.

Vocabulary development in a CLIL context: A comparison between French and English L2

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has expanded in Europe, favored by the large body of research, often showing positive effects of CLIL on L2 development. However, critical voices have recently questioned whether these positive findings apply to any language, given that most research focuses on English. Taking into account this concern, the present study investigated the (productive and receptive) vocabulary development in L2 English and L2 French of the same group of learners within a CLIL context. The aim was not to evaluate the benefits of CLIL over non-CLIL, but, instead, to examine whether vocabulary gains in CLIL learning are language-dependent. More specifically, this study included 75 Flemish eight-grade pupils who had CLIL lessons in both English and French. The results show that although the pupils have a larger English vocabulary, the level of improvement (from pretest to posttest) is not different across the languages. The findings indicate that within CLIL vocabulary knowledge also develops in languages other than English.

ON DEVELOPING MATERIALS FOR CLIL

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is not an unknown term. In Slovakia, many schools communicate they apply CLIL methodology; however, there are numerous studies that are sceptical about CLIL application. The most significant problem defined by CLIL teachers is the lack of appropriate materials that follow dual aims. Based on this feedback the development of CLIL materials became a part of pre-service teachers’ methodology courses. The present study aimed to explore the attitudes of the pre-service teachers towards the possible application of the content and language integrated learning in their teaching. Questionnaires and pre-service teachers’ portfolios provided data from 63 participants. The study also presents the results of discussions on the problems faced by students, the attitudes of student teachers towards material evaluation and development, planning CLIL lessons and the analysis of the questionnaire focussing on students’ attitudes towards CLIL application. Data suggest that even though pre-service teachers are positive about CLIL application and are interested in doing CLIL lessons they do not feel confident especially in evaluating the outcomes of CLIL lessons and creating materials for CLIL lessons. Finally, the author summarises the pedagogical implications to pre-service teachers study programmes as well as recommendations for teaching practice.

CLIL teachers\u2019 views on cognitive development in primary education

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has been implemented in Spain for more than two decades, and the number of schools that have joined CLIL initiatives has progressively grown in an attempt to increase students’ proficiency in English; all of these developments are indicative of the importance of foreign language learning (FLL) in this country. The aim of this paper is to analyse the promotion of cognitive skills by teachers in the subjects of science and social science in primary education in the Spanish Region of Murcia. A mixed methodology combining techniques for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data was implemented. The results show a tendency to lapse into low-order thinking skills, which can hinder the development of demanding cognitive skills and creative learning processes in CLIL lessons. Some factors might affect these teaching practices, such as the type of teaching staff position or the experience that teachers have gained over time. The article concludes with some suggestions for further research.

Influencing Factors on In-Service Teachers’ Competence in Planning CLIL

In spite of the multiple competencies necessary to design and deliver proper Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) lessons, the teachers’ linguistic proficiency is the primary competence considered in the accreditation of CLIL teachers in Spain. However, teachers’ competence in planning CLIL lessons is key to bilingual education. This article explores this competence and reports on the several factors that influence the level of integration of CLIL methodological principles in the lesson planning style of in-service teachers at primary and secondary education. The factors studied are the stage of education, curricular subjects, teacher education, status at school, years teaching CLIL and type of school in a sample of 383 in-service CLIL teachers. Results show statistically significant differences in all the factors studied except in the stage of education (primary-secondary) and the type of school (state-semiprivate). These results reveal a high heterogeneity in the sample, which allows the description of the CLIL teacher profiles according to the factors that influence their competence in planning and delivering CLIL lessons. It is concluded that education and training in CLIL competencies, such as planning CLIL lessons, is also necessary in order to achieve a more homogeneous competence profile of the teachers. Therefore, a review of the academic programs and of the accreditation model so as to guarantee that they include prescriptive education and training in CLIL is recommended, since the quality and sustainability of bilingual programs also depends on teachers’ competence in CLIL and not only on the students’ academic results.

The Bilingual Teacher and CLIL Specialist Model: Viewpoints of Taiwanese English Teachers

This is a post-workshop article that presents the collated points of view of nine Taiwanese English teachers from Taipei City who attended the lecture and workshop on the theme, “Preparing for the challenges of a bilingual teacher in teaching English as foreign/second language” on December 16, 2019 at the Affiliated International High School of National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. The author explains how their inputs fit into the model called, “Bilingual Teacher and CLIL Specialist” in the context of their perceived preparation as a bilingual teacher or a CLIL specialist in their respective schools and as non-native English speakers who teach English in different levels in general. Further recommendations on what discussions need to be covered in future training and workshops are presented. Moreover, this article presents the 4Cs framework of Doyle, Hord, and Marsh as explained by McDougald (2016) in creating a thematic lesson plan and preparing materials using the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach. A thorough presentation of a sample CLIL lesson plan for Science which was tested to a class of Grade 10 students in March until April 2020 is also included.