Assignment - CLIL

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
CONTENT & LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING

LUZ ANDREA BOLAOS BENIGNO

PEFPMTFL2118447
LUZ AMPARO CUERO VALENCIA
COFPMTFL99168

Group
FP_TEFL_2016-02

September 25, 2016

Assignment CLIL

IS CLIL THE APPROACH FOR THE FUTURE?

In order to define a position that may help us answer this question, it is necessary to try to
precise what CLIL stands for.
Among the many definitions we believe that the most appropriate seems to be the one
stated by David March (2002) which refers CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED
LEARNING (CLIL) as a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional
language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language. It means
that a target language serves as a medium to teach the content of a specific subject.
Throughout the last 10 years of implementation in Europe, there is a lot to say about CLIL,
based on the many examples that can illustrate this definition: CLIL has involved
Malaysian children learning Mathematics and science in English. CLIL has been a means
for Norwegian students to do drama in German, for Italian students to learn science in
French, for Japanese students to learn geography in English and for Australians to learn
Mathematics in Chinese. The combination of languages and subjects seem to be limitless.
As time is passing by, CLIL appears to be gaining strengths that make us wonder if we
are living the boom of a new method or approach that will solve our long-lasting how to
teach and learn a language the best way.
We have come out with many ideas from the material we have read so far, and our
experience and previous knowledge lead us to choose a side regarding CLIL as the
approach for the future.
When getting informed about the process for implementing CLIL in European countries
such as England and Spain, we ought to analyze some of the advantages and
disadvantages

Assignment CLIL

that its application could have in the everyday teaching of our Latin American context,
before defending or refuting the thesis that CLIL is or not the approach for the future.
Let us start by saying that CLIL has been introduced as a complete approach, which
involves content and language, which would lead to an improvement in the bilingual
education. But at the same time, it is pertinent to reflect on what is the setting necessary
for implementing this method/approach, what kind of teachers are needed, what
characteristics should learners have, what kind of materials are necessary for a successful
process and what socio political and cultural conditions are required.
We are going to analyze the two sides of CLIL, the positive and negative aspects because
CLIL supporters never seem to get tired of telling about the benefits of CLIL. However, it is
wise to deepen on the problems CLIL pioneers have faced documented when developing
their projects and to learn how to deal with them if we plan to customize its philosophical
concepts. CLIL creates long-term expectations, and since our Latin American scenarios
are culturally different, a smart first step is to analyze our own short and long-term capacity
against some of the challenges others have faced with CLIL.
Some researchers say that students studying in a second language cannot possibly learn
the same amount of content as students studying in their first language; some people are
even convinced that CLIL students will fall behind their peers academically and that their
native-language skills will suffer. However, far from interfering with content acquisition,
CLIL can actually facilitate it.

Academic results reflecting testing in a wide variety of

subjects show that students generally achieve the same or better results when studying in
a second language.
suffer.

However, it is honest to recognize that learners native-language

Just as a matter of example we mention here the case a bilingual school

coordinator (from Cali), shared with one of us about the 11th graders of the bilingual school
where she works. Those students have to take a national test when they finish high school.
The conflict they face when taking the test, which is conducted in Spanish, is that they lack
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Assignment CLIL
vocabulary and struggle to understand instructions, to do mathematical operations and to
express ideas

in their mother tongue. Because of that, the school average of the test results is not as
high as expected and some students and parents get discouraged. These students and
the school authorities are suffering because children receive their education in English
since pre-school and the purpose of such an effort is to see them succeed when they
finish high school.
Truth is that CLIL students develop metalinguistic awareness. This means that they are
better able to compare languages and be more precise in their word choice and in passing
on the content of their message. They learn to check whether the listener accurately
received their message. They also learn to draw out meaning from context. They become
more skilled at using languages in general, but in the case of the example given above,
the reality is different: school administrators had to made changes in the curriculum. One
of the changes has been to reduce the number of subjects taught in English in the last two
grades and increase the number of subjects given in Spanish; they balance them in 50% /
50%.
Another misconception regarding CLIL is that it is suitable only for the brightest, most
academically inclined students, but there are several countries that have established
multilingualism as a nationally aim and where students undergo their education in several
languages without problems. Research shows that average C-grade students do well in
CLIL programs. They still have a C-grade average, but they learn to speak another
language and gain many socio-cultural skills that will enrich their professional and personal
lives.
Another problem faced when implementing this methodology is the shortage of CLIL
teachers. Teacher training institutions in many Latin American countries do not yet
specifically prepare teachers for CLIL. The number of individuals who speak a given CLIL

Assignment CLIL
language and have subject-area qualifications is limited. In addition, even if they have the
prerequisite skills, not all teachers are prepared to focus on content and language goals.

Therefore, the staffing issue does not refer only to finding suitable teachers, but to keeping
them. Teachers need training and support for the program implementation.
Researchers and pioneers of CLIL promote it as an opportunity to bring subject teachers
and language teachers together (to share knowledge, experience and expectations toward
their students learning process in the same way multidisciplinary projects take place in a
company). Nevertheless, that integration requires the teachers to receive training, in the
same way monolingual schools set transition plans for moving from that modality to the
bilingual one.

Then, it would be a good choice to have a transition plan for introducing

CLIL methodology in Latin American schools in order to avoid misunderstanding among

the members of the school community. The plan is an important tool that will allow all the
members to reflect on the outcome expected after one or more years of implementation.
Besides, it helps to raise awareness among teachers, students and parents about the
expectations of the new methodology application.
Since teachers play the role of promoters in the implementation of the method, they do not
need only the school support, through training. What they mostly need is the support of
universities, by introducing changes in their curricula for graduating new professionals not
just as language teachers, but also as specialist in a specific subject. That would be a
guaranty for students, parents, school authorities that the CLIL project in the end will give
the expected results: learners ready to express themselves properly when dealing with a
defined subject orally or written. What happens in Latin American universities nowadays is
that they continue graduating

education professionals in separate curricula such as

Biology, Social Sciences, Mathematics, Modern Languages (English, French or Spanish)

and in those cases the target language (English in our case) is not a fundamental subject
in the integral formation of the future professional.

As read in our subject material

(Chapter 3, section 3), one of the basic types of CLIL practice that tertiary institutions offer
today is the one called plurilingual degree course that is just offering various subjects or
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Assignment CLIL
module in a foreign language and students decide if taking them or not. If that is the
beginning of a transition process in those institutions, there should be also options
available for undergraduate students that are majoring in education.

Yet, so far, that

possibility is not part of innovations in university curricula.

Another way to integrate subject language teaching with language teaching could be
offering undergraduate students of education subjects,

the option to articulate

their

formation with a specific language; that is to say offering them dual-degrees with emphasis
in languages. In that case, the new professional will be able to implement CLIL without
facing much trouble.
An example to illustrate this possibility is evident in the tertiary institutions where one of us
is working now: That University has the Early Childhood Education program for learners
that want to graduate and go to teach in preschool and primary school of the private
sector. Those undergraduate students have the privilege to study seven levels of English
in their major, (64 hours per semester / 60 minutes each). With this scenario, it would be
easy to offer these future professionals the option to complement their language learning
and get a dual-degree. Once they get their degree, they could be potential CLIL teachers
for any school and will contribute to enlighten and strengthen the language teacher status
that in some schools is not the same of a subject teacher. That would be the beginning of
a fruitful integration; to provide opportunities for local teachers to start working not as
assistants for native speakers, as they do in the local market, but as direct homeroom
subject teachers.
You, reader, may wonder why not taking the initiative or taking the risk to put this idea into
practice.

Simple because the people leading the undergraduate program do not see

English as a tool to enrich the life of the future professionals, just because it implies
changes in the curriculum and it is not easy to leave out of the comfort zone or just
because the executives of this tertiary education institution have not foreseen the future of
languages.

Assignment CLIL
The situation commented above makes us think on the other problem stated as one of the
constraints to implement the Content Integrated Language Learning methodology: CLIL
taken as the Trojan horse in a country where political issues interfere in educational
decisions made by the government. We all know that politicians sometimes influence
educational policies for the convenience of their parties. It also happens in Latin American
countries such as Colombia. In the intention to improve the English communicative
competence of the professionals and scholars, the government is investing a lot of money
to bring that language to public schools. In that sense, English is a core subject of the
school curricula nowadays. English is the foreign language that required in schools.
Because of that, teachers from primary and secondary school in the public sector are
receiving training to learn and master the language with the intention that they improve
their skills and performance in class, in the belief that if teachers improve their language
skills, the students communicative competence in English will improve.
However, it is not an easy task. Besides, teachers get the training in new methodologies
where CLIL has no space yet because the conditions in the schools remain the same.
Some of the limitations teachers have to do their work in better conditions are the same
they have had for many years: Some of them are: 1. Reduced number of schools to
accommodate so many students; 2. No enough language teachers for doing a good job
in pre-school, primary school and even secondary schools; 3. Little time allocated for
classes. 4. Lack of material (visual aids, computers, among others.), 5. Very large classes.
6. Pressure to comply with the content defined in the school programs, etc. All of that
make it difficult to advance in the implementation of new methodologies for teaching
languages assisted not only through the teacher but also through the new technologies.
Another drawback that we have to consider regarding materials in CLIL is the shortage of
materials. Teaching in CLIL requires more preparation time and greater co-operation
among teachers. It takes a conscious effort to set content, language and learning skills
goals for every lesson and to develop activities that involve a maximum number of
students at a given time. Teachers often spend considerable time developing and/or
adapting existing learning resources because finding appropriate materials is a particular
challenge.
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Assignment CLIL

Most of the books for teaching language through subjects come from other countries and
their high prices limit access only to high-class students who usually attend schools from
the private sector.

If you focus on the universities, the situation is quite similar because

private universities provide better material and sources in their libraries for their students.
To sum up, the CLIL approach aims to guide language processing and support language
production in the same way as ELT by teaching strategies for reading and listening and
structures and lexis for spoken or written language. What is different is that the language
teacher is also the subject teacher, or that the subject teacher is also able to exploit
opportunities for developing language skills. This is the essence of the CLIL teacher
training issue.
As the approach or methodology of the new century, CLIL is gaining space around the
world and as it has happened with other methods or approaches in history, it is reaching
American countries. The boom of CLIL is just beginning around here and as it has taken
more than a decade to become popular in Europe, maybe it will take another ten years
from now to be spread in Latin America and for governments and school authorities to
realize that the way of learning languages demands for a change. Of course, as other
methods have come in and out leaving their threads and features imprinted in the teaching
learning process, CLIL will remain among language researchers and teachers who are
always looking for the best way to have our learners succeed.

BIBLIOGRAFIA

Peter Mehisto, David Marsh & Maria Jesus Frigois (2012) Uncovering CLIL Content
Language Integrated Learnig in Billingual and Multilingual Education

One Stop English - What is CLIL?

www.onestopenglish.com/clil/what-is-clil/

(n.d.

no

date)

available

at

Assignment CLIL

British Council - CLIL - A lesson framework (2006)

www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/clil-a-lesson-framework

Phillip Ball (Bachelor of Arts ( University of Lancaster) (2016) FINIBER Subject

material: Content and Language Integrated Learning

available

at