Enhancing Language through Content: an Overview of CLIL Practices 3301-ZJS2911
CLIL (content-and-language-integrated learning) refers to specific educational settings where a foreign (second) language is used as a medium of instruction instead of the students’ mother tongue. The twofold aim of CLIL-based teaching is to do justice to the inherent complexities of the content subject (declarative knowledge, procedural knowledge: practical skills and know-how) while attending to the linguistic needs of L2 learners (in particular their lexical and grammatical competences).
The course examines the mechanisms that ensure the right kind of balance between the development of linguistic competences on the one hand and the establishment of the broadly conceived knowledge context on the other. CLIL teaching frequently favours lexical development (related to specific content subjects) to the exclusion - or marked underrepresentation - of the L2 grammatical system. The course will focus on the ways to redress the balance between the competences.
Research results, as reported in the relevant bibliographical sources, as well as the students’ own attempts at constructing CLIL-oriented teaching materials will be analysed to determine whether or not the integration of content-based and form-focused instruction leads to the growth of a sufficiently robust (“counterbalanced”) interlanguage system.
Towards the end of the course students should be able to develop their own CLIL-related teaching materials.
The course is suitable for student-teachers, in-service teachers and anyone wishing to enrich their language teaching resources. A whole range of practical guidelines will be highlighted, including effective and non-threatening error correction, innovative grammar teaching, the role of cultural competence in language teaching.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
A) Knowledge
On completing the course students know
1. the main CLIL tenets and ways to implement them
2. essential mechanisms to secure the right kind of balance between content and language in CLIL provision
B) Abilities
On completing the course students are able to
1. design CLIL materials;
2. adjust students’ workload according to CLIL guidelines
C) Social competences
On completing the course students perceive and understand:
1) how general knowledge draws upon L2 knowledge
2) how CLIL tenets are instrumental in materials selection for successful teaching
Assessment criteria
Practice session (group work) - 40%
In-class presentation of a CLIL assignment - 40%
Attendance and participation - 20%
A cut-off point (minimum pass level): 50%
Bibliography
Cammarata, Laurent and Diane J. Tedick (2012) Balancing Content and Language in Instruction: The Experience of Immersion Teachers, The Modern Language Journal, 96, ii, 2012.
Coyle, Do (2005) Planning Tools for Teachers, Nottingham: The University of Nottingham. School of Education.
Dalton-Puffer Christiane,Tarja Nikula and Ute Smit (2010) Language Use and Language Learning in CLIL Classrooms, Amsterdam: John Benjamins
Deller, Sheelagh and Christine Price (2007) Teaching other subjects through English, Oxford: OUP.
University of Cambridge TESOL Examinations (no date), Teaching History through English. A CLIL Approach. Cambridge.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: