Last week, I met a group of young, ambitious teachers from an HTL in Vienna. They had this glowing motivation in their eyes that I really love to see in this new generation of teachers.
“Mister Nightsky”, one of them said to me during a 15-minute break, “I heard we should implement CLIL into our lessons. It sounded interesting and I’d like to try it out but I’m not sure how to do that. Do you have any tips?”.
Being the seasoned educational expert I consider myself to be, I introduced this person to the concept of CLIL and I immediately saw their face glow up. For context, they were not an English teacher and neither do you have to be in order to implement the following great techniques!
C-LIL? More like “C-HUGE”!
CLIL is an abbreviation for “Content and Language Integrated Learning” and describes a teaching approach where the curricular content is taught in a foreign language. It is aimed towards students who are currently absolving their primary, secondary, or tertiary education. The focus of the language teaching lies on communicative competences and specialised vocabulary or in other words: the specific language skills your learners may need in their future carriers and interactions.
Imagine having the aim of improving as a soccer player who is relatively new to the game. Which approach would you assume to be more fruitful? Learning about tactics, how to kick the ball correctly, and how to make an effective pass on a theoretical level all day or going to the pitch and actually playing the game? I would assume the answer would have to be the latter, and CLIL works in the very same manner. By taking the ‘learning by doing’ approach, skillsets in both the foreign language and the content taught will vastly increase over time!
Why would I want to teach in English?! That’s not even my primary subject!!
Students exposed to CLIL teaching may experience some or all of the following symptoms:
- an increase in motivation for content and language learning
- an improvement in language skills such as speech fluency
- a sharp rise in subject-specific vocabulary in the foreign language
- a significant increase in mood and a closer bond to their classmates due to all of them ‘being in the same boat’ with this new approach
- a decrease in anxiety in speaking the foreign language
Where to start: Becoming close friends with Dr.
CLIL
There are a
few key points that will help you get started with CLIL and I suggest you
follow these guidelines for an optimally effective introduction to the matter.
- Making the language comprehensible - using certain keywords over and over again is a great place to start.
- Use scaffolding to increase engagement and to lead step-by-step.
- Ask the students open questions to foster participation and give them reassurance on a regular basis in order to encourage them on this newly ventured path they are now taking with you.
- Foster a supportive atmosphere where everyone’s contribution is valued.
- Avoid correcting every mistake. Remember: The focus lies on the content!
- And lastly: Stop worrying and start your CLIL journey!
WARNING! PITFALLS AHEAD!
Lastly, in order to optimally brace you for what’s to
come, here are some of the most common mistakes made in CLIL teaching that you
may want to avoid for optimal results!
- Prohibition or overuse of L1 in the classroom: Completely banning the L1 from the classroom will lead to communication roadblocks at some points but using it too much destroys the whole spirit of what we’re trying to do here! Finding the perfect balance comes with experience, so just try to use the foreign language wherever possible!
- Unbalanced treatment of content and language: Even though a major aim of this approach is to improve the learners’ language skills, the subject matter taught itself should still be the focal point of your teaching. Mistakes in the foreign language do not all have to be discussed and eliminated in all cases; a steady workflow in order to achieve learning goals in the target subject matter should still be priority number one!
- Insufficient planning: Even though a major aim of this approach is to improve the learners’ language skills, the subject matter taught itself should still be the focal point of your teaching. Mistakes in the foreign language do not all have to be discussed and eliminated in all cases; a steady workflow in order to achieve learning goals in the target subject matter should still be priority number one!
Just DO It!!
I hope I could excite some of you for this approach I myself have such a burning passion for. It may appear overwhelming at first, but everything gets easier with practice and harvesting the fruits of your labour is oh so sweet.
Even though a major aim of this approach is to improve the learners’ language skills, the subject matter taught itself should still be the focal point of your teaching. Mistakes in the foreign language do not all have to be discussed and eliminated in all cases; a steady workflow in order to achieve learning goals in the target subject matter should still be priority number one!
What do you really have to lose, anyway?!
Just do it!
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