CLIL – A language framework

In the first of these articles, Content and Language Integrated Learning, I gave an
introduction to this field. In this second article I will look more closely at how CLIL is
realised in the classroom and suggest a framework for planning CLIL lessons.

 Underlying principles

 Classroom principles

 Lesson framework

 Conclusion

Underlying principles
The principles behind Content and Language Integrated Learning include global statements
such as 'all teachers are teachers of language' (The Bullock Report - A Language for Life,
1975) to the wide-ranging advantages of cross-curricular bilingual teaching in statements
from the Content and Language Integrated Project (CLIP). The benefits of CLIL may be
seen in terms of cultural awareness, internationalisation, language competence, preparation
for both study and working life, and increased motivation.

While CLIL may be the best-fit methodology for language teaching and learning in a
multilingual Europe, the literature suggests that there remains a dearth of CLIL-type
materials, and a lack of teacher training programmes to prepare both language and subject
teachers for CLIL teaching. The theory may be solid, but questions remain about how theory
translates into classroom practice.

Classroom principles
Some of the basic principles of CLIL are that in the CLIL classroom:
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  Language is used to learn as well as to communicate

 It is the subject matter which determines the language needed to learn.

A CLIL lesson is therefore not a language lesson neither is it a subject lesson transmitted in a
foreign language. According to the 4Cs curriculum (Coyle 1999), a successful CLIL lesson
should combine elements of the following:

 Content - Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to specific

elements of a defined curriculum

 Communication - Using language to learn whilst learning to use language

 Cognition - Developing thinking skills which link concept formation (abstract and
concrete), understanding and language

 Culture - Exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings, which

deepen awareness of otherness and self.

In a CLIL lesson, all four language skills should be combined. The skills are seen thus:

 Listening is a normal input activity, vital for language learning

 Reading, using meaningful material, is the major source of input

 Speaking focuses on fluency. Accuracy is seen as subordinate

 Writing is a series of lexical activities through which grammar is recycled.

For teachers from an ELT background, CLIL lessons exhibit the following characteristics:

 Integrate language and skills, and receptive and productive skills

 Lessons are often based on reading or listening texts / passages

 The language focus in a lesson does not consider structural grading

 Language is functional and dictated by the context of the subject

 Language is approached lexically rather than grammatically

 Learner styles are taken into account in task types.

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In many ways, then, a CLIL lesson is similar to an ELT integrated skills lesson, except that it
includes exploration of language, is delivered by a teacher versed in CLIL methodology and
is based on material directly related to a content-based subject. Both content and language are
explored in a CLIL lesson. A CLIL 'approach' is not far removed from humanistic,
communicative and lexical approaches in ELT, and aims to guide language
processing and supports language production in the same way that an ELT course would by
teaching techniques for exploiting reading or listening texts and structures for supporting
spoken or written language.

Lesson framework
A CLIL lesson looks at content and language in equal measure, and often follows a four-stage
framework.

Processing the text

The best texts are those accompanied by illustrations so that learners can visualise what they
are reading. When working in a foreign language, learners need structural markers in texts to
help them find their way
through the content. These markers may be linguistic (headings, sub-headings) and/or
diagrammatic. Once a 'core knowledge' has been identified, the organisation of the text can
be analysed.

Identification and organisation of knowledge

Texts are often represented diagrammatically. These structures are known as 'ideational
frameworks' or 'diagrams of thinking', and are used to help learners categorise the ideas and
information in a text. Diagram types include tree diagrams for classification, groups,
hierarchies, flow diagrams and timelines for sequenced thinking such as instructions and
historical information, tabular diagrams describing people and places, and combinations of
these. The structure of the text is used to facilitate learning and the creation of activities
which focus on both language development and core content knowledge.

Language identification
Learners are expected to be able to reproduce the core of the text in their own words. Since
learners will need to use both simple and more complex language, there is no grading of
language involved, but it is a good idea for the teacher to highlight useful language in the text
and to categorise it according to function. Learners may need the language of comparison and
contrast, location or describing a process, but may also need certain discourse markers,
adverb phrases or prepositional phrases. Collocations, semi-fixed expressions and set phrases
may also be given attention as well as subject-specific and academic vocabulary.

Tasks for students

There is little difference in task-type between a CLIL lesson and a skills-based ELT lesson. A
variety of tasks should be provided, taking into account the learning purpose and learner
styles and preferences. Receptive skill activities are of the 'read/listen and do' genre. A menu
of listening activities might be:

 Listen and label a diagram/picture/map/graph/chart

 Listen and fill in a table

 Listen and make notes on specific information (dates, figures, times)

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  Listen and reorder information

 Listen and identify location/speakers/places

 Listen and label the stages of a process/instructions/sequences of a text

 Listen and fill in the gaps in a text

Tasks designed for production need to be subject-orientated, so that both content and
language are recycled. Since content is to be focused on, more language support than usual in
an ELT lesson may be required.
Typical speaking activities include:

 Question loops - questions and answers, terms and definitions, halves of sentences

 Information gap activities with a question sheet to support

 Trivia search - 'things you know' and 'things you want to know'

 Word guessing games

 Class surveys using questionnaires

 20 Questions - provide language support frame for questions

 Students present information from a visual using a language support handout.

Conclusion
From a language point of view the CLIL 'approach' contains nothing new to the EL teacher.
CLIL 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.

Further reading
Forum for Across the Curriculum Teaching - www.factworld.info/
Comenius Project TL2L - www.tl2l.nl/
European Centre for Modern Languages - www.ecml.at/
Norwich Institute for Language Education - www.nile-elt.com
Science Across the Curriculum - www.scienceacross.org
EuroCLIC - www.euroclic.org
The National Centre for Languages (CILT) - www.cilt.org.uk
Content and Language Integrated Project (CLIP) - www.cilt.org.uk/clip/

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Steve Darn, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey

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

CLIL – how to do it

If you've not worked in CLIL before, this article will give you a point to start from, in terms
of both learners and materials. TeachingEnglish is currently growing its CLIL resources, and
you can find more articles and activities on this page: www.teachingenglish.org.uk/clil.

“Chris, we’ve been asked to work with some schools to develop their CLIL courses. Can you
look after that?” That was the first time I heard the term CLIL. I said yes, not really knowing
what I was letting myself in for, but now, many years down the line I hope some things I
learnt can be of use to others having to design and teach CLIL courses.

Much has been written on what CLIL is and why to do it, for example the articles on
TeachingEnglish, but there is very little practical guidance on how to plan and teach CLIL
lessons. If you are a subject teacher who has been asked to teach in English (or any other
language for that matter), or a language teacher who has been asked to help teach content
then this article will show you where to start.

Where to start
The first things to think about when planning a CLIL lesson, or indeed a whole course, are
the who and the what. That is who your students are – their level of English (or whatever the
second language is), level of content knowledge, and their requirements. What refers to what
you will teach, in terms of both content and language, and what materials to use. The who
feeds in to the what.

Who your students are

In one secondary school in Italy that I taught CLIL in the students had generally quite a high

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level of English and that meant that I could focus more on the content side (here science and
technology), using English as a vehicle for content. With these students, I was able to adapt
material designed for native English pupils. On the other hand, in another school the English
level was quite weak, so I had to go for a more language-oriented approach, focusing on the
particular vocabulary related to the content areas (in this case art and design). With these
pupils, native English text books were linguistically too hard for them, so I had to write and
adapt my own materials to both teach key art and design vocabulary and also develop
language skills, with the goal of allowing these students to be able to use “real” English
content text books by their last year of school.

Cognitive load
Another important factor to consider when selecting materials is cognitive load – that is you
don’t want to blow their brains with too much information. This can be done by choosing a
relatively simple content area or by using an area that you have already covered in L1 and
doing the CLIL lesson / course as revision and extension.

A colleague in a Japanese university recently explained to me how he chose his materials. He

teaches an introductory English course to help science and engineering undergraduates be
able to cope with the English that they will need later on at university. To do this he uses a
science text book designed for native English secondary schools. This works very well for
both teacher and student as the content level is not too hard, but provides an authentic context
for the vocabulary that the students will need later on. As the book is already there with its
exercises ready-made, all that remains for the teacher is to design activities to teach the
language that is in the book.

Finding CLIL materials

There are also many sources of materials on the internet, some good ones are in the Links
section of this site . One particularly useful one is Wikipedia, both the normal English and the
'Simple English' sites are great sources of texts that can be legally adapted and used in class.

If language teachers and content teachers are working together then it’s vital to work as a
team. If you can then observe each other’s lessons and talk together. Content teachers will
have loads of materials which you may be able to find equivalents of in English, and
language teachers will probably have ideas as to how to exploit those materials for language.

How to exploit materials

When you’ve found a text that you want to cover (written or listening), the next question is
how to exploit it. Here language teachers are in familiar territory, but subject teachers are
probably less familiar with the techniques of how to exploit a text for language. One of the
first aspects to think about may be the vocabulary – is there any technical or specialist
vocabulary that your students need to know for the course or to understand the text? If so
then you might want to pre-teach this by getting students to match words to definitions or
pictures, or by making a gap-fill. Alternatively, you could help them discover the meanings
through the text – helping them to guess meaning from context.

Your main activity will probably concentrate on general comprehension of the text. You can
do this with comprehension questions, information gaps, jigsaw reading tasks, jumble tasks,
or many of the other ideas on the Try section of TeachingEnglish.

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Follow-up activities can work on reinforcing the vocabulary taught earlier and developing
both language skills and comprehension of the topic. These activities can include group
discussions, individual presentations, making posters and writing about the topic (for
homework or in class).

Have a look at the CLIL activities on TeachingEnglish for more ideas.

Conclusion
David Graddol once noted that when CLIL works, it works well, but it is hard to do well.
Hopefully this article will help you to avoid some of the pitfalls – spending too much time
looking for materials and designing. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the rewarding experience of being
a CLIL teacher – seeing your students develop their language as well as knowledge and
understanding of the world. If you have any comments, please feel free to write them below
and we can start a discussion on the area of CLIL lesson and course planning.

By Chris Baldwin

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/clil-%E2%80%93-how-do-it

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