MASTER:

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

SUBJECT:

CONTENT LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING

PROFESSOR´S NAME:

KARINA DIAZ

STUDENT’S NAME:

RUBY LORZA

ACTIVITY:

ESSAY

TOPIC:

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING CLIL METHOD.

DECEMBER - 2020
 CLIL as an exploration of language

Content and Language Integrated Learning or CLIL basically describes both learning another subject
such as physics or math through the medium of a foreign language and learning a foreign language
by studying a content-based subject. The basis of CLIL is that content subjects are taught and
learned in a language which is not the mother tongue of the learners. It is so important today to
learn foreign languages to communicate to the world, and when language is integrated into a broad
curriculum, the process of learning gets much faster.

In CLIL, learning is improved through increased motivation and the study of natural language seen
in context. When learners are interested in a topic, they are motivated to acquire language to
communicate. Furthermore, CLIL is based on language acquisition rather than enforced learning. It
is a much more natural process through real-life situations. In other words, it is the natural language
development which builds on other forms of learning.

The two main ideas behind CLIL materials are that the approach is topic focused and that students
learn the language through the content. When the content is interesting and relevant, students may
be more motivated than when the focus is on the language grammar, for example. The second idea is
that, by using topics that they are familiar with and have recently studied in their mother tongue,
students will be able to learn more as they will already know a lot of the content and context.

Many English language teachers worry about using CLIL materials because they feel they don’t have
the background knowledge of the subject. Although this may well be true to some extent, it is
important to remember that the material is only a vehicle for the language and most of the
worksheets in CLIL have been designed to be teacher-friendly; they do not need to be experts in a
particular subject or topic to be able to use them. There are two other points to make here: First,
does the teacher need to know everything? Isn’t there space in the teaching and learning process
for the teacher to learn as they teach, and sometimes for the students to teach the teacher?

Another disadvantage could be the view that other subject teachers might take, for example: Why
doesn’t the English teacher stick to teaching English and leave my subject to me? We can dispel this
problem before it even begins by talking to other subject teachers, explaining why we are using CLIL
materials, asking for their help and finding out how subject teachers can help us by knowing what
they are teaching and by using their lessons as an opportunity to review what the students are
learning across the curriculum.

Teachers are sometimes accustomed to dealing with content from a linguistic perspective, and not
so much from a conceptual perspective, but if students learn to understand and use this type of
language depends on many factors. What Graddol (1997) points out is that since CLIL approach
respect cognitive stages, teachers will be required to make adjustments. There is less teacher-talk
and more facilitation of tasks and language is broken down into key terms.

Language is learned as a part of the process, not as the aim of the process, in which language is a
medium in the teaching and learning of non-language content (Eurydice, 2006). Language teaching
can benefit from replacing talking about language with using language to talk about real subject
matter. Once language teachers are also trained to in how to analyze, exploit, break down and finally
use real thematic content effectively, language teaching will cease to be the curricular “extra
subject”.

Students who study subjects through a foreign language are immediately faced with a large
amount of text. Therefore, difficulty and scaffolding simply depend on what you ask the students
to do. So, a matrix can be used as a quality check on the overall objectives of a syllabus of CLIL
where the school literacy audits can overcome many of the following problems: lots of copying,
much unchallenging comprehension work, use of a minimal range of texts, insufficient
opportunities for oral work, etc.

To sum up, the use of Content and Language Integrated Learning is considered a new pattern in
language and subject teaching as for integrating both parts into teaching. Next, it responds to the
needs of globalization and uses the foreign language as a means of communication within
communities. The practical employment of this teaching approach is expected, although it is quite
demanding for the participating learners and teachers. CLIL emphasizes effective learning
outcomes, cognitive knowledge, critical thinking, and real lite use of a language in the subject's
background. Learners acquire the basic structures for communication in a foreign language which
is being developed.
References:

1. Díaz, K. (2020). Content Language Integrated Learning. IEXPRO Anthology.

2. Eurydice (2006). Content and Language Integrated Learning at school in Europe. Brussels:
Eurydice European Unit.

3. Graddol, D. (1997). The future of English? London: British Council.