Running header: A CLOSE-UP ON CLIL

A close-up on CLIL

Kinga Jdrusiak

University of Warsaw

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Abstract

Content and language integrated learning is reaching significant fame and appreciation among

schools in many countries. Despite the high interest in this teaching approach, people

frequently look at this concept superficially. This article intends to explain the complexity of

language and content issues in regard to CLIL. It allows a reader to understand the crucial

aspects of this approach and to gradually look more profoundly at the elements that build its

essence.

Keywords: language, content, integration

Introduction

To fully understand the complexity of creating a CLIL unit and conducting a lesson which

supports both language and content, it is advisable to provide an explanation as to what the

concept of a CLIL really is. The term CLIL, which stands for Content and Language

Integrated Learning, means a dual-focus educational approach in which the teaching of non-

language subjects and learning are conducted in an additional, foreign language. (Coyle, Hood

& Marsh, 2010, p. 1). It means that in the CLIL class, other language than mother tongue is

used to study and give instruction (Szpotowicz & Szulc-Kurpaska, 2009, p. 36). The central

idea of this approach is the integration of both content and language.

Although this concept may seem to be new and innovative for some people, this kind of

teaching practice dates back to prehistory. About five thousand years ago, a tribe called

Akkadians wanted to get to know the Sumerian language to conquer their land. At the

beginning Sumerian language was the medium of communication and it was used to teach

theology or zoology. They noticed that mastering the foreign language and combining it with

the content might be extremely beneficial. A clearer example of using another language as a
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medium of instruction was the widespread use of Latin. For many years, this language was

commonly used at many universities in Europe. Science, theology, medicine or philosophy are

just a few examples of subjects that were taught in Latin (Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008, p.

9). However, we should be aware of the fact that the use of Latin to teach content cannot be

called CLIL in the pure sense because universities there did not develop the local languages.

It means that CLIL focuses not only on the second language but also its aim is to contribute to

the progress of the first language.

In 20th century, the idea of CLIL was revived in Canada, where the problem of English-

speaking children in the French-speaking areas occurred. In response to the situation, the local

authorities established the immersion programme that made the children learn all the subjects

in French. However, it should be stressed that this Canadian immersion is slightly different

from CLIL in European countries. This is because the second language is the other official

language in the country and it entails the fact that it is easier to find highly-qualified subject

teachers who use the language (Dalton-Puffer, 2008, p. 2). In European countries it is more

complex as a general/subject teacher rarely is a native speaker of e.g. English. That is why we

should take into consideration many aspects such as the teachers profiles (their area of

knowledge, what studies they finished), their experience in teaching, the foreign language

competences (if they graduated also from the language philology or they are qualified with

the certificate allowing them to teach the language) and the teachers use of the second

language in class (Enever, 2011, p. 82-83). What should be taken into account in many cases

is also the collaboration of the subject teacher and the language teacher if they have

common goals or whether they are eager to cooperate with each other.

Regardless of the country, there are two faces of CLIL which are informally called soft and

hard. The term soft CLIL means that a teacher integrates the language in the curriculum,
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whereas the second term hard CLIL refers to the language implementation of bilingual

education step by step (Szpotowicz & Szulc-Kurpaska, 2009, p. 37). Despite the types of

CLIL, the essence of this approach is the integration of content and language. The roles of the

language teacher and the subject teacher are crucial as they should cooperate to support

students learning. They have to enable students to acquire the knowledge of curriculum

subjects (such as e.g. Art, Geography, Music, Math, Science, History) in a target language

(Handbook for Teachers, p. 2) and also remember that the students should be able to use their

skills in the mother tongue.

The content of learning

The content in CLIL may be derived from a national curriculum or it can be drawn on the

issues that appear during the lessons and are somehow connected with the topic. Moreover,

the content can also be interdisciplinary, cross-curricular, which leads to the linking of many

themes from different subjects. Creating situations in which students can reach beyond the

regular curriculum greatly enriches the process of learning (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p.

28). It allows to build a bridge between the subjects that too often are treated independently

like separate elements. In everyday life people encounter situations which require knowledge

and skills from different areas, that is why cross-curricular themes are highly recommended.

Curricula and syllabuses, prepared by groups of professionals, include crucial aims and more

detailed objectives. However, they are said to show what a teacher may require from the

students, but there is no space for analysis of the effectiveness of teaching in different

contexts. It is not enough to focus only on skills and information that students have to gain.

Effective content learning should put emphasis on the use of acquired capacities through

cognitive challenge, coping with unexpected situations or solving emerging problems (Coyle,
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Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 29). Therefore, content is also associated with personalized learning,

which means creating the knowledge and understanding skills by students who are treated

individually with the remark of having different learning strategies and experiences (Meyer,

2010, p. 12). Thus, lack of the integration between content learning and different types of

thinking is said to be a mistake. The process of constructing the knowledge includes two

levels lower-order thinking and higher-order thinking, both of which were described by

Bloom. His taxonomy of cognitive processes leads to the concept that a teacher should not

only focus on the goals that require remembering and understanding things, but s/he ought to

guarantee activities allowing the students to apply their knowledge into practice. It is only the

mixture of this two types of thinking that leads to integrated, effective learning (Coyle, Hood

& Marsh, 2010, p. 30).

There are many concerns connected with teaching children curricular subjects in second

language. The one criticism which appears most frequently is that the foreign language has an

influence on the learning content. The insufficient knowledge of the language may lead to the

low level of understanding of the subject, which as a result can affect students mood and

trigger some emotional problems frustration, low self-esteem, lack of confidence. However,

Christiane Dalton-Puffer quotes the research conducted by Day & Shapson which shows

positive results that CLIL learners achieve the same amount of content knowledge as their

peers that are taught in the mother tongue (Dalton-Puffer, 2008, p. 4).

The language of learning

Firstly, it is important to notice that schools have to take into consideration which language to

choose. The criteria of choosing a particular language may be different e.g. the principal can

take into account the geopolitical situation of the region where his school is located. English,
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which nowadays seems to be a global language, should not be the only one language of CLIL

(Szpotowicz & Szulc-Kurpaska, 2009, p. 38). The language in a CLIL classroom is connected

with the authentic context for use.

First of all, to master the content, the students have to get to know the terminology linked with

the specific subject (content-obligatory language). Another type of language, called content-

compatible, includes the words, statements and expressions which are introduced to the

students and may come in handy but are not absolutely necessary for the understanding of the

content. Content-obligatory language consists of i.a. technical vocabulary, syntactical

features, language functions needed for a specific content, whereas the content-compatible

language is useful for expressing students thoughts and ideas (Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols,

2008, p. 104).

Regardless of the type of language that is used, the crucial activities are connected with oral

interaction among students. What is important is the fact that communication does not just

come down to grammatical progression and although grammar knowledge is important, it

cannot be forgotten that without the meaning-making CLIL would not succeed. Focusing on

meaning, learning language with the use of appropriate context is the main principle of

communicative approach which was summarized briefly by Savigon:

- language is a tool for communication,

- diversity is recognized and accepted as part of language development,

- culture is instrumental,

- there is no single methodology for language and teaching, or set of prescribed techniques,

- the goal is language using as well as language learning. (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p.

32).
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As CLIL is connected with the authentic context for use, these principles are relevant for this

approach. Therefore, the main notion of CLIL with regard to the language and content is that

teachers should support students understanding of form and link it with meaning in the areas

of subjects.

Moreover, CLIL includes an extra focus on students interests and cooperation among the

peers (Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008, p. 108). Encouraging students to cooperate and share

their thoughts with others will lead to an ability to construct their own meaning and to use the

language connected with a learning context. To achieve this aim, the teachers have to plan

their lessons strategically and constitute both language and content objectives of particular

activities. What makes it easier to support the content of a lesson and the required language

equally is a conceptual representation called the Language Triptych (Coyle, Hood & Marsh,

2010, p. 36).

Figure 1. The Language Triptych

(Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 36)

This Language Triptych shares three different but interrelated perspectives of the language

used in a CLIL classroom: language of learning, language for learning and language through
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learning. The first perspective shows the language as an essential tool to gain the access to the

fundamental concepts and skills which are related to the specific subject. In other words, there

are key words or phrases, grammatical structures that are needed to understand the content,

e.g. if the topic of the lesson sounds water, then the language of learning consists of key

words: oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, pond, rain, steam, ice etc. Language for learning highlights

the need of effective operations in the environment where the foreign language is used. It is

the language to collect arguments against/for something, to write a report, to work in groups,

to ask and answer questions. Coming back to the water topic the language for learning is

connected with the ability of asking e.g. what do you know about the Baltic Sea? What does

steam mean? Or the ability to contrast and compare e.g. the animals living in seas are bigger

than the ones living in the rivers. The third type of perspective on language is connected with

the language emerging in CLIL settings that is full of active involvement and different types

of thinking (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 63). It is the language connected with the

activities such as looking for something in dictionaries, listening to the teachers feedback,

making use of a peers explanation, learning new word that appeared in the others

presentations etc.

As the students may feel that language needed to gain the knowledge of the subject is very

challenging, the teachers should support their language learning and acquisition. The first step

to do it is creating a supportive, friendly environment in which students would not feel

stressed and afraid of making mistakes. In the beginning the use of mother tongue during the

lessons may occur (especially at the primary level) and the first months can be devoted to

building the gradual development of the language skills. In teacher talk the teacher has to

strike a balance between unnatural, exaggerated, extremely slow pace of the speech and the

pace that is too fast for students to understand. It is not only the pace of speech that is very
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important, but the language level as well. The teacher has to adjust it carefully, avoiding both

too complex and too simple structures and vocabulary. What reinforces the meaning is use of

gestures, demonstrations, facial expressions and visual aids. Moreover, the topics should refer

to the students lives and experiences, which makes the process of learning meaningful and

authentic (Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008, p. 106).

Integrating language and content

The integration of both content and language learning is the valid notion of the CLIL. Marsh,

Coyle & Hood describe four main dimensions of building this integration. These aspects are:

content, communication, cognition and culture, which together constitute so called the 4Cs

framework. Effective CLIL takes place when all these elements have a strong relationship. On

the basis of this framework teachers can create CLIL units and then implement them (Coyle,

Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 41).

Teachers have to bear in minds that planning a lesson is very demanding and complex,

especially with regard to CLIL and the market still suffers from the shortage of ready-made

materials that can be easily used during the lesson. After the selection of the lessons topic,

which has to be wide enough to cover many different aspects, teachers have to consider the

content. What is useful is looking at the content as though it is a collection of skills that the

students will gain the access to. After that, making connections between content and cognition

should take place, which means that the teacher is obliged to analyze in depth what kinds of

thinking and cognitive levels may be useful for the content. Blooms taxonomy describes

these cognitive skills and is helpful for designing the lesson plan. The third step is linking the

content and cognition with communication and this process is based on the use of the

Language Triptych which was described above. The fourth C in the CLIL framework stands

for culture and it refers to the students ability to work with peers from different backgrounds
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and cultures. The students consider the cultural implications for development of the theme

(Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 54). This convergence between the learning of language and

content helps students to perceive their experiences more profoundly.

Moving towards the implementation the theory into the practice there is an example of the

CLIL unit below, showing the way of planning the lesson.

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Conclusions

Although, a dual-focus educational approach that puts emphasis both on a foreign language

and the content dates back to the prehistory, it started getting more and more conscious notice
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in 20th century. This interest is gradually increasing and it is being implemented into curricula

in many countries. The valid notion is the integration of both content and language learning in

the concrete local educational context. To discover the potential located in CLIL and let its

principles be fully adopted in the different environments, headmasters and teachers have to be

aware of the link between the language and content. The mixture of context, culture, content

and language gives students an opportunity to fully understand the word which surrounds

them. Integration, convergence and learning focused on participation and experience are the

factors that respond to the demands of the modern age. Despite the fact that there are many

wonderful teachers and well-prepared materials to teach the language, we face many problems

with English the effectiveness of teaching in our schools. The learning outcomes fall dismally

and that often is caused by the teaching without the context. Also, the content taught in

another language than mother tongue may be understood more profoundly by the students.

That is why CLIL should take more and more place in our schools enriching the learning

environment and posing an extra challenge for both learners and teachers.

Bibliographical references
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Coyle, D., Hood, P. & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL. Content and Language Integrated Learning.

Cambridge University Press.

Dalton-Puffer C. (2008). Outcomes and processes in Content and Language Integrated

Learning (CLIL): current researches in Europe.

Enever J. (2011). ELLiE Early Language Learning in Europe. British Council.

Handbook for teachers CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning, University of

Cambridge.

Meyer O., (2010) Towards quality CLIL: successful planning and teaching strategies.

Mehisto P., Marsh D., Frigols M. J. (2008). Uncovering CLIL. Content and Language

Integrated Learning in bilingual and multilingual education. Macmillan Publishers Limited.

Szpotowicz M., Szulc-Kurpaska M. (2009). Teaching English to Young Learners.

Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.