CLIL MethodologyIn

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The term CLILGeneric umbrella term encompassing

any activity in which

a foreign language

is used as a tool in the learning of

a non-language subject

in which both language and the subject have a joint curricular role.

Definition• CLIL is a dual-focused educational approach in which

an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language.

• CLIL is not language for specific or vocational purposes. It is about teaching important aspects of a subject through a foreign language.

The CLIL Matrix

3 4

2 1

High cognitive demands

Low cognitive demands

Low linguistic demands

High linguistic demands

Challenge 1

Transforming content

into comprehensible

input

1. Sensitisation : Sensorial Cognitive

Plurilingual

Communicativeapproaches

2. Research:Mapping one’s understanding.

Task-based Learning.

Learner Autonomy.

Challenge 2

Generating comprehensible

output

3. Development :

Learner takes responsibility for sharing knowledge.

4. Consolidation (language)

and synthesis (content):

Lexical, cognitive and communicative

approaches

Áine Furlong, W.I.T., February 2009

Attitu

des Atti

tudes

Attitudes

Attitudes

content

task language

CLIL

English for Professional Purposes: Backwards? Forwards? Towards!

E-merging Forum-3, Moscow, March 1, 2013

Dr. Andrei KuznetsovProfessor

Academy of Professional Development and Re-Training of Educators

Backwards?Step away from the learner-centered

approach, i.e. contrasted to other, ‘more communicative’, ELT trends - return to the ‘obsolete’, notoriously promulgated ‘Soviet’ ELT concept

Forwards?

Introduction of didactic and social innovations [preferably revolutionary!] that seems to be a high trend and a must today

Towards!

A more-or-less dynamic movement towards the meeting of the requirements of the university education stakeholders

Application of CLIL in Russian Federation

CLIL in Upper Elementary Schools in Russia

• There are difficulties in applying CLIL in Upper Elementary School in Russian Federation

• A research was conducted in University of West Bohemia by a researcher by name Tereza Hnatkova,from Faculty of Education,Department of English.

Thesis THE MAIN DIFFICULTIES IN

APPLYING CLIL METHOD ON TEACHING IN UPPER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

Research on CLIL

Research involved to major parts:

1.Theoretical work2. Practical (Experiment) work

CLIL-Classroom principles• Language is used to learn as well as to communicate• It is the subject matter which determines the language

needed to learn• Subject is taught in simple easily comprehensible ways, using

diagrams, illustrations, graphs, highlighted terms• Language – subject based vocabulary, texts and discussions. If

needed, L1 can be used

A successful CLIL lesson should combine elements of the following

(the 4Cs):• Content - Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to

specific elements of a defined curriculum. (It should not repeat the content learnt in other lessons!)

• Communication – Using language to learn and learning to use language. Language does not follow the grammatical progression found in language-learning settings

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

• Culture- understanding of otherness and self, deepened feelings of community and global citizenship

(David Marsh)

CLIL Methodology in teaching leads to…

1. Intellectual flexibility

2. A better understanding of other disciplines as well as of language

3. Self-confidence.

4. Greater visibility for languages in the institution

5. Transforms language learners into language users

Question:

Is CLIL a viable option for improving tertiary-level students’ language skills?

So, you see, the orbit of

a planet is elliptical

What’s an orbit? What’s a

planet?

What’s elliptical?

Language is a problem in language-medium instruction

• Tella, Räsänen & Vähäpassi (eds) 1999: Teaching through a foreign language: from tool to empowering mediator– national, external evaluation of 15 polytechnic & university level

English-medium programmes

• Räsänen, 2000: Learning and teaching through English at the University of Jyväskylä – Part of an international evaluation of quality of teaching,

international & Finnish students & teaching staff at the U of Jyväskylä

• Hellekjär & Westergaard, 2002: An exploratory survey of content learning through English at Scandinavian universities– Questionnaires to Scandinavian universities, 2 Shools of

Economics and Business, one polytechnic– 20 returns from Norway, 10 from Denmark, 12 from Sweden and

10 from Finland

Findings• The use and role of language of instruction was not

considered, it was downplayed, even ignored.• Both staff and (undergraduate) students have language

problems • Students had problems in

– understanding lectures– academic spoken skills– academic writing– study skills

• Lecturers had problems with oral fluency

Definition of content and language integrated learning (CLIL)

• CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through a foreign language with dual-focussed aims, namely the learning of content, and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language. (David Marsh)

• Students’ language skills can be improved by

• Offering separate courses in content-specific and academic English and study skills in – speaking for academic purposes – academic writing

• Offering CLIL courses with – a special focus on language in content instruction (content

teacher)– content and language teacher collaborating (sheltered courses)

What are some characteristics of CLIL and CLILL in particular?

orbit

Well, Kepler was not a CLIL teacher…

Content and language integrated teaching rely on making content comprehensible in many ways, e.g. visual. Let’s look at the language component next …

Language enhancement in CLIL • Comprehensible input seems to be important for

comprehension skills.• Challenging spoken and written output may be necessary

for further development of language proficiency. • Interaction with peers & in groups can create dynamic ZPDs

& offers opportunities for negotiation of meaning and form

• Content-specific language is necessary for content learning (CALP)

• So are general & content-specific thinking skills & related language, content-specific discourse, vocabulary & concepts

Content in higher education is typically context reduced and cognitively demanding (Quadrant 4)

What the content teacher can do

Teacher Talk vs. Student Talk

• Adjust teacher talk• Allow Ss more time to speak • Elicit student talk• Provide more thinking time

Sometimes the teacher knows the answers…

T: Who is the greatest composer?S: BeethovenT: Wrong. Bach.T: Name me one Russian composer.S: Tchaikovsky.T: Wrong. Rimsky-Korsakov. (Quoted in Edwards & Westgate 1994)

Open-ended questions to trigger higher-order thinking

• What is the difference between … and ….?• Explain why…• What would happen, if…• What’s another example of…?• How could ….be used to….?• What is the counter argument for?• What are the causes of…? How do you know?

Giving and receiving feedback

• Explicit correction• Elicitation• Clarification request• Metalinguistic clues• Recasts• Repetition

• Lyster & Ranta 1997

T:36% S:0 %T:23% S:43%T:11% S:20%T:14% S:26%T:10% S:0 %T:6% S:11%

Activating background information: the role of advance organizers

• Activating background knowledge triggers hypothesis formation, predicting and inferencing.

• The following words are among the key words in a text we are going to study:

• anvil, hammer, stirrup• What do you think the text is about?

hammeranvil

stirrup

Use of visual aids

• Realia, graphs, charts, photos, objects, • Authentic material, illustrations, maps,

demonstrations, photos, video clips• Outlines • Time lines • Flow charts • Mapping• Graphs • Venn Diagrams

Graphic organisers• Graphic organisers provide a structure for the presentation of

the content.• ’Gapped’ graphic organisers can be used as advance

organizers, note-taking devices and tests, for example.• Graphic organisers help structuring the content and

processing the content in different ways• Turning graphic organisers into oral or written language is a

way of producing challenging output.

Semantic webs

Cause and effect

One cause-several effects

A fishbone cause-effect diagram (multiple, complex causes)

Cognitive academic needs

Thinking skills - speech acts, text formats General skills:• identify – classify/define – describe – explain –

conclude/argue – evaluate,Specific skills (Physics):• defining – classifying – making inductions/stating laws

– describing states and processes –• working with graphs, diagrams, tables, etc. –

interpreting – writing reports. (Mohan, Abuja, Thűrmann)

Questions to elicit higher-order thinking

• What is the difference between photosyntesis and respiration? (comparison/contrast)

• Explain why antibiotics cannot cure common colds? (analysis)

• What would happen if water boiled at 60 degrees Celsius? (prediction/hypothesizing)

• How would you argue that the Earth is not flat? (rebuttal to argument)

• What are the causes of the tides? How do you know? (analysis of cause and effect)

Words, words,

• the importance of words

A taxonomy of the words in science

Level 1: Naming words1.1 Familiar objects, new names (synonyms)1.2 New objects, new names1.3 Names of chemical elements1.4 Other nomenclature

Level 2: Process words2.1 Capable of ostensible definition (e.g., being shown)2.2 Not capable of ostensible definition

Level 3: Concept words3.1 Derived from experience (sensory concepts)3.2 With dual meanings, i.e. everyday and scientific: for example. ’work’.3.3 Theoretical constructs (total abstractions, idealisations and postulated entities)

Level 4: Mathematical ’words’ and symbols

Wellington & Osborne 2001: 20

Commonly used but difficult words in science

abundant adjacent concept conceptioncontract convention converse disintegrate

diversity emit factor incident

liberate linear negligible retard

spontaneous stimulate tabulate valid

From Pickersgill & Lock 1991

Pickersill & Lock (1991) used multiple choice tests to gauge the meanings of 30 non-technical words. 108 males & 89 females, aged 14 – 15. No gender differences were found. Below are the words that showed to be the most difficult.

Interaction of all kinds is importantDiscussionCooperative group workTask-based learning

Discussion

Collaborative concept mappingCritical reasoning in science

Constructing an argumentWhich of the following arguments is the best piece of evidence that matter is made up of particles and why?a.Air in a syringe can be squeezed.b.All the crystals of any pure substance have the same shape.c. Water in a puddle disappears.d.Paper can be torn into very small pieces.

Using DARTs for discussionDART= directed activities related to text)

A muddled sentence DART

A B C D E F G

A

An

Both

atom/selement/scompound/smolecule/smixture/s

cannotisis theandcan

made up ofelement/snotbesmallest

brokenoneaparticletwo or moreare

puretype/s ofof a/anatomsdownpure

chemically.element.molecule.particle/s.atom/s.compound.physically.substances.

An atom cannot be broken down chemically.An element is made up of one pure substance.

Language teacher

• Vocabulary – concepts • Textual: Nominalisations and noun-verb

combinations in legal English, EN-participles in Chemistry texts, nominals in academic writing, verb forms in medical texts

• Discourse & genre: problem-solution patterns, rhetorical patterns, move-structures in professional genres, disciplinary variation

• Social: language and ideology, cross-cultural and intercultural aspects of language use

Word tree

Word inferencing

Thank you

Benefits of CLIL• The whole that is greater than the sum of the parts (synergy effect)• Accelerates learning• Is authentic• Nurtures a feel good (fun!) and can do attitude • Fires the brain up, fires the neurons, rejuvenates teaching • Serves as a platform for ultimate students’ interest in other languages and

cultures• Gives feelings of professional satisfaction and cooperation to teachers• Parents are for it• Beneficial for the school

Discouraging factors/ limitations• CLIL is complex• There is no single model for CLIL – the context is to be taken into account• Who is to teach CLIL (language or subject teachers), and how to combine

both?• New concepts are always difficult to accept• Threat to the native language, if any? Do academic language and

terminology develop?• Insufficient understanding of content through the medium of foreign

language• CLIL methodology and assessment are not clear – teachers have to be

supported• Teacher overload, shortage of materials