CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)

Resources

House, S (1997): A introduction to teaching english to children. London: Richmond.

Scott, W., Ytreberg, L. (1991): Teaching english to children. London: Longman.

Moon, J. (2000): Children lerning english. Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann.



7. CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)

7.1. What is CLIL? (incluye los objetivos: aim)

As indicated by the acronym CLIL “Content and Language Integrated Learning” in which pupils learn a subjects through the medium of a foreign language.

CLIC has reference situations where students are taught through a foreign language with dual-focused aim, namely the learning of content, and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language.

There are several model of CLIL:

• “Integrated” or “embedded”: primary pupils experiment with elements of the TL.

• Meanings that matter: attractive topic and age appropriate. In addition, work with other schools, students….

• Bilingual or immersion learning: teaching a topic in a style that includes learning another language.

The aims which expect to achieve are

      1. Obtain knowledge target language.

      2. Attain necessary skills in the target language.

      3. Acquire necessary skills in the mother tongue. 

      4. Comprehend and respect both cultures.

      5. Develop cognitive and social skills

7.2. Benefits and advantages The benefits and advantages of the CLIL Methodology are infinites.


Benefits

In other words: 

• Naturalistic learning. 
• Meaningful and real communication
• Primacy of meaning over form 
• Affective gains
• Communicative competence

Advantages

7.3. Characteristics and examples

CLIL lessons integrate language and skills and receptive and productive skills, with reading and listening activities. The language is functional and determined by the context of the subject, and is approached lexically rather grammatically. 

Also, there are 4 important charasterictis that have to be present all the time in the CLIL Methodology. It is: 

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

- Content: Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to specific elements of a defined curriculum.

-  Culture: Exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings, which deepen awareness of otherness and self. 

-  Cognitive:Developing thinking skills which link concept formation (abstract and concrete), understanding and language. 

Design and Curriculum Planning in Primary

6. Design and Curriculum Planning in Primary

6.1. Why planning?

As Moon (2001) says, planing save time: the teacher can adapt this plan for future use, check quicker because he or she do it at the end of a lesson what actually happened...

According to Scott and Ytreberg (1990), it's more easier for the teacher in the classroom, he or she knows what needs for each session and makes he or she is more confident.

The approach is personalize to the students' needs and the planning changes with the group. It makes the pupils are more safety.

It more interesting than the book, and enthusiasm pupil because the activities are well-prepared and designed for them.

6.2. Long and Short term

 

6.3. What do when things go wrong?

Classroom Management

4. Classroom Management

4.1. What is Classroom Management?

According to Scott and Ytreberg (1990), classroom management is the organisation and atmosphere of class. These include the lesson, environment, the chairs organisation.

4.2. Why Classroom Management?

It's important to attend to diversity, to discipline, learning, the relationship in the class, and for working and obtain good results. Also, classroom management allowes dinamics activities, comunication, mobility, motivation. With all of that the pupils are more self-confident.

4.3. Which conditions will enable children to learn?

As Scott and Ytreberg (1990) say, a good atmosphere, to feel confident and equally and to enjoy with the activities. 

4.4. What characteristics have an ideal teacher to help children learn English?

According to Scott and Ytreberg (1990), an ideal teacher search new and interesting activities, using music and drawing, and creating an atmosphere where children don't be afraid to wrong.
With classroom management, teacher can listen the children that aware of their evolution. It's good for working the self-esteem.

4.5. Groups

Accordign to House (1997) usually, the classroom organisation and work has been very traditional. First, the teacher addres the class. Students answered in whole gruop or one by one. This is known as "frontal" teaching. Then, students were sat alone and did all the work individually.

These two characteristics make the active communication very difficult and are very limited. We think like House (1997) that one of the reason of this methodology is the teacher has students controlled, classroom discipline is very easy and everyone is silent.

But we, the teachers, have become aware of noise in the English class is something very common.

There are a lot of groups dynamics tha we can use in different activities. The advantages are the following:

• Children will have more speaking time.
• Students adopt teacher role. They act like teachers, passing information and helping each other.
• Working in pairs or small groups make students more cooperative and more independent.
• Education becomes personal and individual.
• Sometimes pupils need to move during a lesson, but if you make the class with different gruop dynamics the will stand up and move.

Groups dynimics

Teacher to whole group

Small groups

  Pairwork

Teacher to individual students

Small group to small group

Individual work

4.6. Discipline

Since each teacher has a discipline depending on class behavior, House (1997) proposes a basic guide for classroom management, detecting problems and applying remedies.

Attention to diversity

4. Attention to diversity

4.1. Multiple Intelligences

According to Gardner, after several studies with persons with cerebral hurts they took him to the conclusion of which the intelligence human it has the following characteristics:

1. Human intelligence to consist of intelligence that can work individually or with the association of others.

2. Human intelligence is a combination of skills that allows the individual to solve problems in which you are.

3. Human intelligence it is the ability to do something.

4. Each person has a different capacity in each area of intelligence and a unique and different combination of intelligences.

5. The environment and nature incurred in each of the intelligences. This theory says that comes from developing biological and environmental intelligence.

6. The use and interaction of intelligence for understanding.

As Gardner, there are eight types of intelligences or skills according to the theory of multiple intelligences.

1. Linguistic intelligence: the skill that allow your effective use language to express and appreciate the meaning, both oral and written.

2. Logical-mathematical intelligence: the skill to do math, to reason hypothesis and proposal.

3. Visual- spatial intelligence: the skill of to indent the form, space and color, to perceive images indoors or outdoors, recreate or transform or encode and represent information graphically.

4. Kinesthetic intelligence- body: the skill to manipulate objects, to coordination movements and to use the body in order to solve problem and express ideas and feelings.

5. Musical intelligence: the skill to identify and remember the rhythm, tome, timbre and melody.

6. Naturalist intelligence: the skill to recognize and select animals, plants and minerals and to perceive seasonal changes.

7. Interpersonal intelligence: the skill to understand the feelings of others and interaction with others.

8. Intrapersonal intelligence: the skill to know yourself to know your own limitation and potentialities.

According to Gardner, these eight skills should not be taught in eight different forms or not, the teacher must be aware of and take to respond to individual differences beings students that any knowledge can be represented in different ways.

This theory aims to create opportunities for students to learn from the way that is most effective.

4.2. Activities

We have created one activity per each intelligence, like examples.

1. LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE

For developing language intelligence they should read a short text about the topics and then in pairs telling his/her partner with her/his own words what he/she understand. The partner will have to do the same but with a different text.

2. LOGICAL- MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCE

An activity that develops logical-mathematical intelligence is identify a word that doesn´t belong to the list. The topics of the list will be food. Then children can use the words not chose and create a mural with the instructions necessary for creating their favorite recipe.

3. VISUAL-SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

We can organise a crossword with orientation trails preparing a gymkhana with all the vocabulary of an unit. The teacher hiding pieces of paper with a definition. Children, in groups of four pupils, have to find it and use this information to complete a crossword.

4. KINESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE-BODY

The teacher search or create a little story and give some roles to pupils to do a role-play. They have to dramatize it with gestures and voice changes.

5. MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE

For developing musical intelligence, students could sing a song about the content of the topic, learning it and then pronouncing stress syllables.

6. NATURALISTIC INTELLIGENCE

The teacher organises a environmental discuss about the environment in class, dividing the pupils in two teams and giving them topics and roles which they have to defend searching arguments. For that, teacher give them some classes and solve their dubs.

7. INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

We can organise a taboo words activity in five groups of five pupils, approximately. One member of group pick up a card with word he can't to say and the group have to guess a word, maybe an action, with their classmate explain. To win, the pupils need cooperate with the members of their team.

8. INTRAPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE

An activity which develops intrapersonal intelligence is a self-assesment. Because the pupils have to think about what they know and unknown, their level, about themselves.

4.3. Revision Bloom Taxonony

It's theory that pretend develop thecognitive processes in the learners. It has six skills, from less complex to more complex: 


- Remember: It is remember and recognize relevant information.
- Understand: Ability to construct meaning from pedagogical materials. 
- Apply: Application of a learned process.
- Analyze: Breaking knowledge down into parts and thinking how it is related to all the structure.
- Evaluate: it is the verification and the criticism. 
- Create:  This is generate, plan and produce knowledge.

Teaching, learning and evaluating skills and competences in MLF Primary

3.TEACHING, LEARNING AND EVALUATING SKILLS AND COMPETENCES IN MLF PRIMARY

For learning a MLF, there are four skills that the children have to acquire on the teaching-learning process. The acquisition of these skills is secuenced, first listening, speaking, reading, and then writing.

3.1. Listening 

ccording to Scott and Ytreberg (1991), we can't work the skills as four isolation things at school. These are connected and there are activities to practise the listening and development the others skills. Listening is the skill that children acquire first, but we have to give them visual back-up and not to overload children, because they have a very short attention span. Besides, when the pupils don't understand something, they can't listen again without our help. We have to pay attention and to break for do questions if we are telling a story, for example. There are many types of activities that we can use, like:

• “Listen and do”: the teacher use the movement for start the English lesson, giving instructions like “hop on your left foot five times”, so you know if the children have understood, and they learn vocabulary, counting, spelling,... Besides, the pupils learn from each other. Some examples are put up your hand when, mime stories or drawing.
• “Listening for information”: the pupils have to listening for specific information these activities are often used to check what the children know, but they can also be used to give new information.Some of these activities areidentifying exercises, listen for the mistake, putting things in order, questionnaires, listen and colour.
• “Listen and repeat”: these are enjoyable activities for children because they can get a feel for the language: the sound, the stress, the rhythm and the intonation. Activities like rhymes or songs.
• “Listening to stories”: the stories have a important role to play in the child’s development and, of course, in the development of language. In the classroom, this create a friendly and secure atmosphere for the pupils. The teacher should not moralise or explain the story, although, discussion is very important. Children can telling, creating or reading stories.
• “Independent listening”: this is about to have an English corner where the pupils can sit comfortable and have books to read, and others materials, like cassettes, for practise and investigate about foreign language.
• “Questions and activities”: they are activities about a listening, like questions or more creative, for example asking for a end for a story.
  
  All these activities connect the listening with the movement, and that motive the pupils who can learn to the others when they don't understand the instructions, seeing their classmates. A great example of this kind of activities is mime stories (listen and do), where the teacher tells a story and the teacher and the pupils do the actions. It provides physical movement and give the teacher a chance to play along with the pupils.

Listening with Pipo:

3.2. Speaking

Limitations

Need for improvement in the use of oral English in class. Need to achieve a spontaneous fluency in using oral language class. Need to increase participation and motivation in English class.

Finding the balance

What is important with beginners is finding the balance between providing language through controlled and guided activities and at the same time letting they enjoy natural talk.

Correction

Is important while pupils is working with controlled and guided activities, we want them to produce correct language. If they make mistakes at this stage they should be corrected at once.

Examples:

Trough the pupils:

Teacher says; “Listen to me, please. Maria can swim. Peter can sing. Miriam can ride a bike. Paula can whistle”.

The sentences should be true and accompanied by the appropriate actions and sounds.

Using a mascot:

We can use a class mascot, “Teddy” (for example).

If teacher use a teddy as his mascot, he/she can use Teddy to ask questions, pupils can ask through Teddy: “Teddy wants to know…..” teacher can present dialogues with Teddy as your partners.

Drawings:

Use very simple line drawings on the board.

Silhouettes:

Using silhouettes on the overhead projector, they can be given movement if teacher attach a piece of wire to them.

Controlled practice

Controlled practice goes hand in hand with presentations since it is very important that pupils try out new language as soon as they have heard it. In controlled practice there is very little chance that the pupils can make a mistake.

Guided practice

Guided practice follows on directly from controlled practice and will often be done either in pairs or in small groups. Guided practice usually gives the pupils some sort of choice, but the choice of language is limited.

Dialogues and role play work

Working with dialogues is a useful way to bridge the gap between guided practice and freer activities. Controlled dialogues can easily develop into freer work when the pupils are ready for it. Putting pupils into pairs for doing the dialogues is a simple way of organising even large classes.

Using objects: using objects can make a dialogue come alive for young children and give it an amusing communicative purpose.

Role play. Dialogues and role play are useful oral activities because:

Pupils speak in the first and second person. Texts are often in third person.

Pupils learn to ask as well as answer. They learn to use short complete bits of languages and to respond appropriately. They don’t just use words, but also all the other parts of speaking a language - tone of voice, stress, intonation, facial expressions, etc-

3.3. Reading

According to House (1997) for students to be competent readers a rule to follow the teacher: “Let the children read they are ready to do so”. Reading entail two skills: decoding and reading with understanding.
In addition, to encourage reading in the classroom is necessary also outside it. For this, there are many materials or books upon it, theymust awaken interest.
There are several types of activities to work: jumbling words, encouraging reading and guessing the meaning of unknown words. Jumblig words consist to decomposition of a word in his letters to form another word.

3.4. Writing

As House (1997) says writing consists of motor skills as well as language skills. We take into account the development of pupils and adapt the resources and materials. For this reason, the written exercises have a set pattern, it always have the same structures.Also, it's important to know that children's free writing is slowly and costly, we must give the necessary time.There are five different kinds of written exercises:

3.5. Evaluation

Making an assessment plan

Basic testing areas:

Account individual abilities: One of the advantages of using a mixed assessment strategy is that you can encourage the students who have difficulties in English by rewarding good general work done in the classroom.

Assessment should be often and in small quantities. Don't forget the age of your students: they learn quickly but they also forget quickly!

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT.

You can then interpret these marks in the way described aboye, e.g.

Excellent progress: Average marks = 8-10/10

Satisfactory progress: Average marks = 5-8/10

Unsatisfactory progress: Average marks = 0-5/10

ORAL TEST

"How can I organise oral tests?"

  1.  Always tell the children that you are going to test them.

  2. Test them in small groups of about six.

  3.  Each time you test, change the members of the groups around so that the children have to learn to work with different members of the class.

  4.  Use different activities for testing

  5.  Acting out small plays based on a story or a roleplay

WRITTEN TEST

Give children a choice of exercises.

      Do not make the children work too quickly.

      Include a Listen and draw or Listen and write exercise.

GENERAL ATTITUDE AND EFFORT

Effort is very individual. Take into account that students will each be a.pplying different levels of effort to their work depending on:

- their interest in the subject

- their ability as students

Effort is very much a question of need. Students will apply the amount of effort needed to perform the task before them to the standard that they think you require.