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Is there a risk that CLIL will erode the quality of

English language education?


[A selection of quotes from the CLIL debate survey.]

"Yes, I believe so. I can't see how some CLIL training of subject teachers can ever make language
teachers out of them. If English is only taught through CLIL in the future, there is a serious risk
that the level of knowledge of English will begin to slide."

"On the contrary if it is 'good Clil' it will improve it because the students will have extra hours of English
in their curriculum. This further opportunity will help them improve their level of language proficiency,
especially if they live in areas with low possibility of exposure to English outside the classroom."
"Not if English is also kept as a separate subject. Students do learn incorrect usage from non-native
speaker subject teachers; the best we can do if these teachers do not use English accurately is to make
students aware of the problem areas in separate English lessons."
Yes! I teach at a school which was only CLIL before I started. Some pupils use very bad structures
- which was ok until now, because they got their meaning across. But once I showed them how to
use a plural, they used it correctly!
"Obviously if you concentrate on content a little more than, as it has been in the past, grammar
problems which have little further effect, you do stress language items much less. So a certain simpler
English language is produced. However, I would never go as far as saying that it erodes the quality of
English language education, as the language is only a tool with a goal at the end of it. In the past, it has
often been taught very much without an end product envisaged. What CLIL does is that it shows up the
very realistic use of the English language in everyday life."
"Could erode an awareness that grammar is still important to some extent. Grammar structures
also carry meaning and in business and politics this can be vital - to get one's meaning across
using accepted grammatical structures."
"CLIL can never take away the need of course for structured English lessons but it gives students
the chance of extra hours of English is a good thing."
"Why should it? The language taught is exactly the same. I think many people are unaware of how many
institutions teach in a CLIL way."
"It might. Schools should target Quality CLIL - were the language competence of teachers is
adequate."
"If teachers who have to work with this methodology do it because they want and want to be well
prepared there would be no problem."
"If the CLIL teachers are not trained language teachers, probably."
"I believe it can enhance the quality of English language teaching because of the focus on learner
autonomy and providing students with strategies to learn and the motivating factor of authentic tasks
that come (or should come) with CLIL."
"I don't see why it should. The English language teacher has his/her role to play and the CLIL teacher
has another role to play. They should work together and see each other as partners, not competitors."
"Absolutely. What we teachers of English need is more periods of English classes. Then, when the
students have the right language tools they could cope with different curricular contents in
English."
On the contrary, I think it speeds it up and improves it. If it is followed across the curriculum then students
are exposed to different genres and registers and learn, which is appropriate for the context. This increases
the authenticity of use and their need to use English correctly. I also feel that it pushes students to think
more critically about issues rather than just focus on language. I teach English to both mainstream and ESL
classes and have been amazed how my EAL students have responded to issues that they may not have been
exposed to if they were in withdrawal classes that only focus on grammar and have highly differentiated
activities.
I do not think this is an issue at primary level. At these levels, CLIL provides children with many wonderful
opportunities to use English rather than to study it (which their non-analytical brains are not particularly
interested in anyway) and as a TEFL teacher it has been wonderful for me to see how children really do
respond, with delight, to content learning. I think CLIL provides the student who is traditionally a "bad"
language learner the opportunity to make tremendous improvements in comprehension and fluency,
precisely because he/she is not focused on the language itself. At secondary level, however, I think there must
be some conscious language study included in the curriculum, as without some conscious, analytical study
students do not reach advanced levels (we do not expect them to merely "pick up" L1 advanced skills either),
therefore I would say that it would be necessary to incorporate a more traditional EFL class into the CLIL
syllabus. I conclude then, that CLIL has an enriching role in the quality of English language education, but as
with any method, it needs to be monitored, results analysed, and probably fused with complementary
methods. (http://www.onestopenglish.com/is-there-a-risk-that-clil-will-erode-the-quality-of-english-language-education/500993.article)

Teaching CLIL: Classroom Benefits


29 November 2010 by Oxford University Press ELT

Sometimes, just thinking about developing a CLIL program or even teaching one CLIL lesson
can be intimidating, overwhelming, and confusing. But dont let the tough appearance of CLIL fool
you it can be a very intuitive, natural way to teach and learn. Like any instructional method,
though, it requires a certain amount of understanding and dedication from you. It also helps if
youre willing to learn through the process of teaching, as Im sure you are being teachable is one
of the keys to successful pedagogy. CLIL can be successfully implemented by one teacher, but often,
two teachers collaborate before developing lesson plans and that means learning from each
other. By expanding the knowledge available to your students, youre also expanding your own
understanding, learning new material so that you can teach it well. Although it can be a difficult
process, its often rewarding to teach CLIL. But no matter what you have or havent heard about
this method, the following description of CLIL and its benefits and challenges can help you decide
whether or not it has a place in your classroom.
The pedagogical intentions behind CLIL
Youre probably well aware that Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a way
of approaching foreign language instruction subtly through subject-oriented teaching. For
example, you might focus on teaching the geography of Spain, but the secondary learning objective
would be Spanish vocabulary associated with geography. It might not sound like the most logical
approach, but why has it been growing in popularity? And whats the point of CLIL?
In CLIL, the topic has to be focused and the foreign language vocabulary has to be learned
through the content. Rather than separating language study from other subjects, the theory behind
CLIL is that complementary subjects taught at the same time result in improved internalization
and retention. So, returning to our earlier example, the CLIL attitude is that students who learn
geographical terms in Spanish as a secondary objective learn them better than they would if they
were directly instructed in these terms without the geographical scaffolding. And the same students
learn Spanish geography more effectively at the same time because its supplemented by
immediately relevant vocabulary. Essentially, CLIL enables you to take advantage of the
connections between language and specific subject-related content to improve the efficiency of
pedagogy.
What CLIL can do for your classroom
In many cases, CLIL can increase your students motivation to learn what youre teaching
them. This can enable students to progress more quickly and solidly than they would with
deliberately separated subjects. There are very few instances in the real world in which black and
white dont mix, so letting two subjects paint a broader picture of reality for students is a great
advantage of CLIL. Just make sure that the content-specific subject is the primary objective and
that your linguistic goals are secondary this provides consistency and sturdy scaffolding on which
to build linguistic progress.
Because CLIL is so strongly associated with both a content area and a foreign language, its
naturally imbued with cultural and societal significance. Your students will develop a stronger
understanding of a foreign culture as a result of CLIL instruction and will be more likely to see the
big picture in terms of the relationship between language and society.
Even in CLIL lessons, it will become apparent that some skills and knowledge are applicable
to a wide range of subjects in a variety of languages. Students will gain a healthy appreciation for
these types of skills and may be more motivated to improve them.
By challenging your students with CLIL, youll be able to help them build confidence in their
abilities. The best part of this is that their confidence wont be inflated the legitimate cognitive
and academic skills encouraged by CLIL are widely recognized and valued.
http://oupeltglobalblog.com/2010/11/29/teaching-clil-classroom-benefits/

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