Course nr: #13 
Dates/Venues
2022
Amsterdam
Oct. 16- 21
Valencia
Oct. 23- 28
Target Groups
This course is designed for secondary subject teachers from all educational levels & sectors, who have recently begun or will shortly begin to teach in a bilingual context and wish to learn more about content and language integrated learning (CLIL) pedagogy and improve their English subject specific language skills. Participants are expected to have an A2+ / B1 level of English.
Course aims
The course is to support subject teachers in developing methodology and language skills for content and language integrated learning so as to enable or improve teaching their subject, or parts of it, through a foreign language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language (CLIL). The course also aims to enhance teachers’ knowledge and skills on integrating technology to support key CLIL-related pedagogical procedures. It is targeted at reinforcing the participants’ general classroom language competence (in casu: English) and boosting their confidence as well as enhance teaching skills necessary for effective content and language teaching.
Course content
By the end of the course, participants will have an improved knowledge of and competence in:
• CLIL teacher’s kit – exploring the background to CLIL, the 4Cs and CLIL teachers’ competences. We will look at language demands with second language input and output, how to scaffold learning in a second language and develop learner cognition
• Vocabulary – participants will learn subject- specific lexical chunks their students are likely to encounter in oral and written texts and will familiarise themselves with a range of activities to focus on and consolidate vocabulary learning.
• Listening and reading –participants will explore student difficulties with academic or authentic texts and recordings and support strategies. They will practise their listening and reading skills in the context of receptive CLIL tasks which can be transferred to their classroom.
• Speaking and writing- helping learners become better communicators is essential in the CLIL classroom to develop language skills and make content learning more interactive. Participants will have ample opportunity to practise their productive skills in communicative tasks and explore how to scaffold communication with and between learners.
• Developing targeted content using new, free & online authoring tools which allow for the creation and sharing of media-rich webpages incorporating audio, video, images and text.
Supporting a variety of current didactical procedures with a number of applications
Methodology:
The course is based on an integrated approach in providing CLIL methodology and language & skills training in English, using tasks and practice activities English teachers use in the communicative language classroom which can be adapted for bilingual mainstream education. It consists of tutor and participant-led presentations, followed by hands-on work including materials & didactic intervention analysis & design and exploring & trialling applications. At regular moments delegates will be invited to reflect on what has been learnt and what can be re-used or adapted for local teaching contexts.
Day-to-Day Course Topics
Day 1
• Greet & Meet
• Cultural Event
Day 2
• Course aims & needs analysis results
• The what and why of CLIL- 4Cs and teacher competences
• Learning theories & CLIL
• Language demands in processing CLIL texts & teacher talk
• Thinking skills- challenging learners’ cognition
Day 3
• Vocabulary- pre-teaching and contextualised approaches
• Guiding input- preparing learners for reading and listening
• Reading and listening sub-skills and tasks
• Extension tasks- giving students an opportunity to react to content
• Review of the day
Day 4
• Supporting output- speaking and writing tasks
• Interaction in the classroom- pairwork and groupwork
• Classroom language- BICS & CALP
• Collaborative learning- task-based and project-based learning
• Review of the day
Day 5
Technology support with a focus on receptive skills
• Experiencing content processing from the learner perspective.
• Introduction to free online tools with authoring functionality to provide learners with scaffolded input materials enabling them to interrogate texts at their own pace and according to their own learning requirements.
• Exploring available sample materials / Finding and selecting content (search strategies, criteria for text selection)
• Introduction to ways for using digital video to support listening/viewing skills
• Focus on interactive video to pre-teach vocabulary and/or assess understanding of content concepts presented in class
• Demo of the production steps and use of related tool features
• Hands-on materials production
Day 6
• Introduction to graphic organisers and concept maps to support activating activities, content processing and writing.
• Exploring ICT tools to facilitate a range of additional guiding understanding activities
• Tools to support exploiting personal idiom files (PIFS) and review strategies for CLIL & LSP vocab development
• Hands-on materials production
•Finalising sample materials & presenting, sharing & discussing results
Course evaluation + Certificates