Content and Language Integrated Learning - Essay Example

Content and Language Integrated Learning Introduction: Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is known to be a really effective pedagogical strategy that involves teaching any curricular subject through the medium of any language other than what is natively understood or spoken. It is a matter of immense importance that more and more subjects need to be taught in such language that is recognized worldwide so that majority of the students would have to cope with no problems when studying or working abroad. The popularity of CLIL among other teaching strategies can be judged from the data presented by the 2006 Eurydice Survey (cited in Coyle 545), which suggests that CLIL is provided in 30 European countries. Aims of CLIL: Pedagogical strategies like CLIL need to be strictly implemented in more and more schools since this is the demand of the present age of fierce competitiveness. Nowadays, many subjects are readily being taught in English that is also the major foreign language. Actually, CLIL is also considered to be a dual-focused educational theory by some educationists, because it has two major aims among which one focuses on the subject being taught like history, geography etc., and the other aim emphasizes on the foreign language in which every academic points is tried to be conveyed to the students (teachingenglish.org.uk). Implementation of CLIL effectively addresses cultural diversity: The theoretical framework of CLIL is regarded as a highly innovative accomplishment that is potentially capable of motivating the students from diverse cultural background to engage in various academic activities while keeping the element of rapport and team support in the limelight. All the teaching and learning skills of the teachers are without any meaning if not supported with foreign language mediation, that drastically shifts the whole teaching scenario and creates such a situation in which both the teachers and the students can participate equally (Moate and Sinnemaki). CLIL needs to be incorporated in the academic curricula around the globe, because this is a fact that cultural diversity in classrooms is increasing at a rapid pace. When there is mounting cultural diversity in the educational setups, teachers need to teach every subject in the foreign language to maintain neutrality and harmony in the classrooms. In such a situation where there is increased proportion of various foreign students from wholly different cultural backgrounds studying in the same classroom, a standard language needs to be focused and everyone should me made liable to use that very language in and out of classrooms within the schools or colleges. Enhanced motivation and interaction in CLIL classrooms: Beardsmore (cited in Moate 41) says that CLIL leads to more active interaction between teachers and learners, while increasing the chances of using the foreign language (English) to understand the non-linguistic content. Such a unique strategy helps suppressing the probability of bias and discrimination based conflicts in the classrooms that may happen when the minds of teachers are fraught with unjustified biases. When CLIL is not considered seriously or not tried to be implemented in the classrooms to make the students grasp everything effectively while also enhancing their motivation skills, a very complex picture results that is highly predictive of misunderstandings and innumerable problematic issues in the educational setups (ieselpalobilingual.wikispaces.com). CLIL needs to be incorporated in the academic curricula in such a way that would facilitate the foreign language learners, rather than imposing additional burdens on them. Teachers should empathize with the foreign students and know where they are having problems when learning education in English language. (Bentley 64) says that communication is the key element of the CLIL strategy and CLIL classrooms should provide such interactive opportunities for both teachers and students that second language acquisition would remain no problem. Relation between CLIL and second language acquisition: It is mentioned in various research reports that CLIL helps students in second language acquisition by enhancing their learning skills. Learning skills are modified in positive terms by effective conversational interaction. Long (cited in slideshare.net) mentions that second language acquisition can never take place without strengthening the communication skills first. It is only through communication between teachers and students that control can be acquired on the basics of foreign languages. The conversational interaction can never be practiced if the environment of a classroom is not first made devoid of negative racial and socio-cultural notions, which students coming from diverse cultural backgrounds carry with themselves. That is the whole point of the strategy presented by the theoretical approach of CLIL. Basically, it proposes that the environment of the classrooms should be made highly interactive by making the teachers and students realize the importance of cross-cultural communication. (Navés, Muñoz, and Pavesi) suggest that most of the problems experienced by foreign students vary from person to person, and almost all the problematic issues have commonly the same source. Actually, these foreign language learners are too excessively influenced by their respective native languages and this stubborn influence plays the role of major obstacle in the way of second language acquisition. This is where the teachers armed with the weapon of CLIL need to step in the field and solve the nasty issues experienced by culturally diverse students. Second language acquisition can be drastically facilitated with the help provided by CLIL, which plays a phenomenal role in enhancing the motivation and interest of the foreign students in learning foreign languages. They should be mentally prepared with the help of CLIL for learning various subjects through the medium of a standard foreign language. Conclusion: Summing up, this much becomes clear from the above discussion that CLIL is such a pedagogical strategy that can be effectively applied in the schools and colleges for making the students learn and acquire the foreign languages. A dramatic improvement can be introduced in education if more and more teachers around the globe start relying heavily on CLIL and use English language as a necessary medium for teaching all the subjects. This action of making English a necessary medium is potentially capable of making the students cope with any language issues they may experience once they enter the practical phase of their lives. Works cited: Bentley, Kay. The TKT Course CLIL Module. Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print. “CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) – Introduction.” n. d. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. < http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/teachers/specialist-areas/clil> “CLIL-Methadology.” 2010. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. < https://ieselpalobilingual.wikispaces.com/CLIL-Methodology> “CLIL- Content and Language Integrated Learning: Support from SLA research.” 2010. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. < http://www.slideshare.net/angelammoyano/clil-content-and-language-integrated-learning> Coyle, Do. “Towards a Connected Research Agenda for CLIL Pedagogies.” The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 10 (2007): 543-559. Print. Moate, Josephine. “The Integrated Nature of CLIL : A Sociocultural Perspective.” INTERNATIONAL CLIL RESEARCH JOURNAL 1 (2010): 38-45. Print. Moate, Josephine, and Sinnemaki, Merja. “Moving Towards Dialogic Discussion in a Multicultural, CLIL Science Classroom.” 03 Sep. 2010. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. < http://www.eera-ecer.eu/ecer-programmes/print/conference/ecer-2010/contribution/1474-2/?no_cache=1&cHash=b3e691bbbc> Navés, Teresa, Muñoz, Carmen, and Pavesi, Maria. “SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION FOR CLIL.” 2002. Web. 08 Dec. 2010. Read More