WHY AICLE?

CONTENT

Progression in knowledge, skills

Content matter is not only about acquiring knowledge and skills, it is about the learners constructing their own knowledge and developing skills.

At the heart of the learning process lies successful content or thematic learning in combination with the acquisition of knowledge, skills and understanding. Content is the subject or the project theme.

Questions to be answered by a novice CLIL teacher
What will I teach?
What will they learn?
What are my teaching aims/objectives?
What are the learning outcomes?

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COMMUNICATION

Interaction, language using to learn

Communication implies the development of appropriate language knowledge and skills.

Language is a conduit for communication and for learning. The formula learning to use language and using language to learn is applicable here. Communication goes beyond the grammar system. It involves learners in using language in a way which is different from standard language classes(of course CLIL does involve learners in learning language too but in a different way).

Questions to be answered by a novice CLIL teacher
What language do they need to work with the content?
Is there any specialised vocabulary and phrases?
What kind of discussions will they engage in?
Will I need to check out key grammatical coverage of a particular tense or feature eg comparatives and superlatives?
What about the language of tasks and classroom activities?
What about discussion and debate?

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COGNITION

Engagement: thinking & understanding; cognitive processing

For CLIL to be effective, it must challenge learners to think, review and engage in higher order thinking skills. CLIL is not about the transfer of knowledge from an expert to a novice. CLIL is about allowing individuals to construct their own understanding and be challenged – whatever their age or ability. A useful taxonomy to use as a guide for thinking skills is that of Bloom. He has created two categories of thinking skills: lower order and higher order. Take Bloom’s taxonomy for a well-defined range of thinking skills. It serves as an excellent checklist.

Questions to be answered by a novice CLIL teacher
What kind of questions must I ask in order to go beyond ‘display’ questions?
Which tasks will I develop to encourage higher order thinking?
what are the language (communication) as well as the content implications?
Which thinking skills will we concentrate on and which are appropriate for the content?

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CULTURE

Self and other awareness/citizenship

Culture brings the learning process within the context of the learner, whilst raising intercultural awareness through the positioning of self and “otherness”.

For our pluricultural and plurilingual world to be celebrated and have its potential realised, it demands tolerance and understanding. Studying through a foreign language is fundamental to fostering international understanding. Culture can have wide interpretation – e.g. through pluricultural citizenship and the own context of the learner.

Questions to be answered by a novice CLIL teacher
What are the cultural implications of the topic?
How does the CLIL context allow for ‘value added’?
What about otherness and self?
How does this connect with the all Cs?