Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Back to Bobby We need good foreign language skills to be able to manage in today’s international world. Therefore, it is important that children are entitled to efficient language teaching from a very early age. The use of a foreign language as the medium of instruction has proved to be an effective method of developing versatile language skills. Bilingual education The term ‘bilingual education’ refers to various differently constructed models of instruction. The term ‘immersion’ should only be used to refer to Canadian bilingual education and its replicas elsewhere. In immersion bilingual education the students have usually no earlier knowledge of the immersion language. The aim is that children acquire it in a similar way as their mother tongue: they hear it in their environment and use it in authentic communication. The teacher uses only the immersion language when teaching, although he or she is usually bilingual and understands the students’ first language. The instruction aims to additive bilingualism, which means that children whose first language is the dominant language of the country adopt a minority language but do not lose their mother tongue. In other words, a child from a monolingual family can become bilingual in school. (Baker, 1998, p. 131; Baker, 1997, pp. 180–181; Genesee, 1987, 14–15; Hadley, 2001, p. 165). Content and Language Integrated Learning In Europe the term CLIL, short for Content and Language Integrated Learning, is used to refer to the European models of bilingual education. Other terms related to bilingual models of education include content-based language teaching, language-based content instruction, language sensitive content instruction and language- or content-enhanced teaching (Järvinen, 1999, pp. 15-16). The acronym CLIL is the platform for a methodological approach of far broader scope than language teaching. It seeks to develop proficiency as well in a non-language subject as in the language through which it is taught. In addition, achieving this dual aim demands a special approach to teaching. In CLIL education the non-language subject is not taught in a foreign language but with and through a foreign language. This involves a more integrated approach to teaching and learning. Consequently, the teachers should not only consider how languages should be taught but also give special thought to the educational process in general. (Content and Language Integrated Learning at School in Europe 2005, p. 7.) The leading principle of CLIL is integrating language teaching with the teaching of other school subjects. Students learn contents of different subjects through the medium of a foreign language and simultaneously develop their language skills. The focus is not in language learning but on acquiring new information (Brinton, Snow & Wesche, 1989, p. 2). When a language is used as the medium of receiving new information and it is practised in real communicative situations and discussions, language learning becomes more meaningful and more efficient than if it consists of studying isolated aspects of the language, such as grammatical forms (Curtain & Martinez, 1990; Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p. 207). It is stated in the Action plan 2004–2006 of the Commission of the European Communities for promoting language learning and linguistic diversity: “CLIL has a major contribution to make to the Union’s language learning goals. It can provide effective opportunities for students to use their language skills now rather than learn them now for later use.” Therefore the schools that wish to introduce a Content and Language Integrated Learning approach should receive increased support. (Commission of the European Communities, 2003.) Largely due to the language policy of the European Commission, CLIL has increased its popularity during the last ten years. In many European countries English is chosen as the language of instruction for the reason that in the globalising world English has achieved an important role in different areas of life. It is a lingua franca – a language used for communication among people of different mother tongues. This is how it is considered especially in countries like Finland where English language traditionally has no other role. In Finland, already since the 1970s more than 90 per cent of schoolchildren have studied English as a foreign language, and in recent years there has been a vast increase, at all levels of education, to use English as the language of instruction. (Nikula 2005, 27–28.) Schools seek to make their language teaching more efficient in order to prepare their students for a society that lays a strengthening emphasis on internationality. CLIL enables the student, once he or she reaches university level, to participate in courses taught in a foreign language and to use the language in an accurate and versatile manner. The students’ good command of foreign languages has its advantages also in the short run. The number of immigrant and exchange students has rapidly increased, and many schools take part in international cooperation programmes (Nikula & Marsh, 1997). Parents encourage schools to initiate bilingual teaching, as they wish their children to obtain a good basis for language proficiency and courage to communicate in foreign languages. In many Finnish schools development of CLIL has started as an experiment of individual teachers who have had interest in this form of teaching. Consequently, CLIL is not an elite school phenomenon in Finland. Forms of CLIL have been offered in schools across the country, as well in rural as in urban areas. In most cases students’ participation in CLIL education is voluntary, especially if a large part of the teaching takes place through a foreign language. Therefore, students participating in it are generally interested in language learning. (Nikula 2005, 31.) The aims of CLIL education The goal in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) education is to ensure that students acquire knowledge of subject matter and simultaneously develop their competence in a foreign language. The important aims related to CLIL education are: • providing students facilities for life in an internationalised society • enabling students to develop effective foreign language communication skills and motivating them to learn languages by using them for genuine practical purposes • enabling students to extend subject-related knowledge and learning skills and enhancing the assimilation of subject matter by use of a different and innovative approach. (Content and Language Integrated Learning at School in Europe 2005, 22.) Meaningful and efficient language learning Language learning becomes meaningful and efficient when the student receives new information through the medium of a foreign language and can practise language in real communicative situations and discussions. He or she has opportunities to hear language used by others and use it himself of herself in purposeful ways. In addition, content-based language teaching provides more time for students in contact with a foreign language. Teaching in a CLIL class In CLIL classes the teachers use only one language – the students’ mother tongue or the foreign language – during a lesson. They do not translate words and phrases to students’ first language. Therefore, when teaching a subject through a foreign language the teacher should use illustrative and concrete teaching methods in order to make understanding and learning process easier. Language that is used needs to be highlighted in a manner that makes certain features more salient to learners. Occasionally it is necessary to use students’ mother tongue to clarify the contents. Especially for young children some contents can be taught first in their first language and afterwards in a foreign language. It is also necessary to repeat same concepts several times in various ways. Sometimes it may be difficult for a struggling or a young learner to understand teaching, which is given through a foreign language, but if the teacher uses familiar, repetitious routines and structures of instruction, he or she can predict what will happen next. Important components of teaching are for instance, phrases and expressions related to the school day, repeated day after day. Games, songs, stories, and nursery rhymes are efficient means of learning new words and phrases. Studies related to CLIL education According to a study carried out by Nikula and Marsh (1997, 110–111) students in CLIL classes learn contents of non-language subjects equally well as their peers who study them in their mother tongue. When the teaching is concise, the most important aspects become emphasized. Furthermore, the researchers found out that for some students their interest in language learning has motivated them to put more effort also in subject matter learning. The author of this book has conducted a longitudinal study of CLIL education at the University of Turku, Finland. She has observed the development of the students in three CLIL classes and three other classes for six years. The children in the bilingual classes were taught various school subjects in Finnish and in English, but their peers in the other classes studied only in Finnish. The study was initiated with two goals in mind. One purpose was to explore whether studying in bilingual classes affects the development of children’s literacy skills negatively or whether these students achieve the same level of literacy as their peers who study exclusively in their mother tongue. Secondly, the study aimed to find out if there was a difference between the students’ attitudes towards reading, writing, and second language learning in the CLIL classes and in the other classes. Development of first language skills The results of the study show that the students’ literacy skills developed at least equally well in bilingual education as when the students studied exclusively in Finnish. Furthermore, studying through one language or two languages did not appear to have any significant effect on the development of a student’s literacy skills when his or her starting level at the beginning of first grade had been poor or excellent. CLIL education does not affect the development of first language literacy skills negatively. Children are capable of maintaining the two languages separate. Moreover, they achieve an awareness of their mother tongue as a language and a communication system comparable to other languages. Spelling After six study years the students in the CLIL classes had achieved significantly better first language spelling skills than the students in the other classes. Furthermore, the dissimilarities in spelling English and Finnish language did not seem to cause errors in writing Finnish. For instance, the different ways of writing compound words and using capital letters in the two languages had not increased the number of these errors in the CLIL classes. On the contrary, the students in the CLIL classes made them significantly less than the students in the other classes. Creative writing The students in the CLIL classes had learned to pay attention to languages, as well to their mother tongue as to other languages. They were aware of several similarities and dissimilarities in the languages. In fourth grade the focus of the study was on students’ creative writing skills. The most distinguishable differences between the stories composed in the CLIL classes and in the other classes were related to the writers’ consciousness of the existence of different languages. It was obvious that languages played a more important role in the lives of the students studying in the CLIL classes than for the students in the other classes. There were 138 stories altogether. When selecting the twenty best stories out of them, the main criteria that were used were their individuality, eventfulness, story structure, rich and colourful language, and fluency of narration. The attention was also paid to the fashion in which the author described the environment and the characters of the story, and whether he or she had shown original thinking or made clever remarks. From the twenty stories that best met these criteria, seventeen came from the CLIL classes and only three from the other classes. Reading comprehension In addition, in sixth grade the students in the CLIL classes understood different texts better than their peers in the other classes. They succeeded equally well in comprehending non-fiction, fiction and newspaper texts while the students in the other classes had much more difficulties in understanding the non-fiction text and the newspaper article than the narrative text. The students in the CLIL classes showed also more proficiency in deriving the meaning of new words from the written context than the other students. In addition, they succeeded significantly better in finding the most important facts of the non-fiction text and summarising the text than their peers in the other classes. Learning attitudes Positive attitudes towards language learning can raise learners’ motivation and help language learning. The results of the second study revealed that in the CLIL classes the students’ attitudes towards, reading, writing, and language learning are more positive than the attitudes of their peers in the monolingual classes. Many researchers have been worried about boys’ attitudes towards school; therefore it was also worthwhile to examine the results of the two genders in these classes. The answers in the reading and the writing sections of the questionnaire showed that at the age of ten the boys were not as interested in reading and writing as the girls of their age. However, the difference between the attitudes of the two genders was not as apparent in the CLIL classes as in the monolingual classes. Moreover in the monolingual classes there was a significant difference between the boys’ and girls’ attitudes towards language learning, whereas this was not the case in the CLIL classes. Students who consider themselves poor learners and find studying a foreign language difficult often have negative attitudes towards language learning. The first study showed that in the end of the second school year nearly all the students in the CLIL classes had acquired a considerable amount of English vocabulary over the two study years. Moreover, the students enjoyed using the English language and they were proud of their knowledge of it. It seemed that starting language learning at an early age and studying through a foreign language had been an effective teaching method. After using the English language in an everyday context for two more years they found speaking and writing in English and hearing and reading it natural. In addition they did not feel uncomfortable studying through it. In consequence the attitudes towards foreign language learning were more positive in the CLIL classes than in the other classes. It can be concluded, that it is worthwhile to continue and to further develop CLIL. The results of the second study show that especially boys benefit of CLIL education. In the CLIL classes the boys’ attitudes towards reading, writing and foreign language learning are more positive than the attitudes of the boys in other classes. Parents and teachers Most parents whose children studied in the CLIL classes were interested in their children’s studies and sought to help them to succeed in them. This was made apparent by the fact that these students’ parents attended parent-teacher meetings at school more often than other parents. Moreover, they may have encouraged their children to read and write also outside school more often than other parents, which has had a positive effect on the children’s development. The teachers of the CLIL classes and of the other classes had been teaching first and second grade students for many years. However, teaching through two languages was a relatively new method for them and they were interested in their work and motivated to develop it further. This may have had a positive effect on the development of their students’ skills as well. Back to Bobby