Assignment - CLIL

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
CONTENT & LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING
GENERAL INFORMATION:
This assignment must be done in pairs and has to fulfil the following conditions:
-

Length: between 6 and 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices if

there are any-).
Type of font: Arial or Times New Roman.
Size: 11.
Line height: 1.5.
Alignment: Justified.

If for some reason you cannot do the assignment in pairs, you will have to do it
individually (notice that individual assignments will be penalized. The maximum score a
student can get is 8/10). The individual assignment must have a length between 6 and
8 pages approximately (without including cover, index or appendix if there is any).
The assignment has to be done in this Word document and has to fulfil the rules of
presentation and edition, as for quotes and bibliographical references which are
detailed in the Study Guide.
Also, it has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the Study Guide.
Sending it to the teachers e-mail is not permitted. Both members of the group have to
send the assignment.
In addition to this, it is very important to read the assessment criteria, which can be
found in the Study Guide.
The assignment mark is 70% of the final mark.

Assignment - CLIL

Assignment:
Consider the various caveats expressed about CLIL in section 5.6 entitled 'Some
problems'. Take these points and any others that you wish to consider from the
whole subject, and use them to form either a defence or a repudiation of the
notion that 'CLIL is the approach for the future'. This must take the form of an
appraisal of CLIL, in which you must consider the arguments and the materials
that you have seen in this subject, and then balance these with perspectives
gathered from your own teaching experience.
Most importantly of all, you must organise these points into a coherent essay.
Please avoid taking the points one by one, as if you were simply appraising a
list. Try to look at the issue from both a local and an international perspective,
and also try to consider CLIL from both a practical and a philosophical
viewpoint. Will it enable us to teach languages better? Perhaps. Will it enable
you (in your context) to teach languages better? Perhaps not. But the latter is
not a total repudiation of CLIL. Try to give the defendant a fair trial!

Important: you have to write your personal details and the subject name on the
cover (see the next page). The assignment that does not fulfil these conditions
will not be corrected. You have to include the assignment index below the cover.

Assignment - CLIL

Names and surname(s): Felipe Caceres

Group: fp_tefl_2015-10 CLIL
Date:15-06-2016

Assignment - CLIL

SOME ASPECTS OF CLIL AS A LANGUAGE TEACHING METHOD: AN

APPRAISAL

In general terms CLIL make reference to a specific method in education. It is

composed of multiple elements which structure its whole framework. These elements
respond to four clear categories.

Sociopolitical

Theoretical Ideas and principles (approach)

Methodological design

Procedural

These categories are taken into consideration from the most general to the most
specific. This is to say that the first encompasses the others in a logical way and at the
same time the lower categories respond to and may be interwoven with the higher
ones.
This structure we adopt to talk about CLIL comes from the Richards and Rodgers
(1986) development of elements and sub-elements that constitute a method. We think
we can make an analogy between general elements in this analysis of language
teaching practices and CLIL. For us CLIL can bear such comparison in view of its clear
evolution as a language teaching method. We also add an extra category which relates
to the socio-political features that CLIL may imply.
Sociopolitical aspect is considered in terms of who is in charge and who can make
decisions which eventually will modify the general context and roles of people
implicated in the whole process.
Theoretical ideas and principles refers to a broad point of view about the necessary
grounds in which education and Language learning must lie .
Methodological design tries to clarify the problems and issues that CLIL may suffer
from.

Assignment - CLIL

Procedural level implies implementation in context topics that we found valuable to talk
about.
As exposed by David Graddol (2006), there are many countries, with many different
contexts, that are not prepared to implement such an ambitious shift in their
educational policies. Mostly because those policies respond to economic interests
hidden behind the curtain of educational and cultural progress and/or excellence.
Therefore, no real or at least conscious effort is made in the design and implementation
of educational programs properly adapted to local, specific cases.
Also, politicians and government entities at a local and national level make choices
regarding curricula whose long term aims may respond to the search for educational
improvement, but that have, as well, a packed agenda of short and mid-term goals
more focused on economic development and growth. It is not a flaw in the CLIL idea,
though. Its more a sort of a deformation (distortion) of the theoretical framework and
methodologies of it. Consequently, they, politicians and government entities in
Colombia, to speak about the context in which we carry out our teaching practice,
promote CLIL through programs of bilingualism starting at the lower levels of the school
system.
There is, indeed, a detriment to the effectiveness of CLIL derived from political
awareness of the economic returns that it promises.

Despite being a give and

take operation, where the mutual benefits should be evident, methodological and
procedural standards might be overlooked, resulting in inadequate practices that put
the whole structure of CLIL at risk.
There have been unrealistic expectations about the effectiveness and, even more, the
number of years in which CLIL can be implemented in contexts like ours. But we must
take into account that there are variables that will have a determining effect on the final
result of processes where CLIL has been chosen as the educational route. For
instance, the implementation of CLIL requires proper and sustained funding from the
governments and other educational authorities that make decisions regarding curricula.
It also requires constant monitoring; given that it usually involves long term processes
where adjustments might be necessary. Additionally, exists the factor of continuity that
must be ensured by the same governments and authorities, particularly in contexts
where political turmoil can lead to drastic shifts in the direction of educational policies.
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Assignment - CLIL

In the case of Colombia, we would not advocate the theory of CLIL in the form of
bilingualism as being a Trojan Horse. It is a Spanish speaking country in its vast
majority, with isolated communities that conserve their ancestral languages as part of
their heritage more than as part of a resistance to political or cultural domination.
However, one might think that due to the strong cultural and economic influence of the
USA on Latin-American countries, the implementation of CLIL-based curricula (being
English the language of instruction) would suppose a loss of national identity and a
facilitator of socio-political dominance practices.
When we talk about the term approach through which we want to analyze CLIL, we
are not only considering the theoretical basis and research products but the ideals that
must be the grounds of CLIL and every educational endeavor. Those principles and
ideas are rather general and universal and precisely by this nature, they may be taken
as a vague and futile exercise on speculation.
However, thinking about universal questions was a practice that took the lead for
centuries giving us (mankind) most of the ideas we take now for granted about our
reality and heading us in one way or another to our scientific-technologic era. It was by
virtue of European Enlightenment which in general terms was a philosophical (idealist)
thrust, that knowledge was capable of attaining such great heights as never before.
The Enlightenment movement was the ethos of modernity, nevertheless modernity
came to an end with the two world wars. Ideals were for many of the leaders and
notables then, the main cause of the disaster the war brought to the modern world.
There was a change in ideas and the end of a general and universal project, and the
world was divided between two opposite thoughts: communism and capitalism. For that
moment on material and technical production and immediate utility became universal
values, there was no time to talk about general ideas and concepts about the world.
Two opposite views that never thought about their own foundations and rather
presupposed them were in dispute about world domination.
Finally, capitalism won, and free market economy took the control in practically every
aspect of our lives. For some intellectuals it was the end of the history and the
culmination of social and political antagonisms, however nothing was more far from
reality.
How does CLIL share and take part in this context?
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Assignment - CLIL

Our opinion goes like this: we lack general ideas and thinking on what education is and
must be, we walk an old path and presuppose there is not much to think about because
we are sure we know what we are talking about when we talk about education.
There is so much information about, too much research has been done, and is still
being done, but it seems that we cannot decide what is better for our education and
that we are in a never ending search for a perfect model.
So it appears that the only expectations about some stability in this domain is the
capability of an approach to make money and to gain the favor of politicians and
making-decision agents and agencies through the intellectual lobby academicians must
carry on to be heard and taken seriously on the basis of the profits this new approach
can bring.
In sum, we think that there is a gap and an inversion between the sociopolitical and the
principles level, because in an ideal world technocratic decisions should be done in
response to the general ideas about education. But in reality, ideals and theoretical
development is enslaved to technocratic expert advice and making-decision agencies
interrelated to a socioeconomic structure in which free-market became an almighty
mediator. So CLIL would have too much to do if it were possible to avoid some
economic and social constraints and in a way liberate the intellectual work and seek for
new possibilities in this domain, taking into account that not everything has to be
immediately useful and respond to a technical necessity.
The methodological design has to be with the prescriptions for teachers, attitudes to
classroom techniques and activities, the role and nature of materials and the role of
teachers and learners. It is necessary to say that in this level and the procedural one
we can find the vast majority of the research done about CLIL. The research tries to
give CLIL the proper grounds and arguments to continue and expand its bounds in
educational world. Is in this way that the document Content and Language Integrated
Learning (CLIL) A Development Trajectory by David Marsh can be interpreted.
The main purpose of this document is to recognize that the adoption of the term
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in the early 1990s as a generic term
to articulate practices appropriate for dual

language teaching and learning

environments would take root as an emergent innovation in inter-linked field of

educational expertise. (Marsh ,2012) In this document it is possible to observe the
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Assignment - CLIL

different perspectives through which David Marsh try to establish a general

configuration to get closer to what CLIL is and may be. Those perspectives include
Linguistic, Neuroscientific, Sociopolitical and pedagogical reports and research through
which CLIL is a common denominator.
Methodological problems as training, transfer and functions, would be viewed as a
general problem which correspond to a lack of research and a proper implementation.
Nonetheless as we can see it in our jobs, even if we dont deal with such an approach
as CLIL, those problems are in all probability related to a diverse factor that can be
linked to:

General lack of interest and teachers neglect about students needs.

Poor conditions (time, salary and benefits) in teachers work.

National budget cuts in education matters.

Issues about policies implementation (e.g. universal coverage without a

proper infrastructure and human resources)

That being said, it seems only more research can solve this kind of issues, however
from a closer perspective, we can notice that problems relate to a, let us say,
transversal matter which could be interpreted as a lack of consideration about others
needs, including neglecting and overlooking evident difficulties in learners process.
It is not clear how this impasse could be overtaken, but it is clear for us the origin of
such appalling behavior: there are no common ideas, beliefs and efforts about what
education is and must be.
In this sense, we think methodologic design will continue pursuing from outside (with
more research) issues that must be treating from inside, and are part of a much more
individual and intimate process that we consider is linked to what we call an ethical
decision in teachers own consciences that cannot be easily express and explicit.
Even if CLIL approach tries to deal with these problems in his own way, for us this
manner is too local, linked to a European context and its efforts to solve its own local
problems. Here in Colombia there is no great advances in CLIL implementation and
therefore it is difficult to provide more information about what can be done. We can only
say in this regard we must agree with Wolff on that In order to be able to develop and
use this target professional competence the future content-subject and CLIL teacher
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Assignment - CLIL

will have to acquire a basic knowledge of how learners learn languages in a CLIL
context. She needs to be acquainted with the developmental stages of language
learning, with the main SLA theories (Second language acquisition), with the factors
influencing second language learning, and with the differences between first and
second language learning. He also needs to know how learners are able to store and
retain the new language in their brain, how they are able to separate it from their first or
any other language they speak. And, finally, he or she will have to know how language
is used, how humans comprehend and produce language either orally or in written
form. This background knowledge is necessary to be able to understand and deploy
the strategies necessary to promote language learning in a content class (as cited in
Marsh, 2012).
Regarding the question of what contents should and can be taught in the target
language, we recognize there are subjects where the level of abstraction suggests a
challenge due to the specific code used to teach their concepts, e.g. maths; physics. In
the same way, we can argue that some areas lack significant amounts of language that
add something valuable to language learning processes, e.g. physical education; some
vocational subjects. Nevertheless, in our local context we have observed that in
bilingual schools, for example, there is not a clear position in relation to the exclusion of
these language-poor subjects from the curricula.
A different situation is observed at university levels where only a few subjects and very
specialized contents are taught in a foreign or second language.
Another concern in the implementation of CLIL is the role of the language teacher. The
equation seems easy to resolve. If content becomes the prevailing focus in the
classroom, then the language teacher appears as an unnecessary agent in the picture.
The most obvious solution would be to train subject teachers to develop adequate skills
in the target language so they can actually teach through it (as cited in Marsh, 2005).
But we agree with Lang (2005) on that there is a need for a new type of teacher that is
able to work hand in hand with his peers, namely subject or language teacher where is
the case. This tandem or team teaching appears to be the most effective way to tackle
the problem of the 'unprepared-for-CLIL-teacher'. However, this looks like a very heavy
burden for governments and educational authorities if they are not willing to invest in
teachers training programs.
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Assignment - CLIL

And yet, the issue of teachers broadens when we take into consideration the materials
to be used by this new type of specialized professional. We must remember that one of
the false assumptions about CLIL is its universal character. Models that work in one
place almost surely will not work anywhere else, and neither will materials. These must
be context appropriate and should reflect a true relation with the students profiles, in
terms of what is relevant (content) and what they can do (grading).
At the end, the question of evaluation arises. How can know that our students are
reaching the desired proficiency in both subject content and language skills? If the
premise is to teach content through a foreign language, it seems logical that content
assessment would prevail. However, we consider that educational policies must define
aspects like the language of evaluation and the involvement of language and subject
teachers in the design of the tests, when these are appropriate.
As a final conclusion we consider that even when we support an eventual introduction
of CLIL in our educational context and we are willing to embrace it as a serious method
in language and content learning, we do not possess evidence of its broad
consequences in our local context and therefore we must rely on our assumptions,
intuitions and some insights about what we think, CLIL can bring.

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Assignment - CLIL

REFERENCES
Clil debate questions and answers. (2005). Retrieved May 14, 2016, from
http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2005/apr/20/guardianweekly.guardianweekly1
3
Marsh, D. (2012). Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) A Development
Trajectory. (Thesis, University of Crdoba, 2012). Crdoba: Servicio de Publicaciones
de la Universidad de Crdoba. doi:http://hdl.handle.net/10396/8689
Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (1986). Approaches and methods in language
teaching: A description and analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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