CLIL

CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING

 WHAT IS CLIL?

•CLIL is an acronym for Content

and Language Integrated Learning.
•It is an approach to teaching the
content of curricular subjects
through a non-native language.
•In a CLIL course, students gain
knowledge of the curricular subject
while learning and using English
language.
 •“CONTENT” is the first word in CLIL,
because curricular content leads
language learning.

CONTENT •Learning history in a non-native

language involves knowledge of: events,
FIRST people, changes in the past; chronology;
interpreting sources; explaining causes and
consequences; comparing the past; making
links across historical periods; reaching
conclusions…
 The 4Cs of CLIL (Coyle, 1999)
It is helpful to think of Coyle’s 4Cs of CLIL for planning lessons
1. Content: What is the history topic? (Paleolithic Age)
2. Communication: What language will learners communicate during the lesson?
(the language of reasoning: Why agriculture was so important for the human
beings?).
3. Cognition: Which thinking skills are demanded of learners in the history
lesson? (thinking about What would have happened if agriculture and livestock
farming had not appeared?
4. Culture (sometimes is referred to Citizenship): Is there a cultural focus in the
lesson? Students can find out evidences of Roman roads or names of Roman
cities and if they are similar/different from those used today in our country;
CONSIDERATIONS WHEN PLANNING A CLIL
LESSON
It is helpful to start a lesson
by finding out what
Activating prior students already know about
knowledge the history topic. When
students brainstorming
ideas about a new topic, they
can use some L1.

Include collaborative tasks (in

Collaborative pairs o groups) that involve
tasks students in producing
specific vocabulary and
structures.

Cognitive Learners usually need

considerable support to
challenge develop their thinking skills
(Scaffolding) in a non-native language.
SCAFFOLDING
 SCAFFOLDING
• Providing scaffolding (content and language support strategies which are
temporary), is very important.
• For example, writing a substitution table on the board to support skills of using
provisional language:

We think growing food

It seems that the first farmers started working in larger groups
It appears keeping animals near the villages

• Providing scaffolding is a challenge to CLIL teachers because students vary in

the amount of support they need and in the length of time the support is needed.
 CONSIDERATIONS WHEN PLANNING A CLIL
LESSON
•Teachers need to ask questions which
encourage lower order thinking skills
(LOTS): the what, when, where and which
questions.
•However, we also need to ask questions
Developing which demand higher order thinking skills
thinking
(HOTS): the why and how questions and
skills
require more complex language.
•In CLIL lessons, students often have to
answer higher order thinking questions at an
early stage of learning about history.
IDEAS FOR A CLIL LESSON

THE PALEOLITHIC AGE

ACTIVATING PRIOR
KNOWLEDGE
We project 3 images of life in the
Paleolithic Age (on the right).

We ask students a word/phrase

related to the images. Write them on
the board.

We find out if they know the meaning

of “PALEOLITHIC” (paleo = ancient +
lithos = stone). And the same with
“Neolithic” (new stone).

We show them a timeline and

indicate the Paleolithic Age on the
line.
 Write on the board: hunting, fishing,
gathering, nomadic, outdoors, caves, wooden
huts, tribes, fire.

VOCABULARY Ask which words they don’t know.

FOCUS Explain the meanings.

They will read them in a text about the

Palaeolithic Age.
Gaining subject knowledge

Students look at the picture of

‘Life in a cave’ and the text
below the picture. We explain
them what they see and ask
them what people did during
the Palaeolithic Age (Activity
a). We identify the fire in the
centre of the picture and ask
why fire was an important
discovery (Activity b). We
must give them language
support by writing an starter
sentence on the board:

Fire was very important

because Paleolithic people
could …..…….........……………
 ANSWERING QUESTIONS
Vocabulary on the board is written in bold font in the text.
In pairs, students answer Activities a and b orally (Did
they predict the answers?) and think how Paleolithic people
could make their stone tools.
We can write verbs and gap-fill sentences on the board:
Found, cut, shaped, used, sharpened.
•They might have ______________ them near the caves.
•They could have ____ the stones.
Most of the students will need support to say or write these sentences.
 PALEOLITHIC ART
• About 35,000 years ago, human beings started decorating caves
with paintings. This type of art is called cave art. It shows that
our ancestors had an artistic sensibility. Perhaps the paintings
also had a ritual meaning.

• PALAEOLITHIC ART had the following CHARACTERISTICS:

 Animals, such as deer, bison, horses and mammoths were
often represented.
 The paintings were realistic. The relief surface of the cave was
used to give them volume.
 Several colours were used.
 Minerals were mixed with egg white to make the colours.
Animal hair was used to make brushes.

• The most famous Paleolithic paintings were found in Altamira (in

the picture), in the north of Spain; and Lascaux, in the south of
France.
 We project this painting of
Altamira and after a few
minutes we can ask:

What does it show?

What colours are used?
Is there an outline around the
shapes?
Does the painting show
movement?
Can you predict the size of the
shapes? (about________cm)
 An effective way to consolidate understanding
Consolidating of new information is to make INDEX CARDS
historical (see Activity a in the following slide).
understanding MANY SKILLS ARE INVOLVED:

Checking the information from the texts

Looking closely at the text to find key
vocabulary
Summarising the information
Checking and compare a partner’s work.
Communicating feedback to partner.
• The follow Activities (b and c) consolidate the previous skills
as students complete two index cards: Paleolithic art and an
object from their book. Small groups can then share their work.
INDEX CARDS ACTIVITY
• Index cards are a good way to store information about a topic.
They can also include some pictures.
a. Use these cards to summarise the essential features of
life in the Paleolithic Age.
b. Make index cards on Paleolithic art.
c. Look at the example below, then make a card to classify
a paleolithic venus.
VENUS OF WILLENDORF
Period: Paleolithic

Material: Stone

Shape: A female human figure

Technique: Handmade

Function: To gain the favour of divinities in order to improve

the fertility of humans, land and animals.
Present meaning: It is a valuable object providing
information about ancient beliefs.
AT THE END OF THE LESSON, allow time to review what was
learned.

ASK STUDENTS TO TELL YOU:

 something new they learned

 something they already knew
 something that was interesting
 something they would like to find out about.
 As the history course progresses,
students should achieve better
results in the learning outcomes
even though the topic changes:
CONCLUSION
if they can communicate information
about life in the Paleolithic Age ==>
they can communicate information
about the Mesopotamian civilisation.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION