Page 66 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Content and Language Integrated Learning

Table 3.3 Aspects of Planning a CLIL Lesson
Subject con- • What are some good subject topics for CLIL lessons? (some topics are more
tent and appropriate for CLIL instruction as they provide opportunities for YLs to de-
learning velop both content and language skills)
objectives • What will YLs know or be able to do by the end of the lesson? What are the
learning outcomes of the lesson?
Language • What specialized vocabulary and structures do YLs need to learn? Which do
objectives they already know and can be recycled?
• What language do YLs need to know in order to be able to take part in class-
room activities and complete tasks?
• What strategies will we use for scaffolding classroom talk?
Teaching • How will we ensure that the language input is comprehensible (for example,
techniques by using the same language structures repeatedly and in different contexts or
demonstrating the instructions)?
• What scaffolding techniques will we use (pre-teaching vocabulary, role play-
ing, guessing from context, etc.)?
• What kind of activities can we use (interactive and engaging activities allow
students to actively participate and interact with the content and provide op-
portunities for language use and content exploration)?
• How will feedback be provided?
Encouraging • What kind of questions can we ask? (display questions are used for eliciting
higher-order pupils’ prior knowledge and checking understanding, while referential ques-
thinking skills tions encourage them to give opinions, clarify a point or predict content)
• What kind of problem-solving activities can we include in the primary class-
room? (hands-on science experiments, critical thinking stories, collaborative
projects, simulations, etc.)
• How can we foster creative and critical thinking at primary level (for example,
in a lesson on animal habitats, pupils may be asked to analyze information
and make informed decisions about which animal belongs to a specific habi-
tat)?
Assessment • How can we assess YLs learning in CLIL classes?
• Do we assess only language or only content or both?
• What assessment methods can we use? (besides traditional tests, other meth-
ods can be used, such as project-based assessments, presentations, or written
reports)

carry out a CLIL lesson efficiently, CLIL learners need a lot of extra support
from the teacher in the form of various scaffolding strategies, such as visual
support, movement, extra explanations and other supports. Another scaf-
folding strategy often discussed in CLIL teaching is translation. While its role
in CLIL instruction has been questioned, Canepari (2020) points out that the
useoftranslation isin synergywith CLILmethodology,especiallysinceit con-
tributes to the development of various disciplinary and communicative skills.

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