Practical 14 - CLIL

Practice II

- Practical Nº 14: CLIL

THEORY

3-        CLIL can provide advantages in acquisition/ learning in young children for many reasons. For starters, the study of a topic from another subject that students may find interesting and from which they have some previous, can lead to a more natural class, in contrast with and normally-artificial language class. What is more, the literacy development in the first class will transfer to the second or foreign language. As the language is learnt in a real context it is thus viewed as authentic, letting students see the usefulness of the L2.            

Students also can develop the use of two languages simultaneously until the age when lateralization occurs.

Moreover they will be able to enhance their thinking processes as they will be provided with situations in which the learning of another subject could even be more successful because of the effort of decoding it and thinking about in a foreign language. This aforementioned ‘naturalness’, provided by similar content will help YLE pick up the L2 more easily, and thus will enhance the acquisition process.

As regards the role the learner has, according to Piaget, it is that of an active learner. Using CLIL, the student is an active learner who, with the necessary help provided by an adult, can make sense of language with objects used through the development of tasks and activities. 

4)        In CLIL classes, English is taught in combination with other curriculum subjects, this means that it is not taught in isolation and it makes easier for students to observe the usefulness of learning the foreign language because they are learning it in real contexts. In this way, teachers using CLIL are not only raising language awareness but also increasing the intercultural knowledge and understanding as very often the CLIL language will itself only be a platform by which students may take an interest in other languages and cultures as well. Furthermore, students are exposed to a different kind of input, which is one in which they will feel more comfortable with due to the motivation provided by a cross-curricula design of their interest. CLIL classes cater for different learning styles and strategies through project work and task based projects where cooperation and collaboration will be needed to solve problems presented. Besides, these projects may be carried out by ICT; that is to say that there is a lot of use of communication and technology though CLIL in order engaged students in classes.

Students learn and use language in an immediate and meaningful way. The target language is the vehicle through which they meet social and academic needs, employ learning strategies and critical thinking skills, and expand and display their knowledge of curricular content.

6)        Bloom’s taxonomy helps students reach a high-order thinking in class. It leads students to a different form of organization of new information to be learnt. This is why Bloom’s Taxonomy is based on six basic steps when teaching: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. Going in this order, teachers guide students from the simple to the more difficult and by doing this they help students reach a high-order thinking.

At primary school level, we can achieve this by teaching step by step, using lots of visual and audio materials in order to help students to develop their L2. First, we should concentrate in making students remember the topic (warm up) or prior knowledge. Then, we should help them understand the topic so that later they could apply it. Afterwards, they should be able to analyze and evaluate the topic. And, finally, they will be able to create or produce something on their own. If teachers follow this order they are guiding students to construct their abilities of thinking in a high-order way.

DIDACTIC SEQUENCE

Topic: Nutrients and healthy diet

Areas involved: English and Natural Sciences

Aims:

·         To raise awareness of the importance of including healthy food on student's diet;

·         To study the different nutrients involved in the oval circle;

·         To know about different healthy habits;

·         To compare and contrast the Argentinian food oval and the North-American food pyramid.

·         To use the structure should/should not, imperatives.

School Context:

School: Nº 6 or Nº 25.

Group: 5º D – 5º C (School Nº 6) – 5º A – 5º C (School Nº 25). Ages: from 10 to 11.

Frequency of classes: two forty-five minutes classes a week per group.

Estimated length of the project: 5 to 6 lessons

Content:

Nutrients, the Argentinian food oval and diet.

Language:

-Lexis: nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, minerals, proteins, water, vitamins); different kinds of food (meat, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, liquids, flours, desserts); the four meals (breakfast, lunch, tea, snacks, dinner).

-Grammar: should/ should not; imperatives.

-Functions:

-Macroskills: Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing.

-Higher Order Thinking Skills:

Thinking critically about the products offered on the global market;

Recognizing the importance of water in the Argentinian food oval diet;

Acknowledging the importance of a varied diet;

Procedure:

Students will be informed about the project that will be carried out with the Natural Sciences teacher.

Class 1

·         Brainstorming: Students will be asked what they know about nutrients. This previous knowledge will be written down on the blackboard, getting as a result a c-map (containing kinds of nutrients, different foods)

·         Flashcards of different kinds of food and the meals will be stuck on the blackboard in order to present the language they already know  in English. Then students will classify those into healthy and unhealthy. Why do you make that classification?

·         Students will be asked to monitor the food they eat at home during a whole week using the following worksheet. They should include the four main meals and the snacks in between.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Tea	Dinner	Snacks	Drinks (Nº and type)
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

Class 2

• Then students will be shown this video about nutrients and food (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcNpcqtl2yU). Afterwards, some flashcards about nutrients will be stuck on the blackboard.   
• Student will work with the complete worksheet. They will be asked to rate their diets from ‘very healthy’ to ‘unhealthy’, based on their common knowledge.
• Then they should compare it with their classmates’, giving each other advice on what they should/should not eat. The structure will be explained as the urge of using it will emerge.

Class 3

• As a warm-up the flashcard from previous classes (meals, foods, and nutrients) will be stuck on the blackboard so as to check that students remember the lexis learnt on previous classes.
• The teacher will introduce the Argentinian food oval.

·         And then, students will be asked to compare it with the model taught in some English-speaking countries. What are the differences between them? Which is the importance of water? Are the other nutrients equally distributed? Which is the reason for the different shapes?

·         Students will learn how to give orders, using imperatives. The teacher will write examples on the board, and then there will be oral practice.

·         After that, students will decide whether they prefer the pyramid or the oval, and they will produce posters using imperatives (such as ‘eat more fruit’, ‘drink more water’) based on their choice. These will be hung all over the classroom so as to promote healthy eating habits.

Class 4

·         As a warm-up the teacher will bring pictures of food which students will classify into healthy and unhealthy, pasting them on the board. Students will analyze that products and think about what kinds of food the global market offers to consumers.

·         After that, the teacher will show students flashcards about healthy habits, including doing exercise, spending time in the outside, not watching much television, not playing much on the computer, etc.

·         In pairs, students will ask each other about their everyday habits, taking down notes.

Classes 5 and 6

·         As a final project, students will be asked to produce in pairs, their own healthy diets, including meals, different types of food, nutrients, healthy habits and choosing either the oval or the pyramid.

·         Finally, they will share their final projects with the rest of the class. And altogether they will choose which is the healthiest of them.