Does\nthe image of students listening without getting involved at all\nthroughout an entire science or history lesson sound familiar to you?\nDo you also believe that teaching can be different and you know there\nis a methodology which actively engages and involves students and,\nadditionally, combines learning of content and of a foreign language?\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are reading this post then you are very likely to start implementing CLIL in your classroom – or wishing to do it – but you are a little concerned that this might not be as enjoyable as it often sounds. Well, here are some survival tips for a successful start to a great experience!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
… and do it voluntarily! This is undoubtedly the first condition for CLIL-ing well. You need to trust the methodology and believe in its outcomes, otherwise the students will easily think that the way they learned in the past was much better. But you want them to believe this new method is just the best for them in spite of your concerns, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are a subject teacher and you are concerned about your level of competence in the L2 you are about to teach? Don\u2019t forget that if you are using CLIL, you have chosen a learner-centred approach. So, reduce your talking time by eliciting more from the students while supporting them with the relevant language structures and, when it comes to solve tasks, give them clear and concise instructions, which you will well have prepared in advance. This is essential to achieve one of the central aims of your lesson, which is encouraging learners\u2019 autonomy. What\u2019s more, it helps save your voice and, maybe not less importantly for you, reduces exposure to mistakes in the L2!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know, at the beginning of your teaching experience you may feel overwhelmed by the amount of time you need for preparation and all the school commitments and you will probably wonder how you will find more time to adapt or design your own materials \u2013 or even why you should do it, given that publishers are increasingly producing CLIL resources ready to use. Well, I used to think the same before attending the CELTA teacher training course, a crucial stage in my teaching career. However, every single student and every classroom have different needs and teachers also want the focus of every lesson to be different. For this reason, adjusting what you find in coursebooks to learners needs, tailoring activities \u2013 sometimes just changing the order they are presented – can really make each lesson simply the right one for your students who will incredibly benefit from this and will make it really worth the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If adapting materials means adjusting them to the needs of your students, another way to meet their needs is, undoubtedly, promoting learning through the use of technological devices. It goes without saying that students nowadays have an extremely high exposure to technology and, in general, they interact easily with digital tools. Using technological devices during your lessons – if the school provides you with the right equipment \u2013 can thus have an amazing impact on the learners and if this is true for any level of learning, it is particularly true for a CLIL lesson where the learner is expected to be more active in the learning process. And if you are concerned because your students are definitely more digitally competent than you … then let them help you, this will boost their self-confidence and their engagement even more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CLIL teachers can be subject teachers or language teachers. The challenge is considerable on both sides: if you are a subject teacher you are likely to feel less confident in your language competence, whereas if you are a language teacher you surely need to learn more about the subject content. It sounds like mutual help could be the key to address these issues. And if supporting each other is not quite common in your working environment, then be the first to promote a collaborative way of working, ask for help and offer your support. Don\u2019t you want your students to do the same during your CLIL lessons because of its proven effectiveness in terms of learning outcomes? So, operating in a collaborative way with your colleagues – talking to them, sharing experiences, asking for feedback and support – can have a great impact on your CLIL teaching experience and, in general, on your professional development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bilingual\neducation is not a recent phenomenon but the form taken through CLIL\ndates back in the 90\u2019s and was then implemented all over Europe\nwith remarkable speed in some countries and more gradually in others.\nWhat is the situation in your country? What\u2019s the progress so far?\nWhat can you learn from this and how can that contribute to your\nprofessional development? Keeping constantly up-to-date is the key to\nget inspired. You can do it by joining a teacher\u2019s association or\nsubscribing a teaching magazine, attending conferences, in person or\nonline or logging into webinars any time you like. The web has a\nmassive amount of resources and, what\u2019s more, most of them are\nfree! You\u2019ll also find plenty of colleagues who share their\nexperiences through blog posts like the one you are reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well,\ngood luck with your CLIL experience! Maybe you\u2019ll soon have\nsomething interesting to share too?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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