The CLIL thinking hat

Jesús M. Hernández GonzálezUniversity of Edinburgh

Start

The role of the CLIL practitioner

The CLIL thinking hat

Identifying the role of CLIL teachers at different levels of their teaching practice in primary and secondary education. It intends to cope with tips, suggestions and food for thought

This talk is about...

Three different levels of CLIL teachers

Food for thought

Content teacher's perspective

Language teacher's perspective

2 perspectives

The CLIL thinking hat

Conclusion

CLIL

CLIL models

Contents

The CLIL thinking hat

Learning a subject through an additional language, where the content and the language(s) are taught and learned in an integrated way.Example: Teaching Science through Spanish in non-Spanish speaking countries.

What is CLIL?

"CLIL refers to situations in which subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through the medium of a foreign language with a twofold objective: the simultaneous learning of content and a foreign language". David Marsh

CLIL

"Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a dual educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and languages".Coyle, et al. (2010, p. 10)

Content/s

Language/s

The key is the "i" of integration

C = Content L = Language I = Integrated L = Learning

CLIL

• Top-down (top-down) or bottom-up (bottom-up) approach
• Interdisciplinary* or disciplinary model
• Language-led approach
• Content-led approach

CLIL models and types

• When can we start CLIL and in which courses?
• What subjects and topics can we teach in CLIL?
• How can we teach CLIL?
• What resources and materials are suitable for CLIL work?
• Language-focused or content-focused learning objectives?

Reflections

• Recent studies show a less than favourable picture in content learning acquisition within CLIL settings (Bruton, 2013).
• Several studies in the field have shown that the greatest difficulty lies in the integration of language and content (Dalton-Puffer, 2013; Vollmer, 2008).

The importance of the "i" in CLIL

Literacy is understood as the development of skills related to the comprehension and production of both oral and written texts at a high level, using different text formats and modes of delivery.

• Putting on our CLIL thinking hat
• Maintaining a balance between content and language but above all identifying which elements link or bridge the gap between cognition, language, content and literacy.

How can we solve this issue?

CLIL is evolving to models where the competence approach and other elements such as: critical and divergent thinking, communication, collaboration, the affective dimension, academic mindset, self-improvement, inter- and intra-personal competences and the literacies of the different areas or subjects are the skills that the individual needs to acquire in order to be successful in today's and tomorrow's society.

CLIL evolution

The CLIL thinking hat makes us see reality/realities from a holistic and integrative perspective; through the eyes of both the language teacher and the subject teacher.

I would like you to think of a wonderful, exuberant hat that you would want to wear at all times. It must be something extraordinary and majestic. You have to 'wear' it when you are designing, planning, implementing and assessing CLIL. This is your CLIL thinking hat which will help, guide and support you at any time when delivering CLIL.

The CLIL thinking hat

• It is Jiminy Cricket
• It is a metacognitive strategy
• It is our CLIL conscience: a way of how to reflect on our teaching praxis
• Its main function is to make us aware to keep a balance between content and language

What is the CLIL thinking hat?

The thinking hat is part of our intrapersonal competence, and it is related to the growth of mindset

The CLIL thinking hat

Two different contexs to see the role of the language and the content teacher

There are hundres of ways to deliver CLIL

The CLIL thinking hat

Content teacher

Language teacher

Two perspectives

The CLIL thinking hat

Language teacher's perspective

Do I have to teach content in my subject? Supporting content learning and content awareness.

• Expert on the field
• Know how to teach the L2.
• Language-led approach.

• Challenging: Teach content or subjects in a L2 within a CLIL approach.
• Supporting content learning in language lessons. Ball, Kelly & Clegg; 2015.

The language teacher's perspective

• Language literacies (CDFs, languaging...)
• Academic content, Mehisto, 2017
• Learning skills and critical thinking
• Language (academic language, language and communication awareness)

• Pedagogical practices
• Support content subject through the academic language
• Integrating content into language lessons
• Activity domains (doing, organising, exploring and arguing) Polias, 2016; The Graz Group, 2016

• Cooperation and collaboration with content teachers (Julian de Vega, 2017)

The CLIL thinking hat

Language teacher's perspective

Do I have to teach content in my subject? Supporting content learning and content awareness.

Language teacher's perspective

The CLIL thinking hat

Content teacher's perspective

Do I have to teach language in my subject? Supporting language learning and language and communication awareness.

• Expert on the field
• Know how to teach his/her content subject in L1.
• Content-led approach.

• Challenging: Teach his/her content subject in a L2 within a CLIL approach.
• Supporting language learning in content lessons. Ball, Kelly & Clegg; 2015.

The content teacher's perspective

Whether we want our students to think like scientists, we have to deeply engage them with scientific content. Christodoulou, 2016; Mehisto, 2017

• Academic literacies (ability, CDFs, languaging...)
• Academic content (core content and big ideas) Mehisto, 2017.
• Academic language (language tryptich, language and communication awareness)
• Learning skills and critical thinking

• Pedagogical practices
• Activity domains (doing, organising, exploring and arguing) Polias, 2016; The Graz Group, 2016

The CLIL thinking hat

Content teacher's perspective

Do I have to teach content in my subject? Supporting content learning and content awareness.

Content teacher's perspective

There are no right or wrong statements. The following tips and food for thought are ways of reflecting on our teaching practice when we are playing the role of a CLIL practitioner.

The CLIL thinking hat

What hat should I choose?

It is up to you to decide which CLIL thinking hat to choose. This depends on your beliefs; what suits you best in the role of CLIL practitioner in the context in which you are implementing CLIL pedagogy.

There is no ideal a CLIL thinking hat, just as there is no ideal way of developing CLIL.

There is not an ideal hat nor an ideal CLIL approach. we have to adecuate our way of addresing CLIL in the best of conditions

We have different hats as we as teachers have different ways of approaching CLIL. This is part of our inner and the way we interpret the reality/realities. Each of us has to choose the most suitable and appropiate hat when delivering CLIL.

Different types of hats

• We cannot teach part of a content subject or a content subject in the same way as we do in our L1 .
• And, we cannot expect that our students reach the same learning outcomes they do in L1, if our way of approaching the content is the same one as we do in L1.

The CLIL thinking hat

The CLIL thinking hat can be very annoying and sometimes tires me out. However, it tries to get the most out of us, involving us in producing new ideas, creating resources and, above all, making us think and reflect, and so it always gives us "food for thought".

The CLIL thinking hat

We cannot consider CLIL as a fixed and a static approach, but a flexible and a constant evolution approach

Swaping hats

Whether we want to take one step forward, we need to put our CLIL thinking hat on. In occassions, we might to consider change the hat as the new horizons of CLIL imply a more challenge way and a different approach.

A key of success in CLIL is collaboration and therefefore the different perspectives of those teachers (Julián-de-Vega & Fonseca-Mora, 2017).

Collaboration is essential

Have you ever thought about having two o more thinking CLIL hats at the same time? One of the key aspects to move forward is to do it with other colleagues. The more collaboration, guidance and support you have, the better you will be able to tailor your ideas of how to approach CLIL. It is like Vygotsky's ZPD; there is a field to explore and we need others CLIL thinking hats to help you to move on.

Today CLIL is in full evolution. One of the approaches that is attracting attention is the Pluriliteracies approach.

Changing my thinking hat?

It is not a bad idea to change our CLIL Thinking hat from time to time or to customise it. Although the hat we have chosen is just awesome, when dealing with new approaches for CLIL, we need to change or customise our CLIL thinking hat. CLIL is an approach in constant change, and if CLIL evolves, we as CLIL practioners should do the same.

CLIL expert practitioner thinking hat

CLIL proficient practitioner thinking hat

CLIL beginner practitioner thinking hat

The type of CLIL thinking hat we wear will also depend on our experience and knowledge of CLIL pedagogies. This is the reason why you will have a different hat depending on the level you are.

Different levels of CLIL teachers

Content teacher

Language teacher

CLIL beginner practitioner. Adapted from Mehistos' book: CLIL essentials, 2017

• I think that the integration of content and language is important; however, I'm not very sure how to do this (LT+CT)
• I would like to change my pedagogical practices to integrate content and language in an appropiate way (LT+CT)
• I need to have more ideas to develop CLIL and to find ways to support content/language (LT+CT)

The CLIL thinking hat for beginner CLIL practitioners

Content teacher

Language teacher

CLIL proficient practitioner. Adapted from Mehistos' book: CLIL essentials, 2017

• I think that the integration of content and language is important and I support if from my subject (LT+CT)
• I look for and use ways of integrating content and language (LT+CT)
• I have developed content/language awareness in CLIL subjects (LT+CT)
• I would like to learn more and therefore to shape my pedagogical practices to integrate content and language in a more appropiate way (LT+CT)

The CLIL thinking hat for proficient CLIL practitioners

Content teacher

Language teacher

CLIL expert practitioner. Adapted from Mehistos' book: CLIL essentials, 2017

• Students will learn more if I support them to unpack academic/content language (LT+CT)

• I believe that CLIL is essential and therefore, content and language learning is developed in my lessons (LT+CT)
• I feel confident to develop an integrated curriculum as well as to work with academic language and content (LT+CT)
• My students will be become more effective learners of CLIL, if they expand their repertoire in learning skills (LT+CT)

The CLIL thinking hat for expert CLIL practitioners

I would suggest you use the CLIL thinking hat while designing, planning, implementing and assessing situations of learning in CLIL. I believe that the more you use, the better CLIL practitioner you will be. And remember, if the CLIL thinking hat suits you, don’t get rid of it, I’m sure that it can be used in other learning and teaching contexts.

Conclusion

• Coyle, D. Hood, P. & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Coyle, D., Holmes, B. & King, L. (2009). Towards an integrated curriculum – CLIL National Statement and Guidelines. London: The Language Company.
• Graz Group. (2015). The Graz Group model: Mapping pluriliteracies development. A pluriliteracies approach to teaching for learning. European Centre for Modern Languages. http://pluriliteracies.ecml.at/en-us/

• Julián-de-Vega, C., & Fonseca-Mora, M.C. (2017). Language policy and teacher team coordination practices in secondary CLIL schools. European Journal of Language Policy 9(2), 183-202. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/677224.

• Marsh, D. (2000). Using Languages to Learn and Learning to Use Languages. Finland, University of Jyväskylä.
• Mehisto, P., & Ting, Y. T. (2017). CLIL Essentials: For Secondary School Teachers. Cambridge University Press.

• Vygotsky, L. (1980). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

References

Food for thought

• Do you think all inclusive long-life learning can only be taught at school? What do other factors interfere? How can we include them in the learning process?

• What learning strategies and skills are needed when teaching through CLIL approach?
• How important do you consider teaching learning strategies and abilities? How do you include them in your planning? Do you consider them important?
• How could you implement deeper learning into your praxis? Is it relevant in CLIL?
• How do you think deeper learning can improve the development of the teaching learning process?

• Do you think mediation between students is important for the learning process? How often do you use mediation in your sessions?

Food for thought

• When you design a learning intervention what is the first thing you think of, the language or the content? Do you think as language teacher or a content teacher?
• Do you consider that teachers must know more about the language they use or about the content they are teaching?

• When creating the resources and materials, do they have a determined aim? Is this aim centred on language or content? or Do you integrate both concepts?
• How important do you consider the involvement, coordination and engagement of the teachers department for the development and implementation of CLIL programmes?

• Think about the initial assessment you normally do, do you assess linguistic skills (listening, reading, speaking, interaction, writing)?Do you assess content?

Food for thought

• Do you consider learning skills and critical thinking when dealing with CLIL?

• Do you usually plan a final task in which both content and language can be assessed?
• Do you include cooperative learning in your tasks or do you work in group? Do you work on cooperative abilities?

• Do students participate in the creation and planning of the learning situations? Do you take into considerations their opinions, preferences, ways of learning and so on and so forth?
• Do you take into account the 4 C’s Model? Do you consider integrating the cognition and cultural part to your tasks or do you centre only the communication and content?

Thank you for your attentionAnd be happyJesús Hernándezjhergong@icloud.com