CONTENTS

Sections

Titles and authors

Pages

Introduction 2015.........................................................................................................3

1

3
3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5


3.6

3.7

4
4.1





4.2



4.3



4.4

CLIL for ELTs - Introduction and thanks.....................................................................5

Keith Kelly
Discussion (plenaries and talks)
Do you want your students to learn language? Then stop teaching it! . ......................7
Phil Ball
The Challenges of CLIL Implementation in EFL Contexts....................................... 11
Daro Luis Banegas
CLIL IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC - Ready for a challenge?.................................14
Jana Jilkov
How General is General English?..............................................................................15
Elka Stavreva and Stefka Kitanova
English or Specific Content: The Challenge of Teaching
Terminology to University Students.......................................................................16
Nina Tsvetkova
CLIL Projects for ELTs...............................................................................................19
Keith Kelly
English teachers in CLIL programmes: acquiring new skills.....................................24
John Clegg
Resources
SAW - Introduction.....................................................................................................47
Keith Kelly
WDYE Teacher Notes English...................................................................................48
WDYE Student Pages English...................................................................................50
WDYE Information Section English..........................................................................55
WDYE Exchange Form English.................................................................................60
Sample Projects Introduction......................................................................................62
John Clegg
1 Flight........................................................................................................................63
2 Waste........................................................................................................................67
Your CLIL Introduction..............................................................................................71
Keith Kelly
Your CLIL Root words list ........................................................................................72
Your CLIL Agriculture Lesson...................................................................................74
Basque CLIL for ELT Introduction............................................................................81
Phil Ball
Culture Shock...........................................................................................................82

To the authors
Submit materials to the following e-mails: [email protected] and [email protected]
Font: Times New Roman, size 10 pt
Text length: 3 pages (about 5000 characters)
Begin with:
Topic
For which grade the material is
For what purpose the material is
How to use the material
Also send opinions, critics, etc.
Write authors name, position, e-mail
Cite sources in alphabetical order
The Editorial Board is not responsible for the authors material
Editor-in-chief: Keith Kelly
Executive editor: Stefka Kitanova
ISSN 1311-7637

Edited by Bulgarian Section of European Association of Teachers

Cover idea: Hristiyana Blagoeva. 164 Spanish Language School Sofia; [email protected]
Cover design: Krsto Terziev, Kamelia Bisolnakova

Welcome to the 15th Jubilee edition

of the FACTWorld Journal!
Its a pleasure and a privilege to be able to sit down and write an opening message to this
book to the FACTWorld network of teachers around the world all with an interest in CLIL.
The FACTWorld network began at a teacher training event in Knazhevo, Sofia in Bulgaria in
1999. That meeting of 30 teachers working through the medium of English and other languages
went on to become the FACT group which met 5 or 6 times per year on a purely voluntary
basis to discuss teaching and learning of curriculum subjects through the medium of a foreign
language. The group also served as a instrument for colleagues to share and communicate with
each other in a profession which rarely has opportunities for such meetings and discussion. We
set up a website called factbg, which has since closed down. In its ashes sprung up factworld
(www.factworld.info) which this year relaunches on a new platform, tidier, not so cluttered, better organized. Along with Web space, we developed communication groups such as factworld@
yahoogroups.com, and it is this group that now numbers over 3500 teachers around the world (
and still growing).
As this publication marks the 15th anniversary of FACTWorld and FACTWorld relaunches,
we have decided to continue to publish the FACTWorld journal twice yearly and ask colleagues
to give a small donation to help cover printing costs. You will find instructions for writing and
sending materials to the journal in this edition of the publication. So, send us your creations!
At the same time, FACTWorld meetings will begin again in Bulgaria for interested colleagues, and we know there are many! Again, these meetings will be on a voluntary and selffunded basis and you will be able to find information about upcoming meetings through our
website and discussion group and other social media (FACTWorld in facebook, Twitter). You can
also read about the events in the same places.
Lastly, we hope to go on to bring together FACTWorld teachers for international events such
as conferences and training events. Well be investigating funding and opportunities and will
keep you all informed.
Watch this space!
With very best wishes,
Keith Kelly
Education Consultant
Spring 2015

CLIL for ELTs

Introduction and thanks
First of all the thanks, and please forgive me if you don't appear but you contributed,
you know you're appreciated!
Thanks to John Clegg and Phil Ball for giving so much, not least getting to Ruse for
the conference among trying circumstances! Thanks to the British Council and
Macmillan for sponsoring John and Phil's and my own participation in the BETA
Conference and pre-conference CLIL day which led to the writing of this book.
Thanks to BETA for agreeing to run the pre-conference CLIL day and for their
impeccable administration of the arrival and contributions of our visitors to the day
and organization of the day itself. Thanks to you all, for believing in CLIL. It's where
language learning really is!
CLIL for ELTs is two things.
Firstly, it is a bird's eye view of some of the contributions to the pre-conference CLIL
day before the BETA Conference in Ruse, Bulgaria in April 2012. Secondly, it
attempts to offer ideas and guidance to English language teachers with a desire to find
out more about CLIL and dip their toes into its luke warm welcoming waters, before
they decide whether or not to take a dive.
What you will find in these pages to help you decide are two chunks of things to read.
The first section 'discussion' includes summaries of the main content and discussion
of some of the talks at our pre-conference CLIL day and a second section offering
CLIL resources which relate directly to the issues raised in the discussion.
In the discussion section 3, Phil gets us started in 3.1, as he did at the conference, with
a discusion on CLIL as a new way looking at teaching language suggesting that we
stop trying to teach the language so much as let it come from what we do with the
language. In 3.2 we have a message from Dario Luis Banegas that the challenges
presented by CLIL can be seen as opportunities, for example in contexts where there
are no appropriate CLIL resoures it is suggested to supplement the curriculum to suit
local learning needs and demands and in turn enable teachers to become 'autonomous,
less market-dependent, and developers of their own CLIL materials'. Jana Jilkov in
3.3 gives us an overview of a national project namely Czech CLIL with much debate
around the standard language expectations for teachers attempting to teach a content
subject through the medium of a foreign language and asking to what extent the same
expectations are placed or should be placed upon language teachers in terms of their
content. Elka Goranova and Stefka Kitanova report back in 3.4 on CLIL lesson
observation with some findings to do with transfer of skills between language and
CLIL classes. In 3.5 Nina Tsvetkova asks for more CLIL for tertiary language
preparation in her talk on the challenge of teaching specific terminology to university
students. My own plenary is written up in 3.6 and offers ideas for setting up CLIL
projects in the English classroom. Lastly, but never least, in 3.7 John rounds up
discussion offering insights and advice into what CLIL can and does offer English
language teachers.
5
1

My plenary discusses project work for language classrooms and takes examples from
Science Across the World and in 4.1 readers are treated to a free pack from the
Science Across programme (What did you eat?) as well as ideas on what to do with it
and how to get good partnerships going with other schools using the programme.
Additionally, in 4.2 there are two project units from John and myself which are
offered for language teachers who are already paddling around in CLIL waters. We
have also included a sample Your CLIL topic in 4.3 from Macmillan's onestopenglish
website. You will find a key word and phrase list on 'root words' as well as a
Geography lesson exemplifying this area on the topic of 'Agriculture' to help get some
of you started! Finally, as if that wasn't enough, in 4.4 we have a sample of material
for ELT CLIL from Phil and the Eleanitz Basque Multilingual Project where you will
see ELT materials written specifically to teach language and skills students meet in
the Social Science curriculum.
Enjoy!
Best wishes
Keith Kelly
02.07.12

6
2

Do you want your students to learn language? Then stop teaching it!
Phil Ball ([email protected])
The talk was based on the following notions concerning CLIL basically that one of the
problems with language teaching is that it often tries too hard to teach language. That
may seem paradoxical, but it remains true that language teachers have struggled for
decades to establish a valid basis for the content of their lessons. It has never been easy
to find a satisfactory way to marry linguistic and conceptual/topical content.
Real content
The message was that CLIL, given the appropriate conditions, can enrich a language
syllabus by introducing real reasons for using English. What do we mean by real?
Well, subject teachers have a mass of content on their menus. Their problems are
completely distinct, in that they need to often reduce the conceptual content that is
inherent to their programmes, and if they are CLIL teachers, think more about the
linguistic and procedural implications of their topics. This is what we call hard CLIL.
However, the English teacher needs to approach CLIL from a different perspective
often called soft CLIL. Its not a negative term! Its simply the way that the
terminology has developed.
The talk began with the anecdote of La Abuela del Montevideo (the grandma of
Montevideo) which described a story told to the speaker by a retired ex-English teacher
in Uruguay whose grandson (7 years old) had run to her saying that he liked his English
lessons. When questioned further by his grandma as to why, he replied Porque
hacemos cosas (because we do things). This proved to be a simple and powerful
message, and the speaker has been relating the anecdote ever since. Why? Because the
implications of the message were various:
1) What were the boys expectations before he began the course?
2) What were his friends doing in other schools? (not things, it would seem).
3) The boy had recognised, instinctively, that English was merely a vehicle. Doing
things was the most important aspect of the classes.
4) CLIL is about doing things. Its not really about concepts, and its not really about
language. Its about skills or better, competences.
One shouldnt make too much of the boys innocent statement, of course. But its a
good way to understand the main point of a talk with a title like this. The basis of
language teaching has changed radically in the last decade, to the point where students
are following to the letter the idea propagated by David Graddol where he wrote, that
the central idea of learning English now is that of using it..
in order to do something else (English Next 2006)
Language as vehicle
This is a radical shift in thinking to a more instrumental view of language teaching, but
it has implications for our practice. CLIL seems to offer a methodological (and possibly
ideological) menu that can enable language teachers to bring their practice more into
7
4

line with this tendency. To ignore the tendency may be brave, but one suspects possibly
short-sighted.

Figure 1 Textbook extract 1(Subject Projects 2009)

The talk went on to develop the idea, first raised by The Bullock Report in 1975, that
all teachers are language teachers - the slogan of the LAC movement (language
Across the Curriculum). This was changed to read All language teachers are content
teachers?.
This is an equally interesting notion, since language teachers are not trained, in general,
to consider content as anything but the body of language that they are being paid to
teach.
They are also paid to assess language objectives, not content objectives. Are these
problems insuperable?
Language objectives and CLIL objectives
Well of course not. But before the talk went on to consider this issue, it showed the
basic differences between a language objective and a CLIL objective. The example used
was a unit on Global Warming, a current obligatory chapter for any language textbook
in Secondary. The unit proposes to save the planet by working in groups of three and
making proposals, as if the group were a presidential committee, passing advice to the
president. He/she would then announce If I were to save the world I would using 2nd
Conditional structures. At the end of the term, the teacher would test the student on the
use of the 2nd Conditional, whose underlying objective the unit was.
In the CLIL version, the teachers objective is To save the world. To do this, among
other things, the students require the 2nd Conditional, since without it they cannot
express themselves (and therefore cannot save the world). At the end of term, they are
assessed by their teacher on the efficacy of their proposals in relation to saving the
planet.
You can see the difference. The language student has little interest in saving the world.
What matters is the correct use of the language. Who cares about the planet, as long as
he/she obtains 10/10 in the English exam, for filling in the gaps correctly?
8
5

Its different for the CLIL student. He/she uses the language as the means to save the
planet. The student is judged on the content objective, not the linguistic one. This is
what we mean by real content. The student feels that the learning of a language is
going to serve some real (or hypothetical) purpose. The objective makes sense.
The CLIL Trinity
The talk moved on to consider the trinity, less of a religious concept than a way of
analysing the word content. The talk offered up an example of an English class that
used a running- dictation to teach 12 year-olds the basic concepts inherent to our solar
system. The content identified in the equation was broken up into conceptual,
procedural and linguistic content (the trinity), whose conscious combination by the
teacher provides the key to CLIL practice. It was argued that these three elements are
always present in any class, in any task, in any activity, but that in CLIL the teacher and
learners become more aware of how to balance them, and which to prioritise, at any
given moment. The argument was that the process (procedure) often exceeds in
importance the conceptual objective.
This is a crucial idea, because it shows that CLIL is not necessarily a dual focused
approach, as suggested by Marsh (1995) meaning that it focuses on both content and
language but rather that it is a singular approach focused on skills and competences,
for which concepts and language are merely the vehicles. The running dictation
involved speaking, reading, listening and writing, and yet this was not a necessary
means of teaching the objective. Its just that CLIL demands it, because teachers need to
get across the concepts in other ways. Their methodological repertoire increases, the
students benefit, and CLIL begins to work its magic.
Knowledge
The talk went on to examine the ideas of knowledge, and Biggs idea that we need to
move the students from the declarative to the functional, in other words to get them
thinking. When they do, it seems they learn languages better.
Breakdown of content
The talk concluded by showing how conceptual/thematic content can be broken down
into sequences, with its accompanying procedural and linguistic demands, in order to
formulate units that can last for over two months in an English language syllabus.
Examples were shown from the Basque Country, where the students in the 12-14 range
study Subject Projects, a series of theme-based units which are centred on authentic
content and demanding but motivating final production tasks. The conceptual
sequencing in Figure 1 and Figure 2 is enormously different from the sort of content
basis that one finds in language textbooks, where the content is brief and the procedures
almost non-existent.

Figure 2 Textbook extract 2(Subject Projects 2009)

In short, doing things seems to work. Language teachers can incorporate more
conceptual content, as long as they aware of the trinity. Stop teaching language, and
start to use it for something. We might just save the world!

10

The Challenges of CLIL Implementation in eFL Contexts

Daro Luis Banegas ([email protected])

When CLIL models are the result of top-down policies and curriculum initiatives, we
need to accept that they carry benefits as well as challenges which may emerge from
research interested in CLIL programme evaluation. Mehisto (2008) notes that one of
the issues is the lack of knowledge stakeholders have as regards aims. In order for
administrators to implement CLIL programmes and multiple models, there must be
serious needs analysis (Butler, 2005; Ruiz-Garrido & Fortanet-Gmez, 2009) to be
carried out before all actions actually begin. In my view, all models need to be
inductively implemented as it may be the best way to ensure that implementations are
the product of contextual conditions. Context-responsive CLIL pedagogies entail that
stakeholders are aware of the conditions offered and required in each educational
setting.
Lack of awareness or knowledge among administrators can also be found among
those who are in charge of implementing CLIL: teachers. Teachers sometimes do not
know what is expected from them especially when CLIL means putting content and
language teachers working together. For instance, Mehisto (2008) found out that
those CLIL classes which were only taught by content teachers featured second
language support mostly through unnecessary translation. This also led to the
discovery that teachers saw themselves as either content or language teachers, a view
which affected team teaching or a full integration of components. This reticence was
found even in teachers unwillingness to incorporate materials coming from content
or language classes. Overall, the author suggests that team teaching is one of the
major drawbacks in CLIL (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010; Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols,
2008; Yassin, Tek, Alimon, Baharom & Ying, 2010). What I put forward is that in
those situations where team teaching is still expected, this may occur between EFL
teachers by strengthening collaborative planning and materials development within
the EFL teaching staff.
More teacher-related concerns are reported in Pena Daz & Porto Requejo (2008) as
part of a research project following the implementation of bilingual-CLIL
programmes in 150 primary schools in Madrid. Results showed that teachers believed
their practices could be enhanced should they develop a more proficient command of
English. In other words, teachers may equate CLIL success to their own level of
English and curricular content understanding. Surprisingly, given the fact that the
participants in Pena Daz and Porto Requejo (2008) lacked formal training on
bilingual education methodologies, they considered they did not need that type of
theoretical training. They expressed their reliance on working with content teachers
and the practical knowledge, not defined in the article, of their subjects. Put simply,
another concern which is recurrent across contexts is how to organise pre-service and
in-service teacher education programmes which could also contemplate CLIL settings
as possible sources of employment for future teachers.
Mehistos (2008) article also includes a review of interviews with teachers who were
asked about what factors helped achieve CLIL programme success. Among the
factors mentioned, training opportunities, support by Immersion Centres, and teaching
materials were ranked in that order as regards their central importance in CLIL
programmes. Addressing such factors is paramount for quality assurance in CLIL
11

(Coyle, 2007) However, when school managers were interviewed, they admitted that
these factors were rarely met. Such inaction caused distress as well as further
resistance to innovation among teachers. This fact should remind us of what happens
when implementations occur from the centre to the periphery where the implementers,
that is, the teachers, are not fully equipped by adopters and suppliers. Nor is there
development of CLIL teacher training programmes, content materials or instructional
resources (Lyster & Ballinger, 2011). However, in Germany, a trend which could be
imitated by other countries, universities have started to offer an additional CLIL
teaching qualification (Vzquez, 2007).
With reference to materials, Ballman (1997) claims that publishers need to produce
coursebooks which are related to learners lives in their contexts. Nonetheless, this
suggestion is incompatible with CLIL spirit as contents should match the context and
curriculum of implementation and therefore I suspect that publishers, especially in
this era of the global coursebook, may not be interested to localise their international
coursebooks to match the national curricula in every setting. This would call for an
extreme diversification which implies huge investment and little profits. It has also
been suggested that teachers engaged in content-driven models may use textbooks for
native speakers to teach subjects such as History. The drawback of these materials is
that they will not match other curricula than that of the native student. It cannot be
expected that a History book produced for British students could possibly respond to
the Argentinian school curriculum for example. British History is studied by British
students. Argentinian History is studied by Argentinian students.
This lack of CLIL materials implies greater workload for teachers. However, it is
teachers in Argentina, Spain, or Bulgaria who truly know what their school curricula
contain and therefore they are in the best position to develop curriculum-responsive
materials which could supplement other international materials. What I observe is that
this challenge is, in fact, an opportunity for teachers to become autonomous, less
market-dependant, and developers of their own CLIL materials. I suggest that
teachers may produce their own materials in collaboration even with their students to
ensure that topics, sources, and activities are relevant and motivating in both students
(Huang, 2011) and teachers eyes and in response to the L1 curriculum.
Another cause of disjuncture among teachers is the issue of examinations (Serragiotto,
2007). While CLIL looks at, in theory, language and content holistically, national
exams are solely focused on content, creating a fracture in the system. In other words,
while the educational process has one set of aims, examinations are guided by a
different agenda, as it were. With reference to this concern, to my knowledge, there
are no research studies which investigate complete teaching and learning processes so
as to see what principles and decisions are to be found in classrooms. The point I am
advancing here is that there is a timely need to investigate classroom practices which
evidence what teachers do from introducing new content and language topics until
assessment is carried out and what materials scaffold these processes.
As Mehisto (2008) rightly claims above, stakeholders, especially school managers,
must exercise a prominent role when CLIL is adopted as a result of a top-down
process. In that case, one of the challenges which school managers are not ready to
explore is faculty development which assists both subject and language teachers so
that they collaboratively teach subject-matter they have not been initially trained for.
12

If this is not achieved, content teachers, who usually lack linguistic expertise, may
tend to stress content and neglect both language learning and the language teacher
(Kong, 2009; Creese, 2005). In these situations, a CLIL coordinator can act as a
liaison among learners, parents and content and language teachers (Pavn, Vzquez &
Rubio, 2010). I believe that a CBI-CLIL coordinator may be in charge of ensuring the
proper balance in content and language supported by methodologies and materials
which help construct this integration, especially when teachers may find it difficult to
team teach.
All these challenges should not be seen as walls, but as possibilities for our own
professional development and awareness of the practicalities of CLIL implementation.
References

Ballman, T. (1997). Enhancing Beginning Language Courses Through Content-Enriched

Instruction. Foreign Language Annals, 30(2), 173-186.
Butler, Y.G. (2005). Content-Based Instruction in EFL Contexts: Considerations for Effective
Implementation. JALT Journal, 27(2), 227-245.
Coyle, D. (2007). The CLIL quality challenge. In D. Marsh & D. Wolff (Eds.), Diverse
Contexts Converging Goals. CLIL in Europe (pp. 47-58). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Creese, A. (2005). Is this content-based language teaching? Linguistics and Education, 16(2),
188-204.
Huang, K. (2011). Motivating lessons: A classroom-oriented investigation of the effects of
content-based instruction on EFL young learners motivated behaviours and classroom
verbal interaction. System, 39(2), 186-201.
Kong, S. (2009). Content-Based Instruction: What Can We Learn from Content-Trained
Teachers and Language-Trained Teachers Pedagogies? The Canadian Modern Language
Review/La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes, 66(2), 233-267.
Lyster, R., & Ballinger, S. (2011). Content-based language teaching: Convergent concerns
across divergent contexts. Language Teaching Research, 15(3), 279-288.
Mehisto, P. (2008). CLIL Counterweights: Recognising and Decreasing Disjuncture in CLIL.
International CLIL Research Journal, 1(1), 93-119.
Mehisto, P., Marsh, D., & Frigols, M. (2008). Uncovering CLIL: Content and Language
Integrated Learning in Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Oxford: Macmillan
Publishers Ltd.
Pavn Vzquez, V. & Rubio, F. (2010). Teachers Concerns and Uncertainties about the
Introduction of CLIL Programmes. Porta Linguarum, 14, 45-58.
Pena Daz, C. & Porto Requejo, M. (2008). Teacher beliefs in a CLIL education project.
Porta Linguarum, 10, 151-161.
Ruiz-Garrido, M. & Fortanet Gmez, I. (2009). Needs Analysis in a CLIL context: A Transfer
from ESP. In D., Marsh, P. Mehisto, D. Wolff, R. Aliaga, T. Asikainen, M. FrigolsMartin, S. Hughes, & G. Lang (Eds.), CLIL Practice: Perspectives from the Field (pp.
179-188). University of Jyvskyl.
Serragiotto, G. (2007). Assessment and evaluation in CLIL. In D. Marsh & D. Wolff (Eds.),
Diverse Contexts Converging Goals. CLIL in Europe. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Vzquez, G. (2007). Models of CLIL: An evaluation of its status drawing on the German
experience. A critical report on the limits of reality and perspectives. Revista espaola de
lingstica aplicada, Volumen Extraordinario, 1, 95-111.
Yassin, S.M., Tek, O.E., Alimon, H., Baharom, S., & Ying, L.Y. (2010). Teaching Science
Through English: Engaging Pupils Cognitively. International CLIL Research Journal,
1(3), 46-59.

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10

CLIL IN The CZeCh RePuBLIC

Ready for a challenge?
Jana Jilkov ([email protected])
Jana gave us a brief summary of the general educational scene in the Czech Republic in which
children begin compulsory education at 6 years of age, and go on to a system of grammar,
technical and vocational schools at the post-15 stage. The first foreign language is learned at the
age of 8, in 3rd Grade, usually English, but German is offered too.
With regard to CLIL, the state has decreed that teachers must possess an MEd and be at the C1
level, according to the Common European Framework of Reference. The speaker asked the
audience to judge their own proficiency, in terms of possible CLIL teaching and whether or not we
thought the demand of C1 to be excessive or correct.
Subject teachers are required to have C1, but language teachers are not required, it seems to
demonstrate anything so far. Jana wondered whether they should also be required to be C1 in
some form of subject content. There ensued some discussion about whether language teachers
really understood the issues of CLIL, and the related issues of discourse, which are different from
normal language teaching.
With this in mind, the Czech ministry had put in place an Action Plan between 2004 and 2006
(MSMT Action Plan) to raise teachers levels of the target language (Usually English) and also to
help them with methodological issues related to CLIL.
The speakers own interest in CLIL stemmed from her research project about her own pupils
feedback, in which she concluded that the best students tend to underestimate and underrate
themselves with regard to their own attainment. However, she felt that CLIL enabled more
students, with a greater range of abilities, to prove that they are good at something. She also
speculated as to the possibility of the students feeling better about their defective English, since it
was being used for a purpose, and was not the main focus of attention, as it were. She described
language learning as a journey from nothing to something, and that CLIL helps the journey to
take place.
She outlined the project that the Czech Republic is involved in, with NIDV, VUP and AMATE as
partners. The participants readiness is high, and there are 468 teachers and 27 trainers involved.
Jana herself teaches on the project. She also showed us a clip of a teacher working with 7th Grade
students in a Physics class (in English). It looked very participative and lively.
She showed a Maths example from 7th grade which emphasized thinking skills, and others
regarding time concepts and the topic of food. She suggested that if you are CLIL-ing it is a
mistake not to extend the curricular time devoted to it, because the extra procedural content means
that more time is required, especially if we are to take advantage of the increased language
opportunities that this offers.
She then discussed the theme of motivation, and whether it was controlled by a gene. This was a
continuation of a discussion that had taken place at last years IATEFL. His moved on to a
discussion of multilingual competences, and the potential of the multilingual brain.
To conclude, it seemed that the Czech system needs to expand its tertiary offer in CLIL, to allow
students to use the CLIL skills gathered during the school stage. Unless this happens, the
backwash effect might have a negative influence on the schools CLIL project.
14
11

How general is general English?

Elka Stavreva ([email protected]), Stefka Kitanova ([email protected])
When talking about CLIL in Bulgaria, we often focus on our language high schools and
the subjects taught through the foreign language there. Since this happens after a year of
highly intensive target language preparation (i.e., 20 lessons per week), it is tempting to
assume that students are proficient enough to cope with studying science in the foreign
language. The question subject to discussion is if this is truly so. Is general English
general enough to provide what CLIL aims to provide? And what implications would the
answer to that question have regarding the ratio of attention paid to language and subject
in the subject-in-a-foreign-language lessons?
A series of observations conducted in Biology in a foreign language lessons has shown
that generally students do better in reading and writing that in listening and speaking, the
latter being the most problematic skill. During the lessons, students focused mainly, but
not entirely on the subject matter language support was abundant and linguistic errors
were corrected on the spot. All four major skills were employed and there was a constant
communication and feedback between the teacher and the students. Unfamiliar words
were visualized, explained in the foreign language, or associated with related words
students were familiar with, which surprisingly proved to be difficult to the students (L1
- L2 tranfer). In an interview, the teacher admitted that the transfer of knowledge and
skills from one context to another, e.g. from general language to CLIL lessons, seemed to
be the greatest difficulty of students. This again leads to the same question how general
is general English in practice? On the other side of the coin would be the issue of how
CLIL improves students language competence. This is very important in the discussion
that communication is more important that accuracy.
The personal experience of the participants was used as a starting point for discussion
which grew into a bowl full of food for thought, sprinkled with possible answers to some
of the questions. It is possible that we ended up with more questions than answers,
particularly as a result of the variety of faces CLIL seems to have.

15
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english or Specific Content: The Challenge of Teaching Terminology to university Students

Nikolina Tsvetkova, PhD, Sofia University, Faculty of Philosophy, ([email protected])
A feature of modern tertiary bachelor and master programmes for non-philology students at Bulgarian
universities are courses in English (or-a.n.other-language) Terminology. It is hardly surprising that
such courses are used to attract students as this is seen as a way to prepare future specialists in a
particular field to operate in a professional environment in a foreign language. The main aims of such
courses can be summarised in the following way: to enable students to
understand, analyse and discuss information from various sources in English or another foreign
language (through a visual or auditory channel)
communicate successfully in English or another foreign language in a professional
environment (orally and in written).
However, the reality is that Terminolgy courses are delivered over a limited number of contact hours
(most often 30 per semester) which makes this task very difficult given the constraints: extremely
mixed ability groups in terms of language proficiency; student motivation levels; expectations ranging
from I want to study about the English verb tenses to I want to cover all topics on the other subject
syllabi in English; common practise to offer students lists of specilaised vocabulary or to translate
long, complex specialised texts (challenging in terms of syntax and style); a great demand on the
teacher who has to be well aware of other subject syllabi, of the central ideas, issues, terms as well as
certain scientific trends in the particular field.
The focus here is teaching Terminology (in English) to European Projects Master students at Sofia
University, faculty of Philosophy, and so I would like to discuss in brief two possible approaches to
teaching English to such audiences: ESP/EAP and CLIL. According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987)
ESP is an approach to teaching English which has a very clear focus on the learner and his/her needs
which originated as a result of three main factors the expansion of demand for English to suit
particular needs, developments in the field of linguistics and educational psychology (Hutchinson &
Waters, 1987: 8). The same authors underline that ESP is not separate from ELT but one of its
branches which can be further differentiated (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987: 18). EAP (English for
Academic Purposes) is seen as a sub-branch of ESP together with EOP (English for Occupational
Purposes) for the main branches of ESP (Hutchinson & Waters: 1987). Jordan supports that EAP can
be viewed as those communication skills in English which are required for study purposes in formal
educational settings (1997: 1). EOP, on the other hand, can be associated with the knowledge and
skills in English needed for a person to operate successfully in a professional context and has
developed in a way similar to EAP (Dudley-Evans & St John (1997: 28). In short, ESP has had a
relatively long and well-documented history of development and a list of theoretical and practical
achievements in a variety of settings, including university ones. Another, relatively newer, approach to
teaching a language is CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) which involves teaching a
curricular subject through the medium of a language other than that normally used The key issue is
that the learner is gaining new knowledge about the 'non-language' subject while encountering, using
and learning the foreign language. The methodologies and approaches used are often linked to the
subject area with the content leading the activities. Thanks to its effectiveness and ability to motivate
learners, CLIL is put forward as an important approach to learning languages and supporting linguistic
diversity in Europe by the European Commission in a number of important EU documents. Mainly
related to secondary school education, and as a result to the extensive research in the integrated
content and language teaching, a number of procedures have been established to be efficient. CILT:
The national Centre for Languages in the UK says a successful CLIL lesson should be based on the
following principles: 1. Content - progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to
specific elements of a defined curriculum; 2. Communication - using language to learn - whilst
16
13

learning to use language. The key is interaction, NOT reaction; 3. Cognition - developing thinking
skills which link concept formation (abstract and concrete), understanding and language; 4. Culture -
exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings, which deepen awareness of otherness
and
self
(http://www.cilt.org.uk/secondary/1419/intensive_and_immersion/clil/principles_of_teaching.aspx). The same principles are pertinent to
language learning at a tertiary level, especially to the needs of a terminology course. In short, to be
able to achieve the aims of such a course, a teacher could try to combine the ESP and the CLIL
approaches in the delivery of a certain subject-specific content in English.
Such an attempt has been made with Web 2.0 ERC course European Dimensions for EU Projects
Master students. The course has a distance format and is delivered as a follow up to a face-to-face
delivered one. It contains four modules Module One: European structural Funds, Module Two:
Going European, Module Three: Recent events my project idea and Module Four: The EU made
simple and is based on the 4 CLIL principles mentioned above and on the Pedagogy 2.0 Framework
(Connolly et al. 2011) which guides the design of a sequence of online activities integrating use of
Web 2.0 tool for collaboration and collective development of content for a particular context.
In the examples from the course below it is evident that the content creates meaningful context thus
allowing students to communicate in English.

Fig. 1: The discussion forum of Module One based on a video interview with an EU politician.
The course has been trialled with 51 students and the results can be considered encouraging and used
for further research into the application of CLIL in a tertiary setting. The clear focus of each module
and the logical sequence of activities which allow students to develop their subject-specific knowledge
and skills together with their English language skills. The tasks have a clear and unambiguous
communicative purpose and they are structured in a way that scaffolds students individual
performance as well as their interaction and can be considered beneficial to the development of their
overall written communication skills.
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14

Fig. 2: Part of the social bookmark collection for Module Two students share links to important EUrelated websites and provide a brief justification of why they consider them such.
The following questions about the challenges of CLIL were raised in the follow-up discussion. The
different level of content knowledge, language fluency, and various types of motivation along with
suitable learning materials which can be used at university level and the lack of systematic large-scale
research at the tertiary can be seen as detrimental to applying CLIL in terminology classes. However,
it is suggested that a careful study of the achievements of CLIL at secondary level, the investigation
into different cases of good CLIL practices and the involvement of students in generating learning
content as well as the opportunities for school and university teachers to exchange ideas and practical
solutions on a regular basis should be a way to successful exploitation of the benefits of CLIL across
education levels and sector
References:

Baxter, G.J., Connolly, T.M., Stansfield, M.H., Gould, C., Tsvetkova, N., Kusheva, R., Stoimenova, B., Penkova, R.,
Legurska, M. and Dimitrova, N. (2011).Understanding the pedagogy Web 2.0 Supports: The presentation of a Web 2.0
pegagogical model, Proceedings of International Conference on European Transnational Education (ICEUTE), 20-21
October 2011, Salamanca, Spain.
Dudley-Evans, T. M. J. StJohn (1998). Developments in English for Specific Purposes: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach.
CUP.
Hutchinson, T. & A. Waters (1987). English for Specific Purposes. CUP
Jordan, R. (1997) English for Academic Purposes: A Guide and Resource Book for Teachers. CUP.
Marsh, D. (2001) CLIL/EMILE: The European Dimension. Actions, Trends and Foresight Potential. UniCOM,
Continuing Education, University of Jyvskyl, Finland.
Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity: An Action Plan 2004 2006 (2003). European Commission.

Websites:

http://ec.europa.eu/languages/language-teaching/content-and-language-integrated-learning_en.htm
http://www.cilt.org.uk/secondary/14-19/intensive_and_immersion/clil/principles_of_teaching.aspx

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15

CLIL Projects for eLTs

Keith Kelly ([email protected])

There are any number of reasons why teachers get involved in work outside the textbook with
their students. This talk looked at some of the reasons and some of the ideas teachers find
when they peep above and beyond the pages of their textbooks.
- Cross-curricular opportunities
It is very true that teachers have little time to do anything but what they are expected to do
teach their subject. We need to look at how we can alleviate some of the load teachers have to
carry or are expected to carry when asked to innovate in their classrooms and bring the rest of
the curriculum into their language lessons.
Two suggestions can be made. Firstly, teachers need to have access to projects and resources
which have already been tried and tested and which are readily available to use with very little
effort on the part of a newcomer teacher. Secondly, teachers need, by default, to be able to
connect with their peers. This means that teachers need to be joined to networks of same
subject, like-minded colleagues seeking similar shared input, suggestions and ideas.
Projects and resources
The biggest resouce-based exchange programme on the internet for the last two decades has
been and still is Science Across the World (1). This programme is a bank of resources for
general Science projects. It offers a global network of contacts for carrying cross-curricular
exchange projects with schools in other countries. It is internet-based and exploits ICT for
cross-curricular learning.
Example topics from the Science Across the
World programme have included Road Safety;
Genetics; Food and Drink.
The road safety project has students examining
their reaction speeds with a simple speed test to
be carried out in the classroom. The test is a group
survey which then lends itself to graphical
representation in order to be sent to partner
classrooms around the world for comparison.

Receptors on a human tongue

Bulgarian students doing a speed test

In the genetics topic students examine local social

issues of genetic science as well as gain an
understanding of genetic heredity and variety.
Countries differ widely in legislation concerning
genetic modification and one of the aims of this
project is to find out about food labelling, news
items, as well as government policy on genetic
science and food production. Additionally,
students consider visible aspects of their own
genetic identity, record their findings and exchange
these with partner schools in other countries.
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16

An example of the information gathered for exchange in the

genetics topic is measuring the numbers of papillae on the
tongues of students to count the numbers of low tasters, medium
tasters and supertasters in their classes. While surveying may be
a common activity in many subjects, this topic area comes from
the biology curriculum. What then is the interest for the language
classroom?

Doing the taster test

The real challenge for the language

teacher is having the opportunity,
knowing about the content, the activity
and the skills involved, since we can
clearly see the relevance for the lexis and
syntax of the language learning
curriculum in the image here.
Another very popular project topic is 'What
did you eat?' which focuses learners' attention
on food and drink habits. Here, students
examine data on diet and disease, consider and
record data on their own eating habits for
exchange with partner schools.
Finding exciting and meaningful projects for
our language learners to engage in is not that
difficult. More challenging is finding good
partner classes to work with and make the
project work an 'exchange' and therefore a
focus for communication.

Working on the Science Across the World project 'What did you eat?'

The medium of exchange is another factor for motivation since it is essentially how students
communicate with their audience. The image above shows students working on two exchange
media. The first is a poster of the results of their 'What did you eat?' class survey and the
second is a 3-page newsletter collating the poster and various other data on the group's eating
and drinking habits.
Networking
Communication motivating innovation can happen not only between learner exchange groups,
but also between collaborating teachers. Unfortunately, the relative isolation of teachers at the
chalkface does not help promote interschool teacher collaboration. Though there are
numerous networking opportunities available for teachers, good working exchange partners
can be very diffficult to find. From personal experience of over 15 years of working with inservice teacher training groups all over the world, the general impression of this writer is that
20

17

teachers do not systematically use professional electronic forums or communities when it is

precisely in these groups that teachers can find motivation for innovative approaches in their
work. At the time of writing, the Forum for Across the Curriculum Teaching (2) has over 3400
teachers globally and all with an interest in cross-curricular teaching. While it is a substantial
and thriving group of teachers, its growth has relied on two factors. Firstly, teacher meetings
have been a stimulus for joining the FACTWorld community, and others. Secondly,
colleagues join up via word of mouth. What is needed is a mechanism in schools which
systematizes such membership for it is only with being subscribed to the group that
colleagues have the opportunity to get involved in the innovative activities shared and
discussed in the communities. In short, the responsibility for getting colleagues signed up to
electronic communities rests squarely with senior colleagues, department heads and managers
since they are more likely to be aware and informed of the existence of such groups. The
opposite, where colleagues are left to random access to these groups, means that the risk of
isolation will continue.
ELTeCS, The English Language Teaching Contacts Scheme (3), is a global network of
regionally organized sub-groups with a population of over 20,000 teachers worldwide where
colleagues can find out about all manner of activity from conference to classroom level. BEP
(4) or The Bilingual Education Platform, much the work of one person is a clearinghouse of
news and events for bilingual and multilingual educational activity around the world. The
CLIL Cascade Network (5) is a site which posts information about EU courses for integrating
language and content. Your colleagues may have their own networks, perhaps even countryspecific ones, subject-specific ones. Whatever networks teachers are in, keeping connected is
the name of the game where innovation is concerned.
- Cross-curricular visions
How often do your colleagues get the chance to 'show-case' what they do, or to see the
excellent work of other teachers and students? How frequently do colleagues get to talk with
other teachers about their work, and share ideas about fantastic learning opportunities?
A part of motivating colleagues to bring the curriculum into their language classroom
involves being informed about what is going on in other parts of the curriculum, in the rest of
the 'world' of the curriculum.
There are more places to find 'fantastic learning
opportunities' than is possible to describe here.
Suffice to say that once a school manager or
senior colleagues begins to collect and share the
information which is available, the process of
encouraging and implementing innovation will
have begun. Educational activity discussion
groups like 'BIG', The British Interactive Group
(6), with their website and discussion group
dedicated to promoting discussion about
innovation and excitement in education in
Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
are an example of this process in action.

Chinese youngsters building solar powered toys (7)

21
18

Educational and Campaign Exhibitions such as

Zero Cabon City, Space UK and DNA50 are
examples of exhibitions which lend themselves
to add-on activities with learners through the
medium of the English language.

Nobel Laureate Sir John Sulston engages young

Argentinians in debate about genetic science (9)

A model of DNA built by the public ( )

The Young Ambassadors of Chemistry project which has young people interact with the
public to engage them with Science and learning and brings Science into the public domain in
a meaningful and exciting way. The last event in this genre under the auspices of the
Internation Year of Chemistry was the Global Stamp Competition (10) and had young people
the world over designing a stamp which
integrates culture and chemistry. First prize
of $500 went to a young innovator in
Bulgaria.
Schools linking projects
There are a number of opportunities for
school partnerships in Europe through EU,
and other, institutions and many countries
have their own organizations for helping
schools set up such links. One additional
Dusseldoft teens design, build and launch their own rockets (11)
problem despite this, is finding the schools
themselves. While the systems are there,
the willing institutions, schools and people are more difficult to identify. Where schools do
not have exisiting partnerships in place with schools in other countries, investing time and
effort in finding the right partners is essential to successful curriculum exchange projects.
The networks mentioned above are a good place to start to look for partners and it is worth
casting the net as widely as possible in order to have the best chance of finding good partners.
Where a school has a culture for school partnerships, there is likely to be a teacher
experienced in managing such links, a good step for schools to take is to train younger
colleagues to take up the role at a later stage. In the same way, schools should be encouraged
to find projects to join where there are experienced partners and so this experience can be
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19

passed on through the project itself. Again, there is a clear role here for school managers and
senior teachers to think strategically about this issue and plan for identifying partners and
participants, as well as coordinating curriculum links. The vast majority of postings to the
FACTWorld email group at the time of writing concerns school linking partnerships and this
reflects the growing desire for schools in Europe to find partners and access EU funding to
develop their curriculum linking projects.
- Cross-curricular expectations
Teachers need to know what is expected of them. If we expect teachers to integrate their
classrooms with the rest of the curriculum, this assumes that a plan is in place for integrating
the curriculum which teachers can follow. Such a plan will highlight not only language, but
also skills and concepts and how they overlap and connect throughout the curriculum. This
idea suggests a good deal of effective cross-curricular coordination before we get teachers on
board and bringing the curriculum into their language classrooms. At the moment, too many
teachers are not expected to link what they do with the rest of the curriculum.
Furthermore, teachers should be accredited for what they do to integrate their language
lessons with the curriculum at large. It entails work above and beyond the job description, and
so they should be rewarded, plainly and openly for this effort. This may not necessarily mean
financial reward, but at the very least any long-term ELT curriculum development integrating
ELT with other subjects should involve time allocation for teachers working on this
development.
Additionally, a dimension of curriculum integration which is not readily explicit is that
language classrooms become places where cross-curricular projects are carried out by default.
This aspect of the challenge of curriculum integration needs to be made explicit, and explicit
to the extent that cross-curricular project work is documented in curriculum guidelines for
teachers to follow. Outside the documentation of curriculum innovation, there also needs to be
formalization of people interaction and coordination and this means that department meeting
and discussion time be allocated to working on curriculum integration. Curriculum innovation
in ELT needs openly to be on the agenda.
Lastly, but by no means least, teachers should be discouraged from taking on cross-curricular
innovation and development single-handedly. Although, there may be high emotion and some
success, in the long term there is a strong risk of burn-out and failure for the teacher involved.
Links and references (last accessed on 12.07.2012):
(1) www.scienceacross.org (See section 3.6 for a free pack - What did you eat?)
(2) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/factworld/
(3) http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/eltecs
(4) http://www.bepnetwork.com/
(5) http://www.ccn-clil.eu/
(6) http://www.big.uk.com/ and [email protected]
(7) http://www.factworld.info/china/zcc_beij/ZCC%20Report1.pdf
(8) http://www.makeitmolecular.com
(9) http://factworld.info/argentina/dna/index.htm
(10) http://www.factworld.info/bulgaria/IYC_Stamp_11/index.htm
(11) http://www.factworld.info/germany/space/index.htm
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english teachers in CLIL programmes: acquiring new skills

John Clegg ([email protected])

1. Introduction

English teachers have important roles to play in CLIL projects. They have skills and
knowledge which are needed by subject teachers and learners working in a second language
(L2). Learners need their English language skills improving, and so do some subject teachers.
Subject teachers also need some of the language teaching skills which language teachers
have, to make their subject lessons understandable by learners with limited L2 ability.
However, in many CLIL projects, language teachers have no role or limited roles and CLIL
project managers may be unsure of how they can use them. In some projects, language
teachers may be unconfident about their own ability to work with the language of subjects.
Their training has normally nothing to do with L2-medium subject learning and very few
training opportunities exist to prepare language teachers to work in CLIL projects. The
potential roles of language teachers in CLIL and the skills they need to carry them out are not
well described. In this presentation, I will outline some of these roles and skills. We will
focus a lot on the twin concepts of language demands analysis and language support in
subject lessons. We will also look at the altered view of language which language teachers in
CLIL projects need. Finally we will outline whole-school policy for CLIL projects and the
contribution which language teachers can make to that.
2. Some roles which english teachers can play in CLIL projects
Figure 1 outlines some of the roles which language teachers can play in CLIL projects.
Before we discuss them, it is important as always in CLIL to define what CLIL is. It is
many things to many people. Here I will mention three different types of curricular activity
which people sometimes call CLIL.
x
x

Language teachers import subject contents into conventional language teaching. This is
content-related or content-based language teaching. It is sometimes called CLIL, but I
prefer not to give it that name.
Subject teachers and language teachers collaborate to teach subjects to learners in L2.
This often happens though by no means always in contexts in which subject teachers
may not feel competent enough to teach the subject in L2 on their own. In some of these
hybrid versions of CLIL, only part of a subject (say 1 of 3 hours per week) may be taught
in L2, and for only a limited period (say 20 weeks). The main purpose of such projects is
often to increase the foreign language (FL) ability of learners and I refer to them therefore
as FL-led projects.
Subject teachers teach the whole of the subject curriculum for some time (say 1 to 3 or
more years) in L2. While an important purpose of these projects is to increase the FL
ability of learners, their primary focus is to achieve good levels of subject knowledge; if
they do not deliver this, they will normally close. I refer to these as subject-led projects.

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21

Figure 1: CLIL: structure of collaboration

between subject and language teachers
Key:

FL:
foreign language
ST:
subject teacher
FLT: foreign language teacher
LSRW: listening, speaking, reading, writing

Normally seen in FL-led projects

1
2

FL teacher teaches subject content in FL lesson.

FLT
FL
ST
L1

FLT
FL
Subjectspecific

Subject teacher and FL teacher teach separate lessons.

Subject teacher teaches in L1; FL teacher teaches in FL but
orientates the lesson towards the language and content of
the subject.

Seen in subject-led or FL-led projects

3

ST
L1

FLT
FL

Subject teacher and FL teacher teach together in the same

lesson. Subject teacher teaches in L1, FL teacher in FL.

ST
FL

FLT
FL

Subject teacher and FL teacher teach together in the same

lesson. Subject teacher and FL teacher teach in FL.

Normally seen in subject-led projects

5

ST
FL

FLT
FL
General
purpose

Subject teacher and FL teacher teach unconnected lessons.

Subject teacher teaches in L1, FL teacher in FL,
strengthening general FL ability.

ST
FL

FLT
FL
Subjectspecific

Subject teacher and FL teacher teach separate lessons.

Subject teacher and FL teacher teach in FL. FL teacher
orientates the lesson towards the subject.

S + L:
L1

ST

R + W:
FL

ST
Speak
LRW:
L1
FL/L1
students
Listen
SRW:
L1
FL/L1

Subject teacher teaches in L1 with written materials in the

FL.
Subject teacher speaks in L1, but can read, write and
understand student talk in FL. Students listen to teacher in
L1, but can read, write and talk in FL.

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ST
FL

Subject teacher teaches alone in the FL.

Adapted from Clegg (2003)

Notes on the types of teaching activity
1. This is conventional content-based language teaching, conducted by the language teacher
without reference to a subject teacher.
2. In this form of collaborative CLIL, the subject teacher teaches in L1, because s/he has not
sufficient L2 competence, and the language teacher teaches subject contents in L2,
according to the subject syllabus followed by the subject teacher.
3. Language and subject teachers teach cooperatively in the same lesson, with the subject
teachers teaching part of the lesson in L1 and the language teacher going over the
material in L2.
4. Language and subject teachers teach cooperatively in the same lesson, with both teachers
teaching in L2, the language teacher helping learners with the language of the subject.
5. The subject teacher teaches in L2. The language teacher teaches a course of extra English,
but of a general-purpose kind unrelated to the subject and involving little collaboration
between the teachers.
6. The subject teacher teaches in L2. The language teacher teaches a course of extra English,
related to the subject and involving a good deal of collaboration between the teachers.
7. The subject teacher and learners talk in L1, with written materials in the FL.
8. The subject teacher teaches in L1, but the learners talk, read and write in L2. This occurs
when the teacher is not confident in oral English, but does understand it, while learners
are sufficiently fluent.
9. The subject teacher teaches in English. This is by far the most common form of CLIL in
schools in which levels of learner and teacher English are sufficiently high to learn and
teach the subject effectively and often takes place in countries where societal levels of
English language ability are high.
3. Teaching language
Language teachers can of course help CLIL programmes by simply doing their job teaching
language. Many CLIL programmes require learners to have a specified level of L2 ability
before using it as a medium for learning subjects. To reach that level, they may need
language booster courses, which language teachers will provide (se Figure 1 No 5). These are
normally general-purpose courses which language teachers are qualified to offer. However,
language teachers can also offer courses which are intended to teach learners some of the
language which they need within L2-medium subject lessons (see Figure 1 No 6). These
courses are tailored, to a degree, to the language demands of the subject and require some
collaboration with the subject teacher. They do not normally teach subject-specific language,
which is the specialist domain of the subject teacher. They do, however, teach general
academic language (see section 7) which is not common in social intercourse, but frequent in
the language of learning across the school curriculum. Language teachers may have more
difficulty teaching these courses than general-purpose courses and, partly as a consequence,
they are not common. The difficulty is twofold: firstly, language teachers are not trained to
teach the language of school learning. Secondly, it is difficult to find materials for such
courses outside for example the literature on language for academic purposes which is
normally aimed at the tertiary sector; this kind of language is also not well described it is
even difficult to find sources of language description, for example word lists and lists of
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23

cognitive functions (see section 7 and Appendix). General academic language, however, does
need teaching and it can be done by language teachers, perhaps better than by subject
teachers.
4. Working with subject teachers on subject teaching
Language teachers can collaborate with subject teachers working in L2. We can see this in
items 2-8 (with the possible exception of 5) in Figure 1. They can also collaborate with them
in other ways outside the classroom. This kind of liaison takes time. It is often unpaid, which
is both morally unacceptable and in the longer term unsustainable. The better schools provide
for it with time on the teachers timetables, say 1 hour per week. Collaboration takes place,
for example, with the following focuses.
x
x
x
x
x

Language teachers observe subject lessons: this is useful occasionally if the language
teacher needs to get an idea either of the subject, the subject language, the subject
teachers language ability, or the subject teachers teaching style in L2 etc.
Subject and language teachers co-plan CLIL subject syllabuses.
Subject and language teachers co-plan individual CLIL subject lessons to be taught by the
subject teacher; the language teachers advice on the language of the lesson and on the
types of language-supportive subject activity (see section 6 and Figure 7) are useful.
Subject and language teachers co-prepare CLIL subject materials.
Subject and language teachers co-assess CLIL subject programmes; this is important if
the assessment assesses language as well as subject ability.

Language teachers may also carry out other roles within CLIL projects. They may manage
the project, especially if they have had a key role in setting it up. They may similarly evaluate
the project. They may also run language improvement courses outside teaching hours for
subject teachers.
5. Finding out about subjects and lessons
The crucial thing which language teachers in CLIL projects have to do is to learn new skills.
These skills have largely to do with:
x
x
x

analysing the language demands of subject lessons

providing language support in subject lessons
learning the language of subjects and subject learning

a) analysing the language demands of subject lessons

Language teachers are trained to teach the language of social interaction and literature. They
are not trained to teach the language of subjects and subject learning. This kind of language is
often new to them and I look at it in some detail in section 7. Language teachers in CLIL
projects often have to become familiar with this language and to lose any fear they might
understandably have of engaging with subjects and subject language which they may not
immediately understand. Most language teachers working in CLIL or other L2-medium forms
of subject teaching such as immersion or minority education find after initial worries that
they can function well as lay persons within the subject.

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24

To show what the language of subjects and subject learning looks like, we will look at a
subject lesson in chemistry (see Figure 2). In doing so will use the two key pedagogical


Figure 2: a chemistry lesson

28
From Johnson et al (1994)

25

procedures which are at the heart of CLIL: the analysis of the language demands of subject
lessons and the provision, on the basis of this analysis, of language support for the learning of
subject contents. Neither of these procedures is normally familiar either to language or
subject teachers: and while language teachers have an advantage in that they understand
about language and language teaching, they normally have no experience in applying this
knowledge to the learning of subjects in L2 in these specific ways. To work in CLIL projects,
they will have to grasp these two central CLIL concepts.
Language demands analysis refers to what the subject teacher (or language teacher if working
in a supportive role) has to do before teaching a lesson in L2. The lesson will make language
demands on the learners different demands on different learners. In other words, to learn
the subject matter in L2 as in L1 the learners have to engage in the specific language
skills and deploy the specific knowledge of language which the subject matter and the subject
learning activities require. If they can do this, they can learn the subject; if not, they cant, or
more commonly they learn it slowly and ineffectively the danger which many CLIL lessons
face. If subject teachers dont perform this analysis, however superficially, they will not
foresee the language problems which their learners will have with the lesson and which will
thus prevent them from learning.
Language support is the other side of the coin of language demands analysis. It describes the
pedagogical strategies which the subject teacher uses on the basis of his/her analysis of
potential language problems to help learners compensate for gaps in their language
knowledge. It prevents the cognitive overload which is often characteristic of CLIL lessons,
when learners have to learn new concepts using new language. It does this by reducing the
amount of new language to be used, or by supporting learners in their use of new language, or
sometimes (but hopefully not often) by reducing the cognitive demands of new subject
matter.
Figure 3 shows an analysis of the language demands of this lesson. Columns 1 and 2 show
what the teacher and the learners do in the lesson. Column 3 shows the form of interaction
(plenary, group/pairwork or individual), column 4 the language in which learners and
teachers prefer to operate and column 5 the main language demands made by the lesson on
learners in terms of vocabulary, grammar, function or discourse. Vocabulary is a key
demand when learners are listening to the teacher, grammar far less so. Grammar becomes
important when learners need to talk or write and thus attend to the accuracy of sentence
construction. Discourse becomes important when learners have to deal with text, for example
when reading or formulating a written description of what they have done.
In this lesson, vocabulary demands are subject-specific, such as the vocabulary of gases or
words like stopper and flask; or general academic words such as contain, make up, fill, space,
explain etc. Grammatical demands are made when learners have to respond orally to teacher
questions or write up the experiment and have to produce such sentences as:
Air contains oxygen
The air is carrying the parachute
The air in the flask will expand
The air in the flask expanded
Functional demands are made when learners have to express specific thinking skills, such as
predicting (e.g. We think the air in the flask will expand). Discourse demands are made when
29

27

Figure 3: Language demands of a science lesson

Key: BB = board

The teacher

The students

Interaction

Introduces the
topic

Listen, respond

Spidergram
Monitors
spidergram work
Puts spidergrams
on BB
air question
Introduces air
question
Monitors

plenary

Language
choice
L2

Language
demands
vocabulary

Make a spidergram
Talk to each other
Describe spidergrams
listen, respond

groups

L1

vocabulary

plenary

L2

vocabulary
grammar

Listen, respond

plenary

L2

vocabulary

Discuss the air

question

plenary

L2

vocabulary
grammar

L2

vocabulary

L1
L2

vocabulary
vocabulary
grammar
function

groups

L1

vocabulary

plenary

L2

Listen, respond

plenary

L2

vocabulary
grammar
function
vocabulary

Write

groups
individual

L2

experiment: prediction
Introduces
Listen, respond
plenary
experiment
Monitors
Predict the experiment groups
Gets SS to report Report predictions
plenary
predictions
experiment: execution
Monitors
Do the experiment
Talk to each other
Gets SS to report Report results
results
Listen, respond
Draws
conclusions
Writing up
Monitors writing

vocabulary
grammar
discourse

learners have to focus on the structure of texts, such as when the teacher lists the sequence of
what they have to do in the experiment or when they write short paragraphs about what they
have done (see the writing frame in Figure 5).

30
28

Developing a view of language support in subject lessons

The point of analysing language demands is to be able to provide linguistic and cognitive
support. Thus Figure 4 shows in column 5 the forms of support which the teacher provides to
help learners deal with the language demands in each section of the lesson. Figure 5 gives
examples of some of these forms of support. Forms of support in general are described in
more detail in section 6 and Figure 6. Language teachers are often familiar with these forms
of support though not with all of them. What they are not familiar with is applying them to
the learning of subjects. Language teachers who become skilled at analysing the language
demands of lessons and providing language support, are ultimately able to it both quickly and
accurately.
Figure 4: language support in a science lesson
Key: BB = board

The teacher

The students

Interaction
plenary

Language
choice
L2

Language support

Introduces the
topic

Listen, respond

Make a
spidergram
Talk to each other
Describe
spidergrams
listen, respond

groups

L1

Vocabulary on BB

plenary

L2

Prompts vocabulary and

grammar

Listen, respond

plenary

L2

Discuss the air

question

plenary

L2

T-talk; T highlights
vocab. in talk and on
BB
Prompts vocabulary and
grammar

experiment: prediction
Introduces
Listen, respond
experiment

plenary

L2

Monitors

groups

L1

plenary

L2

Spidergram
Monitors
spidergram
work
Puts
spidergrams on
BB
air question
Introduces air
question
Monitors

Helps SS to
report
predictions

Predict the
experiment
Report
predictions

31

T-talk; T highlights
vocab. in talk and on
BB

T-talk; T highlights
instructions, puts
vocabulary on BB
Prompts vocabulary and
grammar
Sentence starters

29

experiment: execution
Monitors
Do the
experiment
Talk to each other
Helps SS to
Report results
report results
Listen, respond
Draws
Listen, respond
conclusions
Writing up
Monitors
writing

Write

groups

L1

Vocabulary on BB

plenary

L2

Sentence starters

plenary

L2

Vocabulary on BB

groups
individual

L2

Writing frame

Figure 5: language support tasks in Figure 4

Sentence starters:
For predicting
We think the hands will...
We think the water in the beaker will...
We think the air in the flask will...
We think we will see...
For reporting
The hands...
The water in the beaker...
The air in the flask...
We saw...

a writing Frame:
Describe the experiment
apparatus
We used...
Procedure
We ran...
Then we put...
We warmed...

These words will help you

flask, bubble, expand, beaker,
stopper, tube, warm

Results
We saw...
Conclusion
This shows that...

32

30

6. Sources of language support in subject classrooms

The main ways in which teachers provide support in the subject classroom are firstly through
the way they talk and secondly through the language support tasks they provide either on the
board or on handouts. Figure 6 lists ways in which teachers help learners to understand them
by using a highly accessible form of teacher talk including supporting their talk with visuals
and by prompting them to respond to their questions in the plenary classroom.
Figure 6: Language support through teacher talk
When working from the front of the class, help learners understand using the following
strategies:
a) Be clear
x

Number topics
Were going to do 3 things
Firstly were going to
Secondly

Summarise
OK what have we done?
Weve

Use short, simple sentences

Chlorophyll is a chemical in leaves. It turns sunlight into sugar
Plants use the sugar as food

Repeat
OK? Chlorophyll is a green chemical
You find it in leaves.

Paraphrase
It turns sunlight into sugar
It makes sunlight into sugar
OK? chlorophyll helps sunlight become sugar

b) use supports
x

Use a diagram, chart on the board, on ppt etc

Look at this diagram of digestion
It shows the main organs
You can see the oesophagus, the stomach, the small intestine, the large intestine

c) Put key words on the board

x oesophagus, intestine

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31

d) help learners respond

x Ask short-answer questions
What is the first part of a food chain? (a plant)
What do we call an animal that eats only plants (herbivore)
x

Prompt (help the students answer)

Enzymes in the stomach break up(proteins)

Ask long-answer questions and, if necessary, prompt

What happens in the small intestine?
The blood absorbs(nutrients)

Ask a student to respond in L1 (but if you do this regularly, learners may expect it and
stop responding in English)
Say it in

d) Check that learners understand

x

Check they understand

Do you understand?
Christina do you understand?

Ask for an L1 translation of a word

What is oesophagus in ?

Say a sentence in L1 when you think learners dont understand (but if you do this
regularly, learners may expect it and stop listening to your English)

Figure 7 lists common language support tasks which can be applied to teaching subjects in
L2. Language teachers are often familiar with many of these task types, but not with applying
them to subject learning in L1. Subject teachers need to be able to use some of these tasks
themselves, but will need to learn them from language teachers, which requires collaboration
(see Figure 1).
Figure 7: Language support through task design

Tasks for supporting reading and listening

x
x

Fill gaps in a text

Match, e.g. word with definition, picture with sentence, sentence beginnings and
endings

x Fill in a chart, e.g. tree-diagram, matrix,

flow-chart
x Pictures/diagrams/maps: Read/listen and
d /l b l
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32

Tasks for supporting talking and writing

x

Use a list of words/phrases

x Complete sentences using sentence starters

x Writing frame: Headings, sentence starters,
etc
7. The language teachers view of language
Language teachers working in L2-medium subject teaching need to be aware of the language
of subjects and subject learning. One can divide this language crudely into that which is
specific to the subject, and low-frequency, on the one hand and that which is general in its
use across the subject curriculum, and high frequency, on the other. Subject-specific language
often takes the form of very specific vocabulary items; it is known and understood by subject
teachers: they recognise it and teach it explicitly. Language teachers are less familiar with it
and may not understand it well. Examples from Figure 2 are the names of gases and words
such as stopper, flask etc. General academic language takes the form of phrases which signal
thinking processes, vocabulary, specific grammatical formulations and discourse markers.
This language is very frequent in subject learning and not very specific to subjects. It is,
however, less well understood and often not taught by subject teachers. Language teachers
are well placed to teach it as is common for example in language teaching for academic
purposes at tertiary level but school FL teachers are not familiar with it. In this section we
will look at some examples of general academic language.
Figure 8 shows key language functions or thinking processes which are required of
native-speaker candidates for a public mathematics examination at age 18 in the UK.
Figure 8: Thinking processes in mathematics
using and applying mathematics: the investigative process and its assessment
When students are working on the investigative coursework, teachers are advised to make
the students aware of the need to:
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

Show that they understand the problem, with teacher help

Try some sensible simple and special cases
Clearly record any observations or strategies
Use appropriate methods to record results or data
State any conjectures and ways of testing or justifying
Make generalisations, preferably expressed in symbolic form, particularly at the high
levels
Explain the reasoning behind these generalisations
Make appropriate justifications
Examine and explain any results
Try to offer proofs
35

33

While these thinking processes are shown in relation to mathematics, they are nevertheless
used across subjects. One might ask whether these native speaker learners know the forms of
words which we use to signal these thinking processes. They may well not. L2 users may be
even less familiar with them and someone must teach them. A list of school thinking
processes is given in the Appendix. Language teachers are unlikely to be familiar with the
language of these processes; but if they work in CLIL programmes, they will have to acquaint
themselves with them. They can include them in any language teaching they do which
supports a subject programme, or they can help the subject teacher teach them.
Figure 9 shows examples of general academic language in the form of phrases for broad
academic concepts which occur across the curriculum in this case increase. Broad
concepts such as this are extremely commonly used across the subject curriculum, but subject
teachers are unlikely to be very aware of them.
Figure 9: Broad academic concepts: e.g. Increase
Quality of increase
slowly
gradually
fast
sharply
rise
suddenly
considerably
go up
a lot
increase
very much
dramatically
Increase in time
is rising
is going up
is increasing
has risen
has gone up
. has increased
rose
went up
increased
will rise
will go up
will increase

currently
now
at present
since 1800
for 200 years
in 1800
before 1800
in the nextyears/months
after 2004
in 2004

Increase in amount
a lot
very much
considerably
has risen a great deal
enormously

36

34

little
a little
slightly
Figure 10 also shows vocabulary in the form of high-frequency academic words. This is a list
of the 150 most widely used academic words used by a group of academics which David
Corson (1997) surveyed in North American universities. None of them is subject-specific. A
similar list of words could be compiled for secondary school subject learning, showing the
most common words which learners need to use in subject learning. The key features of these
kinds of academic vocabulary in Figures 8-10 are that all learners need them to learn subjects,
but teachers either subject or language teachers teach them either in L1 or L2. In L2medium subject teaching, language teachers need to take some responsibility for this
vocabulary.
Figure 11 shows examples of the grammar of sentences in academic discourse, indicating
how formal academic grammar can position vocabulary at different places in the sentence.
Learners need to write such sentences in L2-medium science lessons. Science teachers
working in L2 are normally not competent to help them do this. Language teachers, because
they teach grammar, are; but they may not know about the specific ways in which sentences
in writing about subjects tend to be constructed. This is also something which they will need
to find out about. Finally Figure 12 shows a list of common discourse markers which learners
learning subjects in English need to be familiar with when following discourse organisation
in subject textbooks and teacher-talk, and in constructing their own texts in speaking and
writing. Language teachers can normally teach these items, and in CLIL programmes they
will find that they need to focus even more on them.
8. Language learning strategies
Language teachers sometimes (not always) know about language learning strategies. Learners
need these strategies in particular when learning subjects in L2. They need, for example, to:
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

develop vocabulary within the subject

follow new subject concepts in listening/reading
plan and execute a piece of writing about the subject in L2
work in groups
research a topic
use the internet
monitor their own progress within the subject

Learners in CLIL programmes need to be good at using strategies. This is partly because they
have a lot to do in the L2-medium subject classroom, learning new language as well as new
concepts, and need the extra degree of learning efficiency which good strategy use can offer.
It is also because they are on their own: subject teachers do not tend to know about language
learning strategies and learners have to be good autonomous users of them. Language
teachers, however, can teach these strategies in the language classroom, with a view to their
learners taking them with them into the L2-medium subject classroom. This also requires a
degree of collaboration with the subject teacher.

37

35

Figure 10: university word list

accelerate
achieve
adjacent
affect
alternative
analyze
approach
approximate
arbitrary
assert
assess
assign
assume
authorize
automatic
chapter
compensate
complex
complicate
comply
component
comprehend
conceive
concentrate
concept
conclude
consequent
consist
constant
construct
consult
context
contrast
contribute
convert
create
criterion
crucial
data
define
definite
demonstrate
denote
derive
design
devise
devote

dimension
distinct
distort
element
emphasize
empirical
ensure
entity
environment
equate
equivalent
establish
evaluate
evident
expand
expose
external
feasible
fluctuate
focus
formulate
function
generate
guarantee
hypothesis
identify
ignore
illustrate
impact
implicit
imply
indicate
individual
inhibit
initial
innovation
intense
interpret
intuitive
involve
isolate
magnetic
magnitude
major
manipulate
mathematics
method

minimum
modify
negative
notion
obtain
obvious
occur
passive
period
perspective
pertinent
phase
phenomena
portion
potential
precede
precise
presume
prime
principle
proceed
publish
pursue
random
range
react
region
require
respective
restrict
reverse
role
section
segment
select
sequence
series
shift
signify
similar
simultaneous
sophisticated
species
specify
stable
statistic
status
38

structure
subsequent
suffice
sum
summary
technique
technology
tense
theory
trace
tradition
transmit
ultimate
undergo
usage
valid
vary
verbal
verify
vertical

36

39

only very slowly with

much less vigorously with
most easily with
violently with
quickly in

(with acknowledgements to Keith Kelly)

Lithium
Sodium
Potassium
Hydrogen

react(s)
float(s)
melt(s)
burn(s)
catch(es)
fire

(Describing reactivity processes in science)

Vocabulary in the verb and adverb phrase

water
iron
chlorine
to give

(hydrogen) and an (alkaline solution).

a (bright) flame.

The noble gases

full outer electron shells.
These elements
are reactive / unreactive
just one reaction short of a full outer shell.
because their atoms have
The halogens
have similar properties
7 electrons in the outer shell.
Alkali metals
1 electron in the outer shell.
A full outer electron shell
makes an atom
unreactive / reactive.
One reaction short of a full outer shell

(Describing outer shell and reactivity relationships in science)

Vocabulary in the subject and object noun phrase

Figure 11: Grammar in academic discourse

37

Figure 12: Discourse markers in academic text

From: Strong (2001)

40

38

9. School CLIL Policy

Finally language teachers in CLIL programmes need to learn to operate not only outside their
subject but also outside the classroom. They need to become familiar with working within the
framework of whole-school policy. CLIL programmes tend to involve whole-school thinking.
School managements are involved in allowing and encouraging CLIL programmes; parents
are involved in the medium of instruction which their children and how it might affect
achievement; the school as an institution might be involved in school-wide considerations
such as entry conditions to the programme, materials purchasing, equitable assessment
strategies and teacher professional development. Language teachers, as we have seen, may be
particularly active in extra-classroom liaison activities with subject teachers. All this
constitutes school CLIL policy and may take language teachers outside the boundaries of
their classroom towards co-managing programmes at a whole-school level. Contributing to
CLIL programmes can thus give language teachers a new lease of life, taking them into new
adventures in subject classrooms, giving them a new view of language and involving them in
matters which affect the school community as a whole. Many language teachers find this
broadens their horizon and refreshes their career.
References
Clegg, J. 2003. The Lingue e Scienze Project: some outcomes. In Boella, T and Barbero T.
(Eds) LUse Veicolare della Lingua Straniera in Apprendimenti Non Linguistici. Piemonte :
Ufficio Scholastico Regionale per il Piemonte.
Corson, D. 1995. Using English Words. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Johnson, K, S. Adamson and G. Williams. 1994. Spotlight Science. Cheltenham: Stanley
Thornes.
Strong, J. 2001. Language across the Secondary Curriculum: Making it Happen. London:
Harper Collins.
appendix: Language for thinking
This list contains language for expressing thinking processes which secondary age learners
are required to engage in in lessons. Each category is divided into question which teachers
ask learners, and statements. Some of the items are too formal to use with young children:
they are in italics.
1.

Defining

Teacher questions
What is a?
Give me definition of a
How would you define a?
Who can define/give me a definition of?
Can anyone give me a definition of?
What do we call this?
What is the name/(technical) term for this?
Statements

41

39

(A)

where
who
which
that

(generic term)
place
person
thing
concept
entity
device
instrument
tool
etc

is a

for

-ing

is called/said to be
The term/name for this is
We call this
2.

Classifying

Teacher questions
How would you classify?
How many kinds of are there?
Who can classify?
Statements

There are

three

fall
..........

can be

kinds
types
forms
classes
categories
divided
classified

of

into

three

kinds
types
classes
categories

We/you/one can classify according to criteria

This class hascharacteristics/features
3.

Illustrating/exemplifying

Teacher questions
What is an example of this?
Give me an example (of this)?
Who can give me an example (of this)?
Statements
Lets take an example
Let me give you an example
One example of this is
For example
For instance

42

40

4.

Contrasting

Teacher questions
In what way/how is different from ?
How does differ from?
How can one/we/you distinguish from?
What is the difference between and ?
Statements

is
One can distinguish

unlike
different from

from

...

in that
insofar as
in respect(s).

(Firstly, etc)

although (subordinate clauses)

though (ditto)
.whereas (main clauses)
but. (ditto)
However
But
Nevertheless
On the one hand, on the other hand
It is true that Nevertheless
Admittedly Nevertheless
5.

Comparing

Teacher questions
In what way is similar to?
What similarities are there/can you see betweenand ?
Can you see any similarities between and ?
Is like/unlike/the same as?
Statements
is like/the same as (in that/in so far as/because)
is similar to (in that/in)
and are similar/the same (in that/in so far as/because)
6.

Giving reasons

Teacher questions
Why?
Why does/did?
Who can tell me why?
What is/was the reason for that?
Give me a reason for that
What will/would happen ifhappens/happened?
Statements
This is/was because
The reason for this is that
There are three reasons for this.

43

41


This is/was due to
This is/was the cause of
This causes/caused
Ifhappens, (then) will happen.
Whenhappens, (then) will happen.
Becausehappens, then will happen.
This means thatwill happen.
So
Therefore
Thus
For this reason
That is why
7.

Predicting

Teacher questions
What will happen?
What do you think will happen?
What is going to happen?
Statements
I predict/think that will happen.
will happen.
Ifhappens, (then) will happen.
Whenhappens, (then) will happen.
Becausehappens, then will happen.
This means thatwill happen.
will not happen, unless happens.
will not happen, if does not happen
8.

Summarising

Teacher questions
Who can summarise (what we have said)?
What have we said/learned?
What are the main points we have made?
Statements
So what we have said is
So lets summarise/sum up
Let me summarise/sum up
So
So you see
So, we have said
The main points we have made are
9.

hypothesising

Teacher questions
What will happen, if happens?
What would happen ifhappened?

44

42


What could/might happen, if happened?
What would have happened, if had happened?
Statements
If happens, will happen (future, certain)
If happens, may/might/could happen (future, possible)
If happened, would happen (future, possible)
If had happened, would have happened (past, speculative)
Unless happens, will not happen.
If does not happen, will not happen.
Assuminghappened, would happen.
Imagine (you are/there isetc)
10.

Time sequence/process

Teacher questions
What happened/happens?
What happened/happens then?
And then/after that?
When does/didhappen?
Statements
First
Then, after that, next
The next day/week/month/year etc
Eventually
Finally
In the end
At last
11.

Listing

Teacher questions
How many?
What comes first/next?
Another/next point?
Statements
I want to make three points.
There are three reasons/types/etc
Firstly, secondly, thirdly, fourthlyfinally/lastly
First, second, third, fourthfinally/last
12.

adding

Teacher questions
What else?
And?
Statements
Moreover
Furthermore
In addition
Besides that

45

43

And
And another thing
13.

apposition

Teacher questions
What's another way of saying/putting?
Give me another way of saying/putting
How else can we say/express this?
Statements
Let me/let's say/put this another way
Another way of saying/putting this is
In other words
Namely
14.

Drawing conclusions/deducing

Teacher questions
What can we/you/one conclude/learn from this?
What do we/you conclude/learn from this?
What conclusions can we draw from this?
What does this mean?
So?
Statements
Ifis (the case), what must be/do etc?
If this was (the case), what musthave been/done etc?
I/we conclude from this that
I/we/one can conclude
One can draw (two) conclusions from this (Firstly,)
If is (the case), must be
If.was (the case),must have been
Ifis not (the case), cannot/cant be
If was not (the case), cannot/cant have been

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44

Science across the World - an Introduction

Keith Kelly ([email protected])
I first became thoughtful about content in my language classroom when I was introduced to
the Science Across the World programme (www.scienceacross.org) in the mid 90s of the last
century. Even though it feels like a century ago now, it certainly changed the way I look at
language teaching and, though I do say it myself, has ever since helped me keep my language
classroom up to date with what goes on the rest of the content curriculum for my students.
Science Across the World is not just about Science as it sounds in the title, it is about
communication between young people the world over about their lives. The programme has
young people investigate their daily lives on a local basis in their homes and communities, on
a national basis within the country where they live, and on an international level by
exchanging and communicating with partner schools around the world studying the same
project topic.
The Science topics are all very accessible to language teachers, and if you focus on the
'communication' as the name of the game, you can always find a way around the science that
you don't feel totally comfortable with. In any case, it gives a perfect opportunity to teachers
to work together with the Chemistry or other subject teacher dealing with any deep content
issues you come across and the language teacher taking care of the communication.
What did you eat? has always been, as far as I know, the most popular exchange topic in the
programme around the world. It is for this reason that we offer it in full here with kind
permission from Marianne Cutler and colleagues at the Association for Science Education in
the UK, the parent organization and now adopted home of the resources.
Over the next few pages you will find four things to do with 'What did you eat?':
1) Teacher's notes
2) Students' pages
3) Information sheets
4) Exchange form
It is always important to point out when talking about this wonderful programme to teachers
that as well as 'what to do' (this makes me think of Phil Ball's anecdote La Abuela del
Montevideo), you also need 'someone to do it with'. If you have a good partner school, that is
a place to start and get them involved in a Science Across the World exchange. You may also
have your own electronic networks where you can appeal for a partner. If you don't, try
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/factworld/ where you will find 3400 teachers all interested in
CLIL and many interested in Science Across the World and curriculum exchange projects.
Additionally, browse through the history pages of FACTWorld (the Forum for Across the
Curriculum Teaching - www.factworld.info) where you will find a host of examples, tips and
support for carrying out your Science Across the World exchange with your class and another
somewhere else on the planet!

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45

SCIENCE ACROSS THE WORLD

What did you eat?
Date
To
(teachers name)
School
Address

Telephone

Fax

(with international dialling code)

E-Mail
Web address of school

exchange form page 1

From
(teachers name)
School
Address

Telephone

Fax

What did you eat?

(with international dialling code)

E-Mail
Web address of school

48
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

Time of day

Activities

Meals/Snacks eaten

04.00
05.00
06.00
07.00
08.00
09.00
10.00
11.00
12.00
13.00
14.00
15.00

What did you eat?

exchange form page 2

16.00
17.00
18.00
19.00
20.00
21.00
22.00
23.00
24.00
49
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

What did you eat?

exchange form page 3

Breakfast

For breakfast most students eat:

We think that eating a good breakfast before going to school is:

important/not important because:

Eating habits

The sort of snacks and sweets we eat during the day are:

The arrangements for meals during the school day are:

The people who choose and prepare our food are:

Traditional beliefs about diet in our country are:

The ways in which eating habits are changing are:

50
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

Diet and health

We think that most members of our class eat:

a balanced diet

too much salt

enough dietary fibre

too much sugar

enough fruit and vegetables

too much fat

Suggestions for improving our diet are:

Our main concerns about diet and health are:

What did you eat?

exchange form page 4

51
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

PART 6 INFORMATION SECTION

Cancer
People in different countries tend to suffer
from different types of cancer. Scientists think
that diet could be a major factor. It is difficult
to be sure, because countries collect their
statistics in different ways, so that the figures
given here may not represent exactly the
same thing. New studies should give more
reliable statistics by the mid19OOs.

Diet and disease

Certain diseases, such as coronary heart
disease, breast cancer and bowel cancer are
more common in some countries than in
others. It is thought that some of these
diseases may be linked to diet. Below is some
information about them.
Obesity
People who weigh 20% more than the ideal
are overweight. They have a shorter life
expectancy and are more likely to suffer from
diseases that include heart disease, diabetes,
gallstone, high blood pressure, arthritis and
varicose veins.

Breast cancer is increasing in many countries.

Its cause is not known, but in figure 3 cancer
rates are compared with how much fat people
eat in different countries.
Some scientists suspect that many people
could avoid getting stomach cancer if they
ate fruit and vegetables every day. Cancer of
the bowel may also be linked to a diet high in
fat. Eating enough dietary fibre may help to
reduce the risk of bowel cancer.

Some people put on weight easily. The reasons

are not understood. They do not necessarily
eat more than other people, but they eat
more than they need and lay down the excess
as fat.

Alcoholic drinks may be linked to cancers of the

mouth and gullet (oesophagus) as well as to
cirrhosis of the liver and high blood pressure.

What did you eat?

information section page 1

Tooth decay
Tooth decay (dental caries) has been linked to
diets high in sugars. Your mouth contains
bacteria that break down sugars to make
acids. Acids attack tooth enamel, making it
more porous. Tooth decay begins as the
enamel wears away.

Figure 4 shows the death rates for cancer of

the oesophagus in different parts of Europe.

Country

Heart disease
Death rates from coronary heart disease are
often higher in countries where people eat
diets high in saturated fats such as butter,
red meat, milk and cheese (see figure 2). A
high fat diet can raise the level of cholesterol,
a fatlike substance in the blood. Your body
needs cholesterol, but when it collects on the
inside of blood vessels you have a greater risk
of heart attacks.

H
CZ
PL
YU
M
1RL
SF
D
A
L
UK
P

High blood pressure

High blood pressure is a condition that may
lead to ill health. Doctors may advise patients
to eat food without added salt, and avoid
processed foods and ready meals which tend
to be high in salt.
52

Deaths per
100,000
population
621
596
580
553
490
456
433
421
413
411
389
387

Country

GR
S
DK
N
B
I
IS
E
NL
CH
F

Deaths per
100,000
population
376
372
365
351
*342
324
324
*323
302
296
224
(*1984)

Figure 2:
Deaths from heart and circulation diseases
per 100,000 population (1988)
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

number of deaths per 100 000 population

grams of fat per day

Figure 3: Deaths from breast cancer per 100,000 people plotted against fat in the diet (1980s)

Number of deaths
per 100 000 population

What did you eat?

information section page 2

>18
15-18
12-15
9-12
6-9
<6
0

400km

Figure 4: Deaths rates from cancers of the gullet (oesophagus) in men (1970s)
53
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

information section page 3

What did you eat?

Orange juice
Apples
Bananas
Oranges
Tomatoes (fresh)
Cornflakes
Muesli
Bread (wholemeal)
Bread (white)
Rye/black bread
Crisp bread
Plain cake
Mill (full fat)
Skimmed milk
Low fat curd cheese
Cream cheese
Yoghurt (natural)
Eggs (chicken)
Butter
Margarine
Low fat spread
Vegetable oil
Ham (cooked)
Salami
Beef
Chicken
Pork
Herring
Jam
Honey
Sugar (white)
Coffee (without milk)
Tea (without milk)
Coca Cola
Chocolate
Ice cream
Milkshake
Mars bar
French fries (chipped potatoes)
Potato crisps
Pizza (cheese and tomato)
Beefburger

Protein/g

Fat/g

Carbohydrates/g

Energy/kj

0.6
0.3
1.1
0.8
0.8
7.4
10.5
9.2
8.0
6.4
10.1
6.0
3.3
3.5
17.2
14.6
5.0
12.3
0.5
0.2
5.8
0.0
24.7
19.3
18.1
20.6
16.4
17.3
0.5
0.4
0.0
0.3
0.1
0.0
19.2
3.6
2.9
5.3
3.3
5.0
9.0
20.4

0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.4
8.1
2.5
1.7
1.0
1.4
24.0
3.8
0.1
0.6
30.5
1.0
10.9
81.0
81.5
40.5
99.9
18.9
45.2
17.1
5.6
25.0
18.8
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.1
0.0
0.0
24.5
9.8
3.2
18.9
15.5
37.6
11.8
17.3

9.4
12.0
19.2
8.5
2.4
85.4
67.1
41.6
54.3
52.7
79.0
49.7
4.8
4.8
1.8
1.9
6.4
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.5
0.0
0.0
1.9
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
69.2
76.4
99.5
0.8
0.4
10.5
43.6
24.4
13.2
66.5
34.0
49.3
24.8
7.0

161
197
326
150
52
1507
1552
914
1068
950
1461
1785
274
142
142
1415
224
612
3006
3019
1605
3697
1119
2031
940
578
1218
1017
1116
1229
1680
21
8
168
1252
814
379
1853
1174
2275
984
1099

Table 1: Nutritional values of some foods per 100g edible portion

54
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

WHAT DID YOU EAT?

This topic enables you to investigate how students in different
countries fit eating into a busy school day. It begins by asking
you to survey your own eating habits. To keep the task simple
you will focus on just one day.

PART 1 WHY FOOD?

Everybody has to eat and drink. But for most people
food isnt just a matter of survival. Sharing food brings
people together. Food may be the centre of a social
event like a family gathering. One way or another, food
is an important part of your lifestyle.
Food contains five groups of nutrients
proteins, fats, carbohydrates (starches
and sugars), vitamins and minerals. Each
of them is essential. The body uses the
nutrients to provide itself with energy, for
growth and repair and to help regulate body
processes such as digestion and
temperature control.

students notes page 1

Water and dietary fibre are also important.

Water is essential for health. Dietary fibre is a mixture of substances found only in
plants. Some types help food pass more quickly through the intestines, some may help
to lower blood cholesterol.
You need nutrients in the right amounts to grow and stay healthy. The best way to balance your diet is
to eat a wide variety of foods. What you eat and when is part of the pattern of your daily life.

The average consumption (litres) of ice cream per person per year (1989)
Sweden
Denmark
UK
Switzerland
Ireland

14.9
9.1
8.4
8.0
7.5

The Netherlands
Germany
Belgium
Italy
France

6.9
6.5
6.3
5.2
4.9

Austria
Spain
Greece
Portugal
USA

4.8
4.1
3.8
2.9
22.0

What did you eat?

Figure 1: How much ice cream do we eat?

Discussion points
Look at the information in figure 1.
1 Do people eat ice cream as a food or to keep cool?
2 Can you think of reasons for the differences between countries?
55
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

PART 2 WHAT ARE YOUR EATING HABITS?

Copy Questionnaire A. Fill in the columns
Activities
Fill in the time you get up, start school, have lessons, eat meals, finish school and what you do for the
rest of the day.
Meals eaten
Say what sweets/snacks/meals you eat during the day.
Where you eat
Where you eat At home, in school dining room, in restaurant, etc.
Who chooses your food?
You, the school, your mother, etc.

Time of day

Activities

Sweets/Snacks/
Meals eaten

Where you
ate?

Whose chose
your food

Questionnaire A

What is the nutritional value of your food?

Copy Questionnaire B.

What did you eat?

students notes page 2

In the left column make a list of the foods you have eaten and drunk for breakfast and if possible what
you ate at school, and during the rest of the day.
The other columns in the table list nutrients, water and dietary fibre. Tick the important components of
the food you had, Do not tick more than three for each food. For example, bread is rich in starch, apples
are mostly water with some dietary fibre, and cheese is rich in protein and fat.
The table on page 8 lists the nutritional values of some common breakfast foods. You may also find the
nutritional information on food labels helpful.

Foods eaten Energy Protein Fats Carbohydrate Vitamins Minerals Water Dietary fibre
(starch)

(sugars)

56

(specify)

(specify)

Questionnaire B
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

PART 3 DIET AND HEALTH

Here are some questions for you to discuss. Decide answers that
represent a typical student in your group or class.
1 Breakfast
a What do members of your group eat for breakfast?
b Do you think it is important to have a good breakfast before going
to school?
2 Eating habits
a Do you consider snacks and sweets to be food?
b Who chooses and prepares your meals and snacks?
c Do you have meals during the school day? If so, do you go home,
does the school provide a meal, do you bring food from home, do
you buy food from a shop, etc. ?
d Do people in your group have traditional or religious beliefs
about foods?
e Are eating habits in your country changing? For example, are young
people eating foods different from those their parents ate at the
same age? Are more people eating fast food? Are more people
buying readymade meals to cook at home? Do families get
together for meal times?

What did you eat?

students notes page 3

3 Diet and health

a What do you think of the diet of students in your class?
Do they eat:

a balanced diet

enough dietary fibre

enough fresh fruit and vegetables

too much salt

too much sugar

too much fat

b Are there ways you can improve your diet? Are there any foods you
would be better without?
c Are people concerned about certain foods and the effects they may
have on health? If so, what concerns do they have?

57
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

PART 4 WHAT DO STUDENTS EAT?

Most people in western Europe have enough to eat and drink. Some
people even eat too much. Others have unbalanced diets, that often
means too much fat and sugar or too little fresh fruit, vegetables and
dietary fibre.
Find out how your eating habits and concerns compare with those of
other students. Your teacher has a list of classes that are studying the
same topic and would like to exchange information with you.
Use the Exchange Form to make the exchange of information simple.
Patterns of daily life may be different in other countries, so your class
will need to describe a typical school day on side 2 and give
information about eating habits on sides 3 and 4.
You will need to decide how to provide this information so that it
is typical of students in your class. You could decide as a class
what information to provide or select a typical student to give
his/her answers.
It is interesting to compare food labels from your country with those
from other countries. Send food labels with your exchange form and
you may receive some in return. Choose labels from foods and drinks
such as:

Date
To
(teachers name)
School
Address

Telephone

E-Mail
Web address of school

as well as some specialities from your region.

Time of day
04.00
05.00
06.00
07.00

Activities

From
(teachers name)
School
Address

Telephone

Fax

(with international dialling code)

Meals/Snacks eaten
E-Mail

Web address of school

Science Across the World [English] ASE

2004

08.00
09.00
Breakfast

For breakfast most

a
3

10.00

students eat:

11.00

Diet and heal

th

We think that

most members

12.00

of our class eat:

a balanced diet

enough fruit
and

Suggestions for

a good breakfast
We think that eating
ant because:
important/not import

too much salt

enough dieta
ry fibre

improving our

15.00
2

too much fat

Eating habits

The sort of snacks

and sweets we eat

for meals during

The arrangements

what did you

eat... ?

what did you eat...?

exch ange form

page 4

page 3
excha nge form

and health are:

Science Across

the World [English]

the school day are:

e and prepare our

The people who choos

Traditional beliefs

food are:

ry are:

about diet in our count

The ways in which

16.00

during the day are:

diet are:

erns about diet

13.00
14.00

too much suga

r

vegetables

Our main conc

is:
before going to school

exchang e form page

2

What did you eat?

Fax

(with international dialling code)

what did you eat...?

students notes page 4

What did you eat...?

exchange form page 1

SCIENCE ACROSS THE WORLD

milk
bread
flour
margarine
cooking oil
biscuits
Coca Cola
Fanta

what did you eat...?

17.00
18.00
19.00
20.00
21.00
22.00
23.00
24.00

Science Across the World

[English] ASE 2004

ing are:

eating habits are chang

Science Across the

World [English] ASE

2004

ASE 2004

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Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

PART 5 EATING HABITS - A COMPARISON

Group discussion activities
Compare the information from other schools with that from your class.
1 Compare:
the pattern of daily life: when other students get up, start school, etc.,
who chooses and prepares the food,
what is eaten for breakfast,
snacks and sweets eaten,
arrangements for meals during the school day.
2 Do students think that eating a good breakfast is important?
3 What do you think is responsible for the similarities and differences in the foods eaten by students in
different countries?
4 Did you learn of any traditional beliefs about foods? Can they be explained by science?
5 Are eating habits changing? If so, how?
6 Do you think that most students eat a balanced diet?
7 Are people concerned about the links between diet and disease? If so, do their concerns differ from
country to country?
8 Compare food labels from other countries. how is the nutritional value of the food shown? Do the
same foods contain the same ingredients?

What did you eat?

students notes page 5

9 What suggestions can you make for improving the diet of your class?

59
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

WHAT DID YOU EAT?

THIS TOPIC IS IN SIX PARTS
Part 1

This topic may be used to

complement work on health
and nutrition.

WHY FOOD?
A review of the nutritional and social aspects of food.

Part 2

The topic focuses on the

nutritional aspects of food
and looks at links between diet
and health.

WHAT ARE YOUR EATING HABITS?

Students survey their eating habits and food intake.

Part 3

DIET AND HEALTH

Students start by surveying what

they eat for breakfast and during
the school day. This information
is collated by the class and
exchanged with schools in other
countries. The information
collected should enable students
to make comparisons and hence
reflect upon their own diet.

Discussion of the results of part 2.

Part 4

WHAT DO STUDENTS EAT?

Collation of class information, collection of food labels and
exchange of information with other schools.

Part 5

EATING HABITS - A COMPARISON

Discussion of the information collected.

Part 6

INFORMATION SECTION

The work is suitable for lessons

in chemistry, biology and
home economics. It may be
extended to link with studies
in foreign languages.

Information and data on diet and disease; nutritional values of

common breakfast foods.

THE AIMS OF THIS TOPIC ARE:

what did you eat?

teachers notes page 1

To revise and extend work on diet and nutrition.

To enable students to reflect upon their own diets by comparing them
with those of students in other countries.
To create awareness of the links between diet and good health.
To raise students awareness of the lifestyle and traditions of people in
other countries.
To raise students confidence in using a variety of languages.

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

The material is intended for students aged 13 to 17.
Students should understand how proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and
minerals contribute to a balanced diet and their importance for growth and
good health. They should be able to identify the nutrients in common foods
and recognise those rich in dietary fibre.

60
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

Questionnaire B
This is intended as a quick dietary analysis and teachers
may wish to limit the list students give to foods eaten
for breakfast. The nutritional data given in part 6 is for
common breakfast foods. Additional information from
food labels and other food tables may be helpful.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR TEACHERS

REQUIREMENTS
Before beginning the lesson:

Copy the student pages for the class.

Make a few copies of the Exchange Form.

A transparency for overhead projection would
be useful for part 4.

Collect labels from foods and drinks, for example,

milk, bread, flour, margarine, cooking oil, jam,

Part 3 Diet and health

This activity follows the work done in part 2. The class
may be divided into groups to discuss the questions, with
a spokesperson from each group reporting the groups
answers to the class towards the end of the lesson.

Coca Cola, Fanta etc., as well as foods typical

of your region.

Part 4 What do students eat ?

When you have received Exchange Forms from

other schools:

Copy the Exchange Forms you received and

the class' own Exchange Form for analysis.

Copy the map of Europe if required.

TEACHERS NOTES

If the class contains ethnic or religious groups with

different dietary habits, you may wish to provide
Exchange forms representing each group.

Part 1 Why food?

teachers notes page 2

This introduces the topic with a review of the nutrients

in food.

Part 5 Eating habits - a comparison

The data on ice cream consumption is interesting and

should signal to students the differences in eating habits
between regions or countries. If the figure do indeed
show a pattern, it seems that countries with cold
climates consume more.

This discussion activity enables students to compare

their eating habits with those of students in other
countries and to recommend possible changes in their
own diet.

To facilitate debate the class may be divided into groups

Part 6 Information section

Part 2 What are your eating habits?

Part 2 is intended for individual work by students.
Although the survey includes the whole day, the focus of
the topic is on breakfast.

The information may be used as needed with parts 2, 3

and 5.

This is worded so that students may insert data for

today or yesterday. Students taking today as the
example, may begin to fill in the questionnaire during
the lesson and then complete it at home.

Diet and disease: notes on obesity, tooth decay,

heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer

Encourage students to collect labels from foods. These

may be used when completing the questionn-aire and
exchanged with schools in other countries.

Questionnaire A

What did you eat?

This part involves exchanging information with other

schools. The class will need to enter information based
on the discussion questions in part 3 on the Exchange
form. The information must provide an overall
impression of the diets and concerns of class members.
Teachers may find collating information from the whole
class too time consuming and prefer to select a typical
student to provide his/her individual answers on the
Exchange form instead.

including cancer of the breast and of the

oesophagus .

Nutritional value of foods per 100 g: data on

common foods eaten for breakfast.

61
Science Across the World [English] ASE 2004

CLIL Subject projects for language teachers

This section shows topics which can be taught as CLIL by language teachers. Most CLIL is done by
subject teachers. They teach their subject in L2. However, some CLIL is done by language teachers.
This work has a topic focus like subject-led CLIL, but covers smaller, manageable topics which
language teachers tend to know about. Such a topic may not be dealt with in the detail which a subject
specialist could bring to it, and covering it will normally only take a limited number of lessons.
Typical topics which a language teacher could handle might be: aspects of diet, climate change, local
geography, community development and history, etc. The Science Across the World topic developed
in section 000 xxxxx is typical. The topics covered by the following units were devised by Keith
Kelly and John Clegg for language teachers to use and deal with the topics of Flight and Waste in
School.
When they teach such topics, language teachers do need to apply certain CLIL principles, which
means that their lessons will be different from conventional language lessons. They will, in particular,
need to understand topic-led work and the use of language support, both concepts which John Clegg
covers in section 000. The idea of topic-led teaching means basically that the topic comes first: it
constitutes the main purpose of lessons and teachers and learners focus on it. Language is important,
but it does not determine the content of lessons; instead, language is taught at the point of need in
order to facilitate the handling of the topic. Language teachers who teach in this way need first to
establish the sequence of tasks which they will present to the learners in order to teach the topic. They
may not know the language content of the lesson sequence until it emerges from this task sequence.
The next thing that the teacher has to do, once s/he knows roughly what the sequence of tasks is, is to
analyse their language demands. S/he is likely to think of these language demands in terms of skills
(do they require learners to engage in listening, speaking, reading and writing?); grammar (what
sentence structures do they require learners to use?); vocabulary (what words do the learners have to
know?) and text (to what extent do learners have to follow or construct sequences of text?). The topics
shown below give practice in variety of language skills. Flight, for example, requires learners to plan
their experiment and hypothesise about it and thus asks them to use modals will and could. It asks
them to present their project to the class orally and in writing and thus to use the past simple and to
structure a continuous oral or written text. It also requires them to use a considerable subject-specific
physics vocabulary to do with flight.
Finally the language teacher has to provide language support to enable the learners to perform the
tasks. Thus the learners learn language in order to learn about the topic, not vice versa. The language
teacher provides this support using the range of task types s/he is familiar with in language teaching.
In the Flight project, the teacher provides, for example, a writing/talking frame and a matching
activity. In the Waste project, the learners are helped by substitution tables, charts and a reading
support activity.
Language teachers can teach a CLIL topic on their own without reference to other colleagues. The
topics can fit nicely into a conventional language syllabus. For instance the Waste project would give
practice in, for example, reading, letter-writing, the past simple and could. On the other hand the
language teacher might like to collaborate with a subject teacher. It could be that the subject concepts
which emerge in the CLIL topic are those which a subject teacher is also teaching, perhaps in L1, at
roughly the same time. For example, the Flight topic could be taught by a language teacher in
parallel with a physics teacher working on a similar topic, obviously in more subject depth, in the L1.
Working with a subject teacher in this way enables the language teacher to feel comfortable that any
gaps in her/his subject knowledge can be dealt with by the specialist colleague. It also allows the
concepts to be well reinforced in the learners minds, and the familiarity of the topic which arises from
its being covered in subject lessons allows learners to learn it more easily in L2.
62

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Your CLIL - Introduction

Your CLIL is a collection of phrase lists and lesson plans which focus on general
academic curriculum language. These lesson plans and word lists are the result of
analysis into the language of the content subjects: geography, biology, chemistry and
physics.
Each lesson plan contains step-by-step
teachers notes, and student worksheets
divided into content- and languagefocused activities. The first instalment in
this reinvigorated series is Roots:
Geography, which is available to all
onestopenglish users.
This pages of the section to follow offer
you one phrase list on root words, as well
as one Geography lesson to do with
Agriculture around the world. Make sure
to visit the website to check out the ever
growing archive of language and lessons.

available word lists

The functional language areas in geography and science that we have covered so far
include among many others:
x
x
x
x
x
x

making comparisons
describing cause and effect
classifying and grouping
describing a process
hypothesizing
measuring and talking about numbers

The aim of the word list is twofold: on the one hand, we hope to provide one-page
summaries of key functional language for the content teacher to use as reference
material and, on the other hand, the materials provide a wealth of information for the
language teacher alongside content teaching colleagues working through the medium
of English. In short, Your CLIL can help you integrate what goes on in the language
classroom with work in the content classroom, better then ever before!
http://www.onestopenglish.com/clil/clil-teacher-magazine/your-clil/

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TEACHERS NOTES

Roots: Geography
by Keith Kelly

YOUR CLIL TEACHERS NOTES

AGE: Teenagers
LEVEL: Intermediate
TIME NEEDED: Approx. 90 minutes
OBJECTIVES: to learn about agricultural
activity around the world; to take part in a group
discussion and group presentation; to complete
exercises on root words
KEY SKILLS: reading, speaking, writing,
listening
MATERIALS: one copy of the worksheet and
Map 1 (blank world map) per student; one copy
of Map 2 (map showing estimate of worldwide
agricultural spread) per group of four students;
coloured pens; A3 paper

Content focus
Agriculture

Activity 1: 5 minutes
Activity 2: 5-10 minutes
Activity 3: 10 minutes
Activity 4: 20 minutes
Activity 5: 20 minutes

ACTIVITY 1
1. Write the word agriculture in the centre of the board
and ask students what they understand by the term. Put
students in pairs and tell them to discuss their ideas,
then ask each pair to join up with another pair to form
groups of four to continue the discussion.
2. Get feedback from the groups, encouraging students
to use the sentence starter Agriculture means ...
and add the ideas to the board.

ACTIVITY 2
3. Ask students to read the text on agriculture. Then tell
them to refer to their ideas from Activity 1 and see which
are closest to the one in the text. Elicit answers from the
whole group.

ACTIVITY 3
5. Hand out one copy of Map 1 to each group and
ask them to discuss where they think the four main
agricultural activities are most predominant.
6. Either display Map 2 on an interactive whiteboard
(IWB) or provide one copy per group and tell students
to check their ideas. Pick three or four students to offer
comments and descriptions to the class.

ACTIVITY 4
7. With Map 2 still on the screen (or handouts still with
groups), give each group one region / continent to focus
on and ask them to prepare a description of the main
agricultural activity in their region / continent to present to
the class.
Tip: Think about how you divide the regions / continents.
For example, Antarctica might be given together with
Australia to one group and Asia might be divided into
Russia and Asia for two groups to work on. Divide the
Earth into enough regions / continents to match the
number of groups.
Point out the language in the substitution table and
encourage students to use it. Tell students that each
one of them should have something to say during
the presentation. Additionally, you could share other
language and resources on onestopenglish relevant to
this topic (e.g. materials associated with the Interactive
Atlas, and Your CLIL: Comparisons: Geography).
8. Give each group of students several sheets of A3
paper and ask them to prepare coloured sketches to
represent the main agricultural activities of their region /
continent. Explain that they will not be able to use Map 2
to support their presentation.
Tip: Depending on time, it may be more suitable to allow
VWXGHQWVWRQLVKWKHLUSUHVHQWDWLRQSUHSDUDWLRQ
for homework.

ACTIVITY 5

4. Get students to read the text again and say which of

the statements is true and which is false.

 $VNWKHUVWJURXSWRSHUIRUPWKHLUSUHVHQWDWLRQ
Ensure that each student has a blank copy of Map 1 and
explain that while the groups are not taking part in their
presentation they should listen carefully and colour in the
appropriate regions on their map.

Key
1. F (1.1 billion); 2. T; 3. F (cultivation of soil);
4. F (the importance of agriculture is not likely to decline)

All students should have a completed Map 1,

illustrating global agricultural activity, at the end of the
presentations.

Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2012

CLIL / Your CLIL / Roots: Geography

74

TEACHERS NOTES

Roots: Geography
by Keith Kelly

YOUR CLIL TEACHERS NOTES

Language focus
Root words

Activity 1: 5-10 minutes

Activity 2: 5 minutes
Activity 3: 5-10 minutes

ACTIVITY 1
*HWVWXGHQWVWRPDWFKWKHSUH[HVLQWKHOHIWFROXPQZLWK
the word endings on the right to make words to do with
agriculture. Ask students not to look at the reading text
from the Content focus section of the lesson. When they
KDYHQLVKHGWHOOWKHPWRFKHFNWKHLUDQVZHUVZLWKD
partner then check against the text.
Tip: One of the words in column one is used twice.
Key
1. h; 2. d; 3. f, g; 4. a; 5. b; 6. c; 7. e

ACTIVITY 2
7HOOVWXGHQWVWRORRNDWWKHGHQLWLRQVRISUH[HVRQWKH
OHIWVLGHRIWKHWDEOHDQGZULWHWKHFRUUHFWSUH[IURP
Activity 1 next to it.
Key
1. eco-; 2. agri-; 3. pro-; 4. en-; 5. uni-; 6. syn-; 7. subTip: You can give students more contextualized
examples of root words from Your CLIL: Root words:
Geography.

ACTIVITY 3
Get students to think about negative forms of the words
in Activity 1. Tell them to look at the information in the
table and write the full word in the centre column.
Key
1. antonym; 2. insubstantial; 3. uneconomic;
4. disproportion; 5. disengaged

Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2012

CLIL / Your CLIL / Roots: Geography

75

WORKSHEET

Roots: Geography
by Keith Kelly

YOUR CLIL WORKSHEET

Content focus
Agriculture

ACTIVITY 1
What do you understand by the term agriculture? Talk with a partner for a few minutes. Now
share your ideas in a group of four.

ACTIVITY 2
5HDGWKHWH[WDERXWDJULFXOWXUHDQGVHHLI\RXUGHQLWLRQVDUHFORVH:KLFKLVWKHFORVHVW"

the term,
strictest sense of
Agriculture, in the
the word
t
tion of the soil bu
means the cultiva
for the
ed as a synonym
is more widely us
nding and
e current understa
word farming. Th
der and
term is much broa
e
th
of
n
tio
ta
ity
re
tiv
rp
ac
te
in
t also
sal
espread and univer
e growing of crops bu
th
ly
on
t
no
es
at
th
or
By far the most wid
20
rp
the
inco
raising, and includes
riculture. Although
forms of livestock
l
ca
nt
on the planet is ag
gi
re
lo
ffe
no
di
ch
te
of
e
animal feed and
a vast rang
tural vegetation for
na
is
of
e
century brought us
n
us
tio
e
la
th
pu
po
ence or for sale.
the worlds
of crops, for subsist
g
tin
y
es
an
rv
advances, more of
ha
in
e
an
th
th
ture is the
re of agriculture
QRIWKHWHUPagricul
WLR
QL
H
le
HG
SO
engaged in the sphe
op
pe
VLP
on
$
livestock.
ity. Around 1.1 billi
g after of crops and
other economic activ
over
in
ith
ok
w
lo
,
re
tu
ul
ric
ag
lved in
a
in the world are invo
. While
ually leading to
lation in agriculture
pu
machinery is grad
po
s
of
se
on
U
n
tio
s
la
rie
70% of India
rs va
agricultural popu
agricultural worke
decrease in the
ss
the proportion of
portance of
Le
in
er
gg
bi
evertheless, the im
, it is much
N
on
.
gi
et
re
an
pl
to
e
on
th
gi
re
Cs)
from
and will still
t likely to decline
ed Countries (LED
no
op
el
is
ev
re
D
tu
ul
ly
ric
al
ic
ag
H (DUWKV
es
Econom
Developed Countri
W SURSRUWLRQ RI WK
ly
DQ
al
F
ic
QL
om
VLJ
on
D

Ec
FW
e
IH
or
DI
ing, and
than in M
almost 30% of the
population is grow
e
at
th
th
l,
ed
al
at
r
fte
tim
A
es
.
is
ce
surfa
(MEDCs). It
ultural
is made up of agric
we all need to eat!
Earths land surface
grazed.
or
d
te
va
lti
cu
is
ch
land or land whi

A G R I C U LT U R E

Read the sentences and decide which are true (T) and which are false (F), according to the
text above.
1.
2.
3.
4.

The number of people involved in agriculture around the world is 2.1 billion.
Thirty per cent of the Earths land surface area is dedicated to farmland.
$VWULFWGHQLWLRQRIDJULFXOWXUHLVWKHFXOPLQDWLRQRIWKHVRLO
The importance of agriculture will decrease as the use of machinery increases.

Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2012

CLIL / Your CLIL / Roots: Geography

76

WORKSHEET

Roots: Geography
by Keith Kelly

YOUR CLIL WORKSHEET

ACTIVITY 3
In groups, discuss where the main agricultural regions are on Earth. Look at Map 1 to help
your discussion.
Consider the following:
 where there is non-arable (e.g. desert) or forest land
 where there are mainly cereal crops
 where there is mainly livestock grazing
 where there is mainly mixed farming

ACTIVITY 4
Prepare a short description of the agricultural activity in one region of the world.
Use the substitution table below to help you make your description.
e.g. In South America ...
non-arable or forest land
livestock grazing
mixed farming
cereal crops

is / are found
is / are located
can be found
is / are situated

mainly
largely
for the most part

in

the north
the north and ...
(south, west, east)
coastal areas

on the coast

Prepare a sketch of your region using coloured pens to represent the agricultural activity
there. Use Map 2 to help you.

ACTIVITY 5
As a group, present your region to the class.
While your classmates are presenting their regions, use coloured pens to sketch the
information they present on Map 1. You should have a completed world agricultural map
similar to Map 2 by the end of the presentations.

Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2012

CLIL / Your CLIL / Roots: Geography

77

WORKSHEET

Roots: Geography
by Keith Kelly

YOUR CLIL WORKSHEET

Language focus
Root words

ACTIVITY 1
:LWKRXWORRNLQJDWWKHUHDGLQJWH[WPDWFKWKHSUH[HVRQWKHOHIWZLWKWKHZRUGHQGLQJVRQWKH
ULJKWWRPDNHZRUGVWRGRZLWKDJULFXOWXUH7KHUVWRQHKDVEHHQGRQHIRU\RX1RWHRQHRI
WKHSUH[HVLVXVHGWZLFH
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.

agrisynsubunienecopro-

-versal
-gaged
-nomic
-onym
-portion
-sistance
-stantial
-culture

ACTIVITY 2
5HDGWKHGHQLWLRQVLQWKHULJKWKDQGFROXPQDQGZULWHWKHFRUUHFWSUH[IURP$FWLYLW\LQWKH
OHIWKDQGFROXPQ
SUH[

GHQLWLRQ

dwelling or habitation

HOG

for

in

one

together with

under

ACTIVITY 3
8VHWKHQHJDWLYHSUH[HVLQWKHWDEOHWRPDNHQHJDWLYHIRUPVRIWKHZRUGVLQ$FWLYLW\WKDW
PDWFKWKHGHQLWLRQVLQWKHULJKWKDQGFROXPQ
QHJDWLYHSUH[

whole word

GHQLWLRQ

ant-

noun; the opposite of another word

in-

adjective; not very large, solid or strong

un-

DGMHFWLYHQRWPDNLQJDSURW

dis-

noun; lack of equality

dis-

adjective; to be separated from, be withdrawn from

Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2012

CLIL / Your CLIL / Roots: Geography

78

MAP 1

Roots: Geography
by Keith Kelly

YOUR CLIL MAP 1

79
Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2012
CLIL / Your CLIL / Roots: Geography

MAP 2

Roots: Geography
by Keith Kelly

YOUR CLIL MAP 2

Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2012
CLIL / Your CLIL / Roots: Geography

80

Basque CLIL for eLT

eleanitz multilingual project in the Basque Country
Phil Ball ([email protected])
This project is the culmination of the multilingual project in the Basque Country
(Eleanitz) where the students have been involved from the infant stage. The original
objectives (1991) clearly stated that English would eventually be used as a vehicular
language in order to study a subject at school. The schools are Basque-medium
Ikastolas (house of learning in Basque), and there are 72 involved in the project.
The project has developed a methodological approach and a set of materials that aim
to prepare the students for this final phase of obligatory schooling in which they
attempt an entire academic year studying one subject in English. In this sense, the
SSLIC materials are a logical continuation of the previous two-year phase (Subject
Projects) in which the students worked on a variety of didactic units based on content
matter from various school disciplines. The subject chosen for this culmination
phase was Social Science, but the use of other subjects, such as Science in Bachiller,
is being developed.
The aim of the project is for the students to follow the same curriculum as their peers,
but by studying the official Social Science programme through English. The
Geography materials (14-15) represent a carefully designed CLIL-based version that
tries to maintain the balance between the register of the social science discourse and
the language level of the students. Uniquely, the students follow a parallel English
Language course, with sequences of work based on the text types, items, structures
and competences that most commonly appear in the Social Science materials. The
model required by the project is that the students dedicate 3 hours per week to the
study of Social Science and 2/3 hours per week to English Language.
What you will find over the following pages is an example of the textbook material
used in these English classes which comes from the ESO 3 textbook (14-15 yrs), of
the unit 'Culture Shock'. It's designed to support a Geography unit that deals with a
research-based comparison between two different towns in two different socioeconomic and climatic areas. The kids have to gather the stats, and then make sense of
them - basically trying to draw conclusions on *significant* differences and
similarities, which is a standard social science competence. They have to present their
findings both orally and in written form.
This material is designed to help the kids with the language of contrast and
comparison - the linguistic link is obvious. But if you look at the Objectives on page 4
of the document, you'll see that they're couched in *procedural* terms. 'Culture' is
simply a vehicle in order to practise 'Select and organise relevant information' and
'Identify differences and similarities', *using the appropriate discourse*.
What is interesting, in CLIL terms, is that you could say the same about the
Geography. The two-town comparison is merely a vehicle for a higher-order
(sub)competence.

81
79

1CULTURE
SHOCK

82

objectives
1. To identify differences and similarities between cultures by reading and comparing
the content from various relevant texts.
2. To select relevant information and organise it in order to write a comparative text,
using the appropriate discourse.

INTRODUCTION
What is culture?
What is Basque culture?

COMPARING
CULTURES
Comparing and contrasting
differences and similarities
between cultures.

ANALYSING
MODELS
Analysing a model text and
producing short texts.

FINAL TASK
Writing a comparative essay
which compares two
cultures, then correcting
and assessing it.

83

activities
0. Objectives, contents map and activity list.
1. Identifying the main components of any given culture.
2. Identifying the main components of Basque culture.

3. Comparing and contrasting pictures.

4. Locating cultures - identifying a geographical area using the cultural clues given by pictures.
5. International birthday party: analysing and comparing cultures.
6. Survey comparing Basque and Bulgarian culture.
7. Exchanging information on Basque and Bulgarian culture and writing a brief opinion.

8. Analysing cases and speculating on cultural factors.

9. Confirming the speculation, then practising expressions of comparison & contrast.

10. Practising essay structure by comparing and contrasting cultural information.

11. Working on a checklist for the final production task.
12. Watching video clips and noting down information onto a Cultural Information Search Card.
13. Choosing the essay outline.
14. Writing the comparative essay.
15. Lets play teacher: peer correction and reflecting on language.
16. TINTI TIME reviewing peer corrections.Things I Need to Improve.
17. Speed Reading. Reading other essays in small groups, noting down important facts then
sharing them with the rest of the class.

84

culture shock introduction

WHAT IS CULTURE?

Fill in the mind-map below with some of the components of a culture.

Language

CULTURE

85

culture shock introduction

2

AND WHAT ABOUT BASQUE CULTURE?

Fill in the mind-map but this time using the example of Basque culture.

Basque is the language spoken

by the Basque people. It
has no clear origins.

BASQUE
CULTURE

86

culture shock comparing cultures

3

COMPARING PICTURES
1

87

culture shock comparing cultures

Work in pairs. Your teacher will assign you a pair of pictures. Look at them and write down at least two
differences and two similarities between them. For example:
Picture five shows a policeman directing traffic, whereas in picture six the traffic looks chaotic.
Both pictures show...

LOCATING CULTURES
1) Locate all the pictures geographically. In which country do you think each one was taken? Justify
your answers. For example:
We think that picture 1 was taken in ............................................ because ..............

2) Link each picture to as many components of a culture (from the concept map in Activity 1) as
possible. Justify your answers.

88

culture shock comparing cultures

5

INTERNATIONAL BIRTHDAY PARTY

1) Read the following letter written by Audrey telling her friend Sharon about some strange people
she met at a birthday party.
Hi Sharon!

ple from very different

derful place and Im meeting lots of peo
won
a
is
ta
Mal
t!
grea
Im
?
you
are
How
tment and I had a lot of fun,
to a birthday party at a friends apar
countries. Last weekend, I was invited
nge.
although some people were a little stra
y girl but when I
ght a wonderful present for the birthda inted then,
bou
I
ll,
We
y?
part
y
hda
birt
a
was
it
Did I tell you
I was so disappo
took it to her room and left it there!
gave it to her, she didnt open it! She
it?
ve
belie
you
Can
shoes off at the door.
a boy came to the party and took his
them for 15 minutes and
two girls sitting by the table. I sat with
cing and I joined them,
Later, I went into the kitchen and I saw
dan
n. I saw some Italians
agai
m
roo
g
livin
the
for
left
I
So
d!
thing happened.
they didnt say a wor
ther everywhere.Then, the strangest
toge
go
we
now
and
ple
peo
nice
it was? Chicken hearts!
they were very
ught some food. Do you know what
bro
and
gry
hun
was
ody
anyb
if
d
A boy aske
Really strange, isnt it?
rs late!! Not only that, they
e people arrived at the party two hou
But more weird things happened. Som
we were going home?
realise that the party had finished and
said the party was boring .didnt they
is school?
it was interesting. What about you? How
but
sual
unu
very
e
wer
ple
peo
e
som
As I told you,
you soon!
Lost of kisses for everybody and see
Love,
Audrey

2) Now answer these questions using Audreys letter.

a. How many strange people did Audrey meet at the party?
b. Why did she find them strange?
3) Write down a possible explanation for each of those peoples behaviour. For example:
Maybe that person comes from a culture where...

4) Try to identify the six cultures mentioned in the letter.

10

89

culture shock comparing cultures

6

SURVEY TIME!!
1) Fill in the survey sheet that your teacher gives to you.
2) Walk around your classroom and conduct the survey given to you by your teacher.
3) Go back to your group and convert the answers youve collected into percentages.
For example:
Group A
In the first question 50% of students said .........

4) Once youve finished, your teacher will give you the answers given by some Bulgarian teenagers.
Compare the percentages with those given by the Bulgarian teenagers. Are they similar or different
to yours? Use the sentences below to help you compare and contrast.

We have been working on classroom behaviour.

One significant difference is...
We are similar to the Bulgarians in the way that...

11

90

culture shock comparing cultures

7

GATHERING ALL THE INFORMATION.

1) Listen carefully to your classmates and fill in the following table.

SIMILARITIES

DIFFERENCES

CLASSROOM
BEHAVIOUR

SOCIAL
BEHAVIOUR

EARLY, ON TIME,
OR LATE?

DATING
CUSTOMS

2) Do Bulgarian and Basque teenagers behave differently? Write a brief paragraph giving your opinion
about both cultures.

12

91