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 Halliwell, S. (1992). Teaching English in the primary classroom. Essex: Pearson.
Chapter 6: Integrating language work with other subjects (pp.130-142).
 6
Integrating language work
and other subjects
Is this Maths work?

tall

smaU

... Or English?

This chapter deals with three aspects of integrating languages and other
subjects:
- why it is a good idea;
- what makes it possible even with young learners at a early stage of their
language work;
- ideas for how it can be done.
Practical Activities 2 (pages 143-169) then provides detailed suggestions of how
to put these ideas into actual practice in the classroom.
6.1
Why is We have already seen earlier that it is important for the children to see the new
integration a language they are learning as something nonnal and natural. It should not
good idea? therefore be something set apart from the rest of their learning. They should see

130
 I

INTEGRATING LANGUAGE WORK AND OTHER SUBJECTS

it as something to use, not just something they manipulate in language classes.

Furthermore, recent language acquisition theory stresses that one very powerful
way we 'get hold' of a language is by receiving and producing real messages.
So, learning other things in English will help children to learn English. In the
process, they will be handling real meaning rather than just words and
structures for their own sake.
There is also a third, more pragmatic reason for integrating language work
and other learning. Both teachers and learners benefit from bringing existing
skills and understanding to bear on new areas and from encountering familiar
ways of working when meeting an unfamiliar focus of teaching or learning.
Even if there are at least three good reasons for trying it, most teachers
initially find the idea of integration rather unrealistic. They either doubt their
own ability to do it or they think it will be too difficult for the children.
However, as this chapter intends to show, there are forms of integration which
are worthwhile without being too complicated and difficult for either the
teacher or for the children. This is because there are several key elements which
language work and other school learning have in common.
6.2
What makes If you compare the work you do in language lessons and the work you do in
integration a other lessons, you will find that however different the content of the lessons, in
realistic certain respects they build on the same processes.
possibility? In particular, those processes are:
- diagrammatic representation of information;
- repeated pattern;
- understanding through seeing;
- responding by doing.
It is these key elements in common between the subjects which will help us to
integrate language work and other learning even with learners in the early
stages. It is therefore worth looking at them a little more closely.

Diagrammatic A diagram or chart enables us to handle complex information more easily and
representation concisely than we can through straightforward text. For example, if railway
timetables were written out in continuous sentences, they would be almost
impossible to read. A diagram can also show relationships and significance
more clearly than can the written or spoken word alone. The chart on pages
114-115, for example, enabled us to see the implications of our answers about
the advantages and disadvantages of a coursebook much more clearly than if
we had just answered the questions without setting them out diagrammatically.
Children encounter diagrammatic information in all subjects. In maths and
science particularly, they are themselves encouraged to learn how to express
and read ideas diagrammatically. The illustration at the beginning of this
chapter is a good example. The children are asked to read the words and draw
in the appropriate picture. So, for example, in one column they draw a small
cat and then a tall cat. Or they might work across the diagram and draw in a
small cat, then a small girl, then a small boy, etc. The exercise was originally a
mother tongue maths exercise designed to teach children the concept of
coordinates. In fact, it works equally well in the early stages of English as a
reading exercise which demands an active response.
TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM

This is because language classroom work also builds on activities which

carry and record information in chart form. The grids in Practical Activities 1
are another example. So, clearly, the handling of information in this way is an
element common to other subjects and to language study and can clearly
provide one starting point for integrating the two types of work.

The role of repeated The second starting point is the role of repeated pattern in all learning. Pattern
pattern is fundamental to understanding and learning. It is the way we store
information in our brains. It is the way we make sense of the physical world
about us. Patterns and observation of pattern are central to maths and science.
Pattern is also the way we make sense of language. Our sense of grammar
is a sense of pattern. That is why small children produce regular but wrong
forms of verbs such as 'I eated', 'He goed'. It is why they can form plurals for
words they have never met before. Good language activities exploit this sense
of pattern. So here too is a common starting point.

Understanding Seeing as a source of understanding is central to language work. This is because

through seeing we do not just take meaning from language. We get hold of a great deal of our
mother tongue by taking meaning to language. If we understand the message,
we start to understand the language. If we understand the language, we get the
message. There is a kind of reciprocal and mutually reinforcing relationship.

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tk ｾ･Ｎ＠

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But, unlike the proverbial chicken and egg, we do in this case know which
comes first; understanding the message, since this happens before we have any
active language of our own. Something other than language must carry
messages. That something else is what we see, hear and feel going on around
us. In fact, seeing as a key source of understanding is not just an element of
language learning and acquisition. It is an element of all good teaching. Again,
science and maths work make particularly full use of seeing in order to
understand. Here then is the third shared element which gives us the potential
for integration ..

Responding through Even in our mother tongue we do not always respond to language with
doing language. Sometimes this is because just doing something is itself the most
appropriate response to a language message we have received. After all, if
someone asks us to open the door for them, it would be odd to say 'I will open
the door for you'. We simply do it. However, physical response is also one of
the ways in which we handle partial understanding. By allowing the other
 •
INTEGRATING LANGUAGE WORK AND OTHER SUBJECTS

person to see what we do as a result of what they said, we soon discover

whether we have interpreted the message correctly. Besides, we can often
understand more than we can articulate. For this reason, good teachers make
room for non-verbal response in all subjects. In the early stages oflangnage
learning, when the ability to articulate is a long way behind the capacity for
understanding, responding through action has a particnlarly significant role to
play.
So, not only does integration seem a good idea, but we can also see that there
are common elements between language lessons and other lessons which wiIl
help to make it work. The next and most vital question, therefore, is what we
can actually do in practice to encourage integration both in outward events and
in the children's minds. It is, of course, always possible to slip little bits of
English into other work. You can, for example, include an occasional English
poem in mother tongue classes. Or you can teach the children an English song
when it is time for music. Similarly, it is not difficult to do simple sums with
English numbers. But we are looking for something more substantial than this,
whether it be for teachers who only teach languages or for teachers who are
also class teachers and therefore already teach other subjects.
We can look for ways to:
- use work from language classes as the basis for work in other lessons;
- take techniques which the children are learning in other subjects and use them
to promote language work;
- use topics from other subjects in language lessons;
- teach other subjects wholly in the target language.

6.3
Using language In maths, children are going to learn at some stage to record information
classes to diagrammatically. They will be making pie charts and block graphs to show
provide material distributions and correlations. They normally do this with information
for work in other gathered from various class surveys showing, for example, how far from school
lessons the members of the class live, likes and dislikes, who has what pets, and so on.
Usually, these surveys are conducted in the mother tongue as part of the maths
lesson. Some of them, just as easily and far more usefully, can be done in the
language lesson. After all, the interview grids suggested on page 68 are designed
for the class to use in order to find out about each other's preferences,
possessions and circumstances. Although their purpose is to practise certain
questions and answers in the foreign language, they are an eminently suitable
source of the material needed for the maths lesson. So, what better than that
the children do the survey in the foreign language class and use the results to
apply their maths?
For example, in the language lesson, the children are learning the transport
phrases 'by bus, by car, by train, by bike'. As a final activity on this topic, the
children conduct class interviews. Each child interviews twelve people using the
TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM

questiou 'How do you come to school?' The child records the results in note
form, for example:

NAmt. bllblIct .b!llw r b!I CW' IbytnUn on(fltll: other

I RikA. .;
2- CtuiD .;
3 Giottuw. .;
4- RebIcca V-
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6 Attdtt4 .;
7 CnitiMo V-
B CiD.1AtiAa. .;
If FrMJ:A V-
10 ElMtA ta.)!L
II Midaelt, .;
I" Pill",
TDIlIA 12. =
.;
Jf. 3 I , ,. ,
Later, in the maths lesson, the children arrange the information they have
collected by turning it into a pie chart.

Or, a similar language questionnaire of a survey on pets could be turned into a

block chart.
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. : .. .
"
7
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-j,,7T77T7-r.1 ': ; . :' .. :
. ',', ','

134
 INTEGRATING LANGUAGE WORK AND OTHER SUBJECTS

By using the language lesson in this way to provide material the children need
for their other work, the language work is being tied in with the rest of their
learning and the language itself is being tied in with thinking. It is therefore
doubly real language use.
6.4
Using techniques This second example also builds on the same features of diagrammatic
from other representation and repeated pattern. This time, the teacher has identified the
subjects to mathematical concept of intersecting sets as a good basis for meaningful
stimulate language repetition. At about the age of six, English primary children start in
language work their mathematics work to handle the concept of sets and, later, intersecting
sets. In the diagram below, we have two intersecting sets within the universal
set of the class 2B.

('rter,lectin9 Sets
81144! eyes

class 2&
There is a set of those children who are wearing jeans and the set of those who
have blue eyes. The maths teacher would be asking questions in the mother
tongue like:
'Who in the diagram is wearing jeans?'
'Who has blue eyes?'
'Who has blue eyes and is wearing jeans?'
'Has x got blue eyes?'
'How many children have blue eyes but are not wearing jeans?'
'How many children are not wearing jeans and have got blue eyes?'
In mathematics, the teacher would be stressing the key words 'and', 'or' and
'not' (what the mathematicians call the 'logical connectives'). This is not very
different from what a language teacher would be asking. With very little
alteration, this could become a basic language activity. For example, one
possibility is to use the diagram as a chart which the children have to fill in as a
listening exercise, for example, on the topic of food:
TEACHER: David likes fish but he doesn't like cheese.

135
TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM

The children write 'David' in the appropriate place on the chart.

----::cltleese..

David

The sets could be based on the

perennial topics of pets, hobbies,
likes and dislikes, and so on. We
could also achieve greater variety
by using more than two
intersecting sets. For example, disco
this is how the diagram could co {{ectirrg dOI1Clfl
look if you wanted to use it for stomp$
meaningful practice on 'hobbies'.

Another basic technique, this time from science, which transfers to language
work is that of 'sorting'. Here is a diagram from some science work for young
children.

It was part of a series of activities in which the children were learning to sort
objects into categories. In this case, they were sorting sweets according to
whether they were dull, shiny, transparent or not transparent. They did this by
moving the sweets down the pathways, choosing the route according to the
sweets' characteristics. This sorting and categorising process is an important
part of the children's intellectual development. It later becomes more
complicated and more abstract. In a language class, we can help to develop that
same intellectual process by applying it in language practice as this next
worksheet shows. We would again be linking language and thought in a very
real way.

136
 •
INTEGRATING LANGUAGE WORK AND OTHER SUBJECTS

Children's worksheet

Teacher's textsheet
Can you find where they live?

Ruth has got a bike. Martin hasn't got a bike. He

She has one brother and two has no brothers and no sisters.
sisters. She has got a cat. He hasn't got any pets either.

Alastair has a bike. Pamela has a bike.

He has no brothers or sisters. She has no brothers or sisters.
He has a dog called Bess. She has no pets.

Emma hasn't got a bike.

Jonathan has a· bike. He has
She has a sister called Ros.
two brothers. He has no pets.
She has a cat called Fluffy.

Thomas hasn't got a bike. Sarah hasn't got a bike.

He has no brothers or She has five brothers.
sisters. He has a goldfish. They haven't got any pets.
TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM

6.5
Introducing We need to provide children with as much understandable listening as we can.
topics from other Some of the best possible listening activities in the language classroom are
subjects into those where children are listening to a commentary about something they are
language lessons watching and are therefore processing both the new and the familiar language
in the light of what they understand through seeing. This is a major source of
indirect learning. The idea here then is for the language teacher to increase the
integration of language work and other learning by doing a mini-demonstration
in the language lesson of something which ties in with work to be dealt with
later in a mother tongue lesson. So, for example, if you or another teacher are
going at some stage to talk to the class in science about the way different
substances expand at different rates, you can precede this in the language lesson
by a brief demonstration and commentary on how to take a tight metal lid off a
glass jar by submerging it in water.
This is not a complicated laboratory experiment which needs special
eqnipment, a special room or even special language. You only need ajamjar
with the lid screwed on very tightly indeed, a thermos of hot water and a small
bowl. At this stage, all you are doing is providing the children with something
interesting to watch while they listen and something which can provide the
starting point for further work later in the mother tongue. The lesson would
sound and look something like this:

TEACHER'S WORDS TEACHER'S ACTIONS

We are going to do an experiment. Have your carrier bag of
'equipment' on the table.
Now, watch carefully.
Here is a jar. Hold up screwtop jam jar.
I am going to open the jar.
... Dh ... Exaggerate the effort required.
I can't open the jar. Try again.
Peter, can you open the jar? Pass the jar to one of the children.
He can't open the jar.
Gill, can you open the jar? Pass the jar round the class.
No, she can't open the jar.
Who is going to try? Various children try.
Miranda? OK. Can you open the
jar? No.
So, how are we going to open the
jar?
Watch.

138
 INTEGRATING LANGUAGE WORK AND OTHER SUBJECTS

------------------------------------------------

TEACHER'S WORDS TEACHER'S ACTIONS

We are going to use a bowl and
some hot water.
Karin, can you find the bowl in the There is no guarantee that the child
bag? will pick out the right thing!
Ah, you've found a biro.
OK. Give me the biro.
Now, can you find the small round Show 'small', 'round' with your
bowl? hands.
Thank you.
Now Michael, can you find the hot
water in the bag?!
It is in a thermos flask.
Yes, that's right. Thank you.
Now, (to the rest of the class)
watch.
Michael is going to put some water Show 'pouring' motion with thermos
into the bowl. and bowl.
Be careful, it is hot!
Just a little water. You don't want too much water in
the bowl or it will overflow when you
put in thejamjar!
Now, Karin is going to put the jar
into the hot water.
Good.
Now we are all going to count up
to thirty. Can you count up to
thirty?
One ... two ... three ... etc.
Now. What is going to happen?
Take the jar out of the water.
Now can you open it? ...

When you begin the 'proper' science lesson in the mother tongue, you can start
by saying 'Do you remember what happened? What did we do? What happened
then? Why do you think ... etc.' as you normally would.
TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM

Again. language has been used for a real learning experience and the
follow up lesson can provide a very natural crosschecking of understanding
between the mother tongue and English. which is a far cry from 'translation' or
demanding exact equivalents.
6.6
Teaching whole There is little doubt that being educated through the medium of the language
lessons of other you are learning is the best experience of real use of that language that schools
subjects in can provide. However, few if any of the teachers reading this are likely to want
English to, or be organisationally able to teach large parts of the curriculum in English.
What is being suggested here is much more modest, namely that you sometimes
teach whole lessons in other subjects in English. This approach has its own
advantages. For example, it allows you to set the foreign language event within
a supportive mother tongue framework. Perhaps in a series of primary science
lessons on the body you will want to include at some stage a lesson on the way
in which our pulse rate changes after exercise. This is exactly the kind of
strongly visual and active lesson which is suitable for teaching in English. By
putting the lesson in English between two mother tongue lessons on the general
topic, you will be able to do three things.
- You can introduce the topic and the general approach in the mother tongue
in the lesson before. So, in this particular example, the children will have
spent the previous lesson discussing the overall theme of the body and fitness,
devising tests and doing trials with breathing rates after exercise. They will
also have been told that in the next lesson they are going to investigate the
pulse. In this way, they come to the Science-in-English lesson knowing what
procedures to expect and already knowing what words like 'pulse' and
'heartbeat', which they are about to hear in English, must mean.
- You can discuss fully in the mother tongue afterwards (in the final session)
the significance of the events that the children have participated in during the
Science-in-English lesson.
- You can thus leave the middle session free to concentrate on demonstration,
action and data recording in English. In this way, you are building on the
four elements of diagrammatic information, repeated pattern, understanding
through seeing and responding by doing.
It is not a problem for teachers to find suitable topics like this to teach in
English. After all, there are plenty of strongly visual and active topics in
primary science alone. However, for most people, the worry is that the whole
event is too complicated both for us and for the children. This does not have to
be the case. In fact, teaching a whole lesson of another subject in a foreign
language is in many respects simply a sustained combination of already known
techniques and approaches. For example, for most teachers, a lesson on the
way our pulse rate changes with exercise would probably involve some
combination of:
- showing the children how to take their pulse;
- getting the children to record their pulses before and after exercise;
- recording the results;
- writing a record of what they did on a worksheet such as the one opposite.
 INTEGRATING LANGUAGE WORK AND OTHER SUBJECTS

TAKING MY PULSE

First I jumped up and down 40 times.

Then I found my pulse.

Next I counted the beats for one minute.

Then I wrote the numbers on the chart.

Finally After' jumping I counted the beats again.

RESULTS

After sitting After jumping

MY PULSE RATE
 I
TEACHING ENGLISH IN THE PRIMARY CLASSROOM
j
Each part of such a lesson on its own asks for fairly simple and probably
already familiar techniques for teaching in English. For example, showing the
children how to take their pulse can be along the lines of the stage by stage
"demonstration and simple commentary described in the 'jam jar' activity.
j
Getting the children to do the practical work involves the same process as
making the 'fortune teller' on pages 72-74. Showing the children what they
have to do in the written work is based on the same principle of 'explaining by
j
doing' as we saw in Chapter 2 (page 16) for setting up pairwork through the
target language. The actual writing up of the experiment itself is based on a
fairly common language teaching technique of matching up two parts of a
sentence. These processes are written out in detail in the next section, but it
j
should already be clear that teachers do not really have to find new
communication skills in order to teach in English. They merely have to make
more deliberate use of existing ones. j
j
This chapter has looked in general at the ideas
and basic processes behind integrating
language learning and other subjects. The final j
section, Practical Activities 2, now shows in
detail various ways you can set up such work in
the classroom.
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142
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