Transforming theory into practice through the 4 Cs.

From my point of view, one of the most important thing we should achieve as teacher is to put theory into practice in CLIL subjects. Connecting theoretical ideas with practice requires time and preparation, but the result will be better than a simple transmission of those ideas. (Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010) One of the CLIL principles we have to get is an appropriate integration of content and language learning, this is a complex process in which a constant cycle is generated between content and a right language to learn for this content.

 

In order to be effective CLIL lessons, we have to develop a unit planning taking into account the 4 Cs Framework. These are:

 

CONTENT: “Progression in new knowledge, skills and understanding.” (Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010, 53)

Contents are the curricular subjects taught in CLIL. It is useful to think in content as skills, understanding and knowledge, rather than a simply acquisition of this last one. It is important that we analyse content before lessons to teach content in an understandable way depending on its language demands. (Bentley, 2010; Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010)

 

COMMUNICATION: “Interaction, progression in language using and learning.” (Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010, 54)

Language is the key for communication and for learning, we can say that in CLIL lessons children learn to use language and use language to learn. Students have to produce and receive subject language in two forms, oral and written. Language is used in a different way of traditional language lessons, in CLIL subject communication exists and goes beyond the grammar although its importance is not forgotten, in this sense, we can differentiate between language learning and language using.

 

In order to achieve a meaningful interaction among students in the classroom, we have to encourage learners to participate, and in this way to increase STT (student talking time) and reduce TTT (teacher talking time). Thereby, we should promote peer and group feedback and self-evaluation. (Bentley, 2010; Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010)

“By using the language for learning content, communication becomes meaningful because language is a tool for communication, not an end in itself” (Pérez-Vidal, 2009)

 

COGNITION: “Engagement in higher-order thinking and understanding, problem solving, and accepting challenges and reflecting on them.” (Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010, 54)

CLIL promotes cognitive or thinking skills which challenge learners “to create new knowledge and develop new skills through reflection and engagement in higher-order as well as lower-order thinking” (Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010, 54). Students construct their own understandings rather than the teacher transmits all knowledge. Some of these skills I am talking about are reasoning, creative thinking and evaluating. In this case, as I said before, also we have to teach students the necessary language to express their thoughts in thinking processes. (Bentley, 2010; Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010)

 

CULTURE: “`Self´ and `other´ awareness, identity, citizenship, and progression towards pluricultural understanding.” (Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010, 54)

Understanding ourselves and other cultures is an important role of CLIL. Culture adds values to CLIL context as tolerance and understanding, it is essential due to our pluricultural and plurilingual world. The use of materials and intercultural linking may contribute to an understanding of similarities and differences between cultures but it need to be taught through meaningful connections. CLIL offers us the opportunity to show many different cultural contexts. We can encourage learners to have positive attitudes in this sense and to be aware of the responsibilities of global and local citizenship. (Bentley, 2010; Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010)

Although the 4 Cs can be summarized individually, they are not separate elements. Connecting all the 4 Cs in an integrated way is essential to planning. (Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010) It is a previous guide which will help us to transform theory into practice given that the 4Cs implies an active participation of the child. Besides, it allows us to think what we want that our students achieve since the beginning. Henceforth, we are able to plan the practical activities to develop in the classroom.

 REFERENCES:

BENTLEY, K. (2010). The TKT Course CLIL Module. United Kingdom: Cambridge.

COYLE, D., HOOD, P. & MARSH, D. (2010). CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 PÉREZ VIDAL, C. (2009). The Integration of Content and Language in the Classroom: A European Approach to Education (the second time round), in Dafouz, E. and Guerrini, M. (eds) CLIL Across Educational Levels. Madrid: Richmond.

 

VOCABULARY IN A SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.

 

The learning of vocabulary is an important aspect in language learning process. When we are learning a second language, many times we want express things we cannot due to a lack of vocabulary.

Vocabulary can be classified as receptive in the way which we understand words when someone uses them, or productive when we use certain words. Besides, we can use vocabulary in different ways, it can be oral or written so, we can listen, speak, write and read words. (August, F. Graves, Mancilla, 2013)

The teacher should transmit to his students the importance to learn vocabulary considering that many times grammar seems to be more relevant than this.  However, there are some aspects we have to consider whilst teaching vocabulary, such as the motivation and interest of children.

 

 

Learning vocabulary is a complex process which requires repetition and putting in practice of words which had been taught or learnt. For that reason, vocabulary words should be useful for the learner in many contexts. Vocabulary can be acquired in an unconscious way, repetition, richness of context and motivation are important aspects to the efficacy of incidental learning of vocabulary.  (H. Hiebert, L. Kamil, 2009)

In order to be aware of their vocabulary learning and to take control of it, students need to know what vocabulary to learn, how to learn it, and how to assess their progress. Although we can learn vocabulary in an unconscious way, as I said before, this vocabulary requires some learning strategies, such as learning the vocabulary of the specific topic or subject, word part analysis, the use of word cards and dictionaries or the most important which they should include, guessing from context. (Griffiths, 2008).

These techniques or strategies require much practice, however their use has to be fluent and comfortable for learners, because of this they need to be useful for learners in such way that it is easier to apply them than not. (Griffiths, 2008).

In this sense, teachers have a principal role, they should teach each of the strategies in small syllabuses or even during their lessons. This will require much time, but this time will be rewarded by the learning of these strategies to put in practice in a natural way and thus they can apply them easily to learn vocabulary in the future. Furthermore, the teacher should guide and review the progress of this kind of learning and give students helpful feedback about their development of the strategies and results. From my point of view, the most important role of the teacher is motivating their learners and to get them interested to learn vocabulary. (Griffiths, 2008).

Finally, I would like to add that due to the importance of vocabulary for success in the four skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking, it is important that vocabulary learning starts in preschool education and continues through the school years to develop it and to have the opportunity to learn a considerable amount of words and consolidate them in our knowledge through their use throughout the time. (August, F. Graves, Mancilla, 2013)

REFERENCES:

 

-          AUGUST, D., F. GRAVES, M. & MANCILLA MARTINEZ, J. (2013).   Teaching Vocabulary to English Language Learners. United States of America: Teachers College Press.

-          GRIFFITHS, C. (2008). Lessons from Good Language Learners. United Kingdom: Cambridge.

-          H. HIEBERT, E. & L. KAMIL, M. (2009). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary: Bringing Research to Practice. New Jersey: Routledge.