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.

 

C is for COLLABORATE

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is a way of teaching subject content through another language. This implies a higher difficulty for the students. The idea is also to use the second language in these classes, (Moore 2011; Dale and Tale, 2012) so what is a better way to use the language than practicing it among peers?

The collaboration requires “to work together in class in order to plan, create, discuss and evaluate” (Cambridge, 2009) for that reason it allows the practicing of the second language in a real context. In addition the collaboration allows to achieve a higher learning and getting a better result of the task.

We can check this fact with the Vygotsky’s theory (1978, 86). He show us the term Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which was defined as "the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers"

He suggested that learning takes place when students interact in the ZPD with someone who has a higher knowledge or level than they have. (Dale and Tale, 2012) Vygotsky considered this interaction between peers as an effective way of developing different skills. For that reason it is important to use exercises in class of this kind of learning, where the teacher can create collaboration situations for the students. (McLeod, 2010)

An aspect which is important to explain is that not all groups are collaborative groups. It has to accomplish five essential elements in order to be an effective collaborative group, these are:

1.       Positive interdependence.

2.       Individual accountability.

3.       Stimulating interaction.

4.       Interpersonal and group skills.

5.       Group assessment.                                                                      (Gómez and Martínez, 2013)

These collaborative groups are formed between three and six people or instead of groups the students can work in pairs. Inside of these groups, the dialog has a main role. It is the basis of collaborative method. Through it, the students can support themselves to plan, create, discuss and evaluate.  

In CLIL classrooms, the collaboration among children allows to activate previous knowledge, share it and to apply that new knowledge that it has been created by all members of the group in order to work together doing a task. The result of this task will be better than the task that they could do individually and all of them will have a higher knowledge about the topic when they finish the work.

In a collaborative group the knowledge is present among them. There is a constant exchange of ideas through the communication about a particular subject and a particular goal. In CLIL subjects there are a lot of different contents and vocabulary that the students can know or they can´t. (Llinares, Morton, Whittaker, 2012) This is a fact we find in lessons due to the different levels of development of the children and even caused by a greater or lesser knowledge of the language. Taking into account this aspect, I consider that the collaborative method can help the children because of they teach each other.

Besides, CLIL teachers suggest different activities in order to get their pedagogical purposes in teaching content topics. "There is a very close relationship between different ways of talking about content and learning opportunity". (Llinares, Morton, Whittaker, 2012)

To conclude, I have added a table in which we can see the difference between a traditional and a collaborative class. From my point of view, it offer us great advantages and possibilities of learning in order to the children can work together for the purpose of to accomplish different objectives in CLIL context and it also allows them acquire different skills.

Traditional class	Collaborative class
Listen, observe and take notes	Communication is very important
Competition with classmates	Collaboration and work in pairs
Teacher = authority	Classmates are required to learn
Books are the only way of learning	Teacher is a guide of learning, not the authority

SOURCE: “Didáctica. Teoría y práctica de la enseñanza. PIRÁMIDE”

REFERENCES:

BIBLIOGRAPHY

- DALE, L. & TANNER, R. (2012) CLIL Activities: A Resource for Subject and Language Teacher. United Kingdom: Cambridge.

- LLINARES, A., MORTON, T. & WHITTAKER, R. (2012) The Roles of Language in CLIL. United Kingdom: Cambridge.

- MOORE, P. (2011) Collaborative interaction in turn-taking: a comparative study of European bilingual (CLIL) and mainstream (MS) foreign language learners in early secondary education', International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. London: Routledge.

- MORAL SANTAELLA, C. (Coord.) (2010) Didáctica. Teoría y práctica de la enseñanza. Spain: Pirámide.

- VYGOTSKY, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. United States of America: Harvard University Press.

WEBGRAPHY

- McLeod, S. (2010). Zone of Proximal Development - Scaffolding - Simply Psychology. It has been seen in October, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/Zone-of-Proximal-Development.html

- University of Cambridge. Teaching Knowledge Test. Content and Language Integrated Learning. Glossary. V3 Sept 09. It has been seen in October, 2013.  Retrieved from http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/22194-tkt-clil-glossary.pdf

OTHER:

- GÓMEZ, J.L. & MARTÍNEZ, A. (2013) Aprendizaje cooperativo. Workshop, Madrid, June 14.