Helping learners understand subject-specific content

Collaboration

One of the most important aspects of CLIL projects is collaboration.  If you are the subject teacher, you need to collaborate with the English teacher in order to find the best strategies for the learners to understand and learn the required language.  If you are the English teacher you need to collaborate with the subject teacher in order to know the content the learners are required to learn, and how their knowledge will be evaluated.  If you are an external CLIL expert you need to collaborate with both the English teacher and the subject teacher in order to know their expectations from the students.

I recently discovered that the English teacher for the second year Primary School classes, where I teach subjects in English as an external CLIL expert, had taught the structure "It's (red, a tree, etc.)".  So my acceptance of one-word answers from the students "Red/Tree,etc" was in conflict with her expectations, and slowing their progress in the English lessons.

On the other hand, I have weekly planning meetings with the subject teachers, and I am in the classroom with them, so there is close collaboration on the subject-specific content to cover, and which content needs to be covered in both L1 and L2.

How do you give definitions?

There are many different ways you can give definitions, and it is a good idea to use a variety of different ways in order to keep your lessons novel and interesting.  However, remember the golden rule:

KISS:         Keep It Short and Simple

Here are some ideas:

• Realia or real objects or experiments, e.g. plants; ice; maps
• Images - pictures; digital images; photos; flashcards; diagrams; charts; mind maps; network trees; create mini flashcards and put them on a keyring
• Reading definitions from internet or coursebooks
• Audio-visual material - videos or power point presentations
• Sentence gap-fill, e.g. "A   (root)   is the part of a   (plant)   that takes in  (water)   and   (minerals)   from the soil.
• Matching terms and definitions in a game or a quiz
• Clarifying differences between similar terms
• Creating a glossary
• Giving the students language frames with:

                      - the language of learning, e.g. root, stem, leaf

                      - the language for learning, e.g. "What is it?"  "It's a ...."

      - the language through learning, e.g. "I don't understand."  "Can you repeat, please?"

Please add your ideas in the comments section below.

 

Planning

It is important to plan how you are going to give your students the definitions they need.  The definitions need to be clear, precise and unambiguous.  You also need to plan how you are going to check that the students have a clear understanding of the definitions you provide.

How do you check that students understand the definitions?

Here are some ideas of tasks to check understanding:

• Realia - give the students a definition then show them the wrong object to check understanding; ask the students to compare different objects.
• Images - matching exercise; describe and draw; guess the picture; true/false
• Reading definitions - true/false; answer questions; students explain the definition (in L1 or L2); compare definitions; identify examples of what is being defined
• Audiovisual - worksheets with gap-fill exercises to complete during the audiovisual presentation; jigsaw pairwork activities; making lists (this task can become a team competition)
• Sentence gap-fill - explain how/why (in L1 or L2); what do you think about...?; write comments about...

To keep students' interest during an audiovisual presentation of the flora and fauna in the mountain habitat, I asked them first to make a list in teams of what they thought would be in the presentation (predicting).  If the plant or animal on their list was in the presentation they got points for their team.  If they had written the name of the plant or animal in English they got 2 points, in L1 they got 1 point.

Please add your ideas in the comments section below.