Orientation

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) for Technical Professional School Teachers in Chile

While most of our work goes on in UK Universities, we also work with educators in Asia (Singapore and Hong Kong); Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) and Europe (Denmark, Ireland). This project is our first in South America and we are excited to join you in this educational adventure. During the past year our work has shifted from face to face to almost exclusively online and we have adjusted our practice accordingly and are developing expertise in use of technological tools and environments for delivery of training. All of this, we bring to you and we anticipate that you will have a stimulating time throughout the programme, joining with us and your fellow trainees online – principally through use of Zoom.

The course is made up of four Modules, each one is structured in the same way – with a two-hour virtual meeting which we will all attend at the same time. This will be followed by a structured task or tasks which you will complete in your own time before the next Module meeting. We anticipate that the task(s) for each module will take you three hours to complete.

In advance of the first module, we will have an orientation meeting in Zoom (Friday 5 March 2021), and we’ve prepared a short piece of reading (or listening) and an activity to get you started before that orientation meeting.

For each Module of the programme, you’ll find a page like this that opens with a piece of stimulus text. These are designed to get you thinking before doing a practical, often creative, activity.  You’ll also find some resources for each Module at the end of each page.

Everything throughout is about setting new ways of thinking and new habits for yourself and others. They will take time to bed in.  Be generous to yourself and enjoy the journey towards using CLIL in your teaching. 

Explore, enjoy, and we look forward to seeing you soon.

---

You may have been teaching for a relatively short time or you may have many years of experience already. In either case, you can expect that, through your active participation in this short course, you will gain fresh insights into how you can engage with your students in different ways and support their learning and use of English in an expanded way that has a greatly increased focus on their specific subject discipline and prepares them more directly for their professional lives.

You are probably already using English as the language of instruction and English may also be the means of communication in the classroom amongst students (or not). You can imagine though that taking this step towards restructuring the course syllabus, working more closely with subject teachers and establishing a different classroom culture combines challenges with the undoubted benefits it offers – both for the learners and for you, the teacher.

This course aims to offer you the opportunity to explore your own unique situation, anticipate the benefits you could experience by taking this step and work out how you will mitigate challenges that might arise. Before you start, think about this:

• What is a realistic goal to set for yourself and your students? In doing this, consider each cohort separately as they probably have different levels of English and different ways of working.

• Instead of thinking about adding an extra layer onto your workload through integrating CLIL into your current practice, reflect on one or two example tasks you already use that could become CLIL-ready with just minor changes – such as the addition of some specialist vocabulary – it is possible to take a staged approach to developing your CLIL syllabus if this helps you to avoid feeling overloaded.

• Consider your students and your colleagues in the subject disciplines and how they may feel about CLIL – do they welcome it or are they uncertain? What do they need from you and what do you need from them? What can you do to ensure that you all together work as a team to achieve successful outcomes?

Before we embark on this 4 module programme, we’d like you to reflect on your experiences and feelings about being a teacher. In each response you can write as much as you want to.

1. What are the three things you love best about your job and why do you feel that way? If possible give an example which demonstrates this well

A: I love

Because…

This example shows what I mean…

2. Give approximately 8 descriptors of a teacher who is working at their best:

Eg: well-prepared

Grade yourself against each descriptor 1-10 where 1 is low and 10 is high.

3. Thinking about being a CLIL teacher, note one thing you know, one thing you don’t know, one challenge you anticipate and one thing you are looking forward to.

A: I know …

B: I don’t know …

C: A challenge could be …

D: I’m looking forward to …

Thanks for working on these tasks. Bring them with you to share on Friday 5 March.

This section typically includes a selection of material to read, watch or listen to. It should be interesting and sometimes challenging.

Here is an optional resource comprising a summary page, two short (less than 1 minute) videos and an attached academic position paper (click button – Open Report). Please read or watch as much as you like to get an idea of current research into the benefits of multilingualism:

• Read The Bilingual Advantage A Position Paper and videos on the Value and Future of Language Education.