Assignment: Consider the various caveats expressed about CLIL in section 5.6 entitled 'Some problems'. Take these points and any others that you wish to consider from the whole subject, and use them to form either a defence or a repudiation of the notion that 'CLIL is the approach for the future'. This must take the form of an appraisal of CLIL, in which you must consider the arguments and the materials that you have seen in this subject, and then balance these with perspectives gathered from your own teaching experience. Most importantly of all, you must organise these points into a coherent essay. Please avoid taking the points one by one, as if you were simply appraising a list. Try to look at the issue from both a local and an international perspective, and also try to consider CLIL from both a practical and a philosophical viewpoint. Will it enable us to teach languages better? Perhaps. Will it enable you (in your context) to teach languages better? Perhaps not. But the latter is not a total repudiation of CLIL. Try to give the defendant a fair trial! Priyaka Das is a freelance psychologist and neuro-linguist and works in various projects. Currently she is working on development of multilinguism in collaboration with various schools in Barcelona. Anne Mellon is a General English teacher at an EOI in Castilla La-Mancha where she teaches the Basic and Intermediate levels of English in between working as an assistant DOS. Priyanka Das, Student ID: ESFPMTFL1321971 Anne Mellon, Student ID: ESFPMTFL85652 Group: 2014-02 Subject: Content and Language Integrated Learning File Name: 2014-02_DasPMellonA_CLIL CONTENTS Introduction CLIL: A national perspective CLIL: A local and a regional perspective Conclusions Bibliography Appendices  INTRODUCTION Steve Brown, in his web article A view to a CLIL, “used to think that CLIL was just a case of taking a bad situation and making it look good” and suggests it is time to reappraise our views on CLIL. In this assignment we are going to look at 'Some problems' related to the implantation of CLIL in Spain, firstly from a national and then from a local and regional perspective where we will attempt to give CLIL a fair trial. Section 4 contains our conclusions, Section 5 our Bibliography and Section 6 our appendices. CLIL: A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE I have worked in various schools in Barcelona where teaching subjects in various language has become the norm of the day. At present I work for a school which is the only school in Catalonia which works on multilinguism. Our educational project is comprehensive, open and flexible, based on multilingualism and pioneering scientific methods. Our youngest pupils receive personal attention from a tutor in Catalan, Spanish and English, as well as attention from specialists in French, Mandarin Chinese, German and Russian.The educational project of the school believes that “Young children are linguistic geniuses in our opinion”. Our nursery and early education programmes involve seven languages: English, Spanish and Catalan as vehicular languages; French and Mandarin Chinese as second languages; and the linguistic integration of Russian and German through short sessions so that students can recognise the sounds. It's a pioneering school in the country for teaching the Sciences curriculum through English. In 3 ESO the Drama course is taught through English with the assistance of native English teachers. Furthermore, from nursery and early education they use native teachers of different nationalities so that all students get used to different accents, phonetics and idioms. In general there has been an exponential growth of bilingual schools in Spain in the last ten years. It is generally agreed that getting an education in two languages is highly beneficial for students not only for professional but also for cognitive reasons. It has not been an easy task, despite the enthusiastic interest of parents, students, teachers and educational authorities. The challenge has been very important. Teachers needed training not only to improve their fluency on the target language but also on innovative pedagogics that involve teaching content along with a second language. Resources had to be developed from scratch since a direct translation of the existing resources was not the right answer to the challenge. Most regional governments developed training or support programs so schools could offer quality bilingual teaching. Schools had the opportunity of hiring language assistants to work with teachers in their classes and help develop resources in the target languages. Teachers have also been offered summer courses to continue improving their command in the target language. Working groups, sometimes at the international level, were created to allow for the sharing of resources and experiences. The Department of Education in Madrid in partnership with the Rey Juan Carlos University hosted the International Conference on Bilingual Teaching in Educational Institutions in 2010 and 2011. The goal of these two sessions was "[to establish] a theoretical and practical framework" for bilingual programs. Experts and researchers in bilingual settings were present at the conferences but also "a large number of teachers from every educational level interested in sharing their experiences and knowledge." Where are your references for this? Fortunately for us, the keynote speakers' presentations from both conferences are available online. We only have access to the rest of the sessions from the 2010 conference. I was specially interested in learning about the experiences in secondary education and some of them are extremely inspiring and give us a good insight of how teachers are teaching subject areas in the target language. The third conference was held in Madrid on the 18th and 19th of October, 2013. Last year's title is: "Bilingual Education: Consolidation and Perspectives for the XXI Century" and it "aims to go deeper into and move forward in the analysis of bilingual education". The key themes of the conference are intriguing, as the list provided on the conference website reveals. CLIL and good practice CLIL assessment in different subjects Bilingual education: teacher training and updating Activities and resources to support CLIL methodology Technological tools for bilingual education in the XXI Century The importance of literacy in the bilingual classroom Bilingual teaching in secondary education Future challenges in bilingual programs Academic language in different subjects Bilingual teaching in higher education On September 30th, 2013 the article Bilingües a la Carrera, (Bilingual as fast as possible) was published in the Spanish newspaper El País. In the article we learn about the plans of two Spanish Autonomous Communities, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha, to offer bilingual programs in all the K-12 schools in both provinces. Most schools will likely select English as their second language of instruction in various subject areas. According to the article, 70% of the schools in Castilla La Mancha don't offer bilingual programs yet. In the case of Murcia 30% of secondary schools and 70% of elementary schools still need to start offering the program. The task ahead is very ambitious considering they are to complete this in just 5 years. I find it very positive that the educational authorities try to offer the same educational opportunities to all students no matter where they live. It also seems that even though students have studied a second language from K-12, many are failing to demonstrate sufficient fluency in these target languages - something needs to be done. Parents expect their children at least to finish high school with a high command of more than one language. In addition, today's society demands citizens to have deep multicultural understanding. Needless to say that it is the educational authorities' duty to meet these demands and promote good educational programs for students. Having said that, reading the article doesn't give you a very clear plan ahead for the expansion of the bilingual programs. University professors, experts and teachers unions in the article warn about the negative effects of implementing bilingual programs too quickly while sacrificing quality and without sufficient resources. I would like to point out four elements that appear in the article that need to be clarified to offer quality bilingual programs in most settings. Resources. Spain has been suffering a severe economic crisis in the last 6 years of which we have not seen the end. According to the article, Murcia has reduced the number of teachers by 7% and Castilla-La Mancha 15% in the last 2 years. To develop an ambitious bilingual program like this with overworked teachers in large classes is probably not ideal. On the other hand, the article is not specific about funding and plans for program sustainability.The provisions made do not seem very realistic. This is a long distance race that will require a permanent influx of money for teacher training. Many of the comments here will be taken up again in Section 3 of this assignment. Linguistic capacity. The different provinces in Spain should reach an agreement about the level of proficiency that teachers who are working in bilingual programs should have. On the other hand, teachers will need to continuously work to improve their command in the target language. According to the article, there is not a consistent bilingual program model in Spain and the differences among programs in the 17 Spanish provinces can be enormous. Bilingual programs should have a consistent framework all through the country. Students should have similar amount of time exposure for the subjects taught in the target language. The expectations for the students of reaching a level of achievement at the end of the program should also be similar. All students should be assessed using the same set of benchmarks created by the government or from a unified source. Change in pedagogical principles. This is a key element that it is not considered very often in Spain. Pilar Garcés, a professor at the University of Valladolid, mentioned this in the El País I take it that you are referring to an English version or that all translations are yours article: "we cannot teach a subject area in the target language the same way we used to in Spanish". Lecture style classes will not give students the skills they need for a globalized world. Unless meaningful changes are made in the bilingual programs, our students will fail. Students have to use the language in context, learn to do research and collaborate with peers using the target language. I agree on the discussion about the expansion of bilingual programs in Spain. A bilingual program needs to emphasize the development of students' cultural awareness. Bilingual programs can be the trigger to encourage students to participate in international programs, work with other schools and take advantage of ICT in a globalized world. Students are more likely to continue in the bilingual programs, if they are able to make meaningful connections between the language they are learning and the culture from which it was derived. 3. CLIL: A LOCAL AND REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE Unlike Das I am currently working as a General English teacher in a state-run EOI (Official Language School) in Castilla La-Mancha imparting the Basic and Intermediate levels of English in between working as an Assistant DOS where terms like multiple intelligences, emotional education, CLIL and the 4Cs are mentioned to a great degree on an online course I am currently doing called New Methodolgies for EOIs on CLM's education department VLP. When EOIs are placed on the following continuum suggested in Dale & Tanner (2012:4) CBLT _________________________________CLIL___________________________immersion then EOIs (content-based language teaching) are found at the beginning of the spectrum. Dale & Tanner (2012:4) give an interesting summary of Some differences between teachers of content-based language teaching (CBLT), CLIL and immersion which has been adapted to suit EOIs and that of the European Section Project which is underway in the building my workplace shares with a secondary school in Motilla del Palancar (see: Appendix 1). A brief perusal of this table shows that EOIs and secondary school language instruction practices diverge and that what is in place in the IES Jorge Manrique is actually a 'soft' version of CLIL which is still at the initiation stage in all senses of the word. Nonetheless, CLIL is definitely the buzzword in national and local education circles in Spain. In Castilla La-Mancha the implantation of CLIL has been divided into three stages: intiation where 1 or 2 subjects are taught through English; development where 2 to 3 subjects are taught and excellence where as much of the curriculum is taught in English as possible (10 to 12 hours) without reaching immersion. However, these stages merely indicate the quantity of syllabus time which is devoted to CLIL with no reference to quality. Significantly, the European project in Motilla del Palancar's secondary school is optional pointing to a form of filtering of suitable candidates i.e. CLIL is not for all. It also highlights a kind of classification of students into good i.e. bilingual and bad i.e. monolingual which teachers are naturally complaining about. What is also debatable is if more CLIL is leading to excellence in subject instruction through English. The nomenclature for CLIL projects in CLM CLM or Castilla La-Mancha also varies. Bilingualism, plurilingualism, European Sections are talked of pointing to earlier comments on a “lack of a consistent bilingual program in Spain”. Nonetheless, at the moment, in the Cuenca area, there are 19 schools at initiation, and one at the excellence stage. Next year, 6 more primary school are joining the bilingual project with teachers tempted by promises of actually getting a job and perhaps a salary bonus, amid a backlash of growing concern from parents and teachers since it is not too clear what pupils are actually learning on these programmes. In CLM, a recent report called El fracaso del plurilingüismo en Castilla La-Mancha (The failure of plurilinguism in Castilla La-Mancha) points to the dearth of subject teachers with B2s. At the moment only 2,500 teachers of the 6000 required are available. This has led to a particularly unpleasant race to the bottom with teachers throughout the region (and the rest of Spain) signing up for paying English language courses and costly exams in the UNED (open university) - before they reach the stage of CLIL specific training - the UCLM (Castilla La-Mancha's universtiy) and EOIs to get a B2 to either save their jobs or to get on the first rung of the teaching ladder. Incidentally, this lack of qualified teachers leads to further complications in schools when the subject teacher is off sick. No one else can take over since supply teachers cannot be provided unless sick leave lasts for more than two weeks and there are insufficient B2 subject specialists in any case. Curiously, at the other end of the spectrum, teachers with B2s are not putting this qualification on transfer lists because they realise that they may not be up to the challenge. Teachers in EOIs are directly involved in recycling subject teachers via annual 'aulas europeas' (free language courses) and their A1 to B2 programs. General Engish not subject specific language is taught. Dale & Tanner (2012) offer a useful section of subject specific language in their CLIL activities book which highlights just how involved publishing houses are in CLIL and what future CLIL teachers need in their subject classes. Although, it is still hard to see how, in such a short time, CLM will get beyond the stage of lists of vocabulary to wholescale CLIL even with the help of publishing houses, the British Council and onestopclil. Nonetheless, in common with the views expressed in Section2, I do not disagree with the following statement on the British Council CLIL website that “This approach is a breath of fresh air and that kids really respond well to it” although adults not children are taught at EOIs. In the abundant literature, some CLIL programmes would appear to be highly succesful, (see web reports on the British Council/MEC project which I worked on in 1998 following Teresa Reilly's story telling and “throw it back to them in English” approach) Nonetheless, as an EFL or ELF teacher, a main concern is backsliding where Dale & Tanner's (2012:19) exploratory questions for subject teachers are highly apt. Curiously, the authors shortly after brush away these problems (ibid: 20). Are my language skills ever going to be good enough to teach my subject in another language? How much new vocabulary do I – and my learners- need to learn? Where can I find the words I need? What if I cannot find the words I need? What if learners ask me questions about language which I cannot answer on the spot? Will I lose credibility if my language skills aren't good enough? Will my relationship with the learners be compromised because I cannot express myself as easily in another language? One of the main hurdles in CLM, mentioned above, is the question of where the teachers are actually coming from. Jeremy Harmer in To teach is human, but to CLIL is divine?, asks “where can you get teachers who are competent in both the language and the subject?” and Ball (CLIL: 38) also asks “Who teaches?”. In Madrid native subject teachers were actually hired (as language assistants) to circumvent NNS teachers' inadequate target language knowledge (and then plunged into subject classes as classroom teachers) causing an uproar in Spanish teaching circles. They were also paid less than their Spanish equivalents. Mackenzie, in his web article How CLIL should work in practice states that in his workplace, only NS teachers are hired after which mindsets are CLILed on teacher training programs. In Cuenca, on the pioneering bilingual MEC/British Council program, the first cohorts of teachers were native speakers too until cutbacks led to their replacement by non-native primary and nursery specialists with B2s. Previously training from the British Council had played a big role and suitable training continues to be a stumbling block in Castilla La-Mancha. Another quibble is whether a B2 is sufficient to teach subjects (mentioned in Section 2) in English and importantly whether or not future and current CLIL teachers are being exposed to the appropriate subject language in their English refresher classes. Returning to Ball's Language Frames (CLIL:63-67) my personal opinion is that EOI and Cambridge style General English is barely scraping the surface. This situation has been commented on in Fernández et.al. too, when teachers are asked if they know enough English to teach through it. Compounding this are worries about how CLIL programmes are affecting other subjects when in Madrid more pupils are failing maths, Spanish and General Culture in the 80 bilingual schools than in secondary schools without this type of education (according to a report by a blogger on Estadistica educativa (Educational Statistics)) and these fears are being voiced in CLM too. Despite this, presumably pupils on bilingual programs speak English better? David Marsh would argue (in The Guardian) that we should be “adding English without taking away”. Reports on the bilingual program in El Carmen primary school in Cuenca are notably glowing about language achievements too despite the fact that low achievers are being withdrawn from it. Again it would appear that CLIL is not for all. Could CLIL lead to the death of the English teacher? This fear was succintly expressed in The Guardian CLIL Debate questions and answers by a Finnish participant I am wondering how we might get rid of the kind of distinction between the two camps – the English teachers being suspicious of losing their jobs – perhaps feeling a threat – and the subject teachers jealous about safeguarding as high standards as possible for their academic subjects. Marsh (ibid) echoes my niggling doubts about this “who are you – the geography teacher to think you are good enough in this language to be able to teach through it.” Although the other Finnish participant cited above offers a solution in terms of a convergence of interests and Marsh alludes to “a period of opportunity”. It should be emphasised that these views were expressed in 2005 and are still relevant in CLM (and probably the rest of Spain) in 2015. Nonetheless, General English teachers are in greater demand than ever before in both the state and private sector in Castilla La-Mancha to wave their magical English wand over subject teachers en route to getting their B2s and that this is something that EOIs should capatilize on. Incidentally, in EOIs in CLM French, German and Italian is also taught and there are growing fears about jobs in these language departments since demand (with the exception of German) is falling. Finally, in the UK English language teachers are still employed to teach language and literature. And it is hard to see how a Biology or PE teacher could teach Shakespeare or how general English teachers could teach Maths or History. Perhaps in Wert's world (current Minister of Education in Spain) this is possible if we look at the latest educational reform in Spain. However, after examining some secondary pupils from Motilla del Palancar's bilingual project (in 2014) it was found that candidates were extremely fluent but that their output was very roughly tuned. Communicative competence is fine but sooner or later accuracy does become important – although Mackenzie in How CLIL should work does point out how this can be overcome via scaffolding and TBL i.e. reframing methodological approaches. Perhaps CLIL will lead to the death of decent English language instruction for the Spanish population as a whole? Nevertheless, Mackenzie (op.cit.) seems to take seriously the Harmer view that 'to teach CLIL is divine' and a quick perusal of Dale & Tanner (2012) also suggests that if CLIL is done properly – the activities are inspirational – then their list (2012: 11-13) of benefits for the learners can be achieved. But as has been suggested in Section 2 educational authorities need to try some scaffolding (and financial juggling) and start at the bottom and invest in education to avoid the Willy Cano type teacher in the CLIL classroom (a coordinator and teacher on Madrid's bilingual educational programme) who despite the cheerful title of his blog CLIL for success would seem to have problems with English and to be an unfortunate forerunner of what is going very wrong at the IWB/chalkface with his “Researches…This is a way to show how CLIL is applied in a Bilingual School.” 4. CONCLUSIONS It is encouraging that educational authorities in Spain are trying to expand bilingual programs so every student has the chance of enrolling on a bilingual program. Unfortunately, without a long time plan we won't offer quality programs and students won't acquire the command in the target language, nor the cultural awareness necessary in our globalized world. To rush the implementation of these programs can be counterproductive in the long run although CLIL is undoubtedly the approach for the future. As David Gradol states in the Guardian (2005: op.cit) In many countries they just don't seem to be equipped to implement CLIL. When it works it works extraordinarily well, but is actually very difficult to do well. My impression is that it may take a country 30 to 40 years to really pull this one off. remarks which seem to confirm some of the caveats expressed in this assignment. In Castilla La-Mancha and the rest of Spain educational authorities have been trying on and off since the initial British Council/MEC Bilingual project started in 1996. In many regions of Spain, CLIL projects still seem to be in their infancy. 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY Ball, P Content and Language Integrated Learning, course materials, Funiber Dale, L & Tanner, R (2012) CLIL Activities: A resource for subject and language teachers, CUP, UK WEBOGRAPHY A view to a CLIL. Link to webpage: https://stevebrown70.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/a-view-to-a-clil/ Así se aprende el inglés en los aulas españolas. (That's how English is being learnt in Spanish classrooms) Link to webpage: http://revista.unir.net/especiales/bilinguismo/ Ball, P What is CLIL? - One Stop English – Link to webpage: http://www.onestopenglish.com/clil/methodology/articles/article-what-is-clil/500453.article (Incidentally, if the reader clicks on the links at the end of the article then all of the course materials are accesible online). Bilingual education in Spain – British Council. Link to webpage: http://www.britishcouncil.es/en/partnerships/success-stories/bilingualpdf. Bilingues a la carrera (Bilingual as fast as possible) – El País online. Link to webpage: http://translate.google.es/translate?hl=fr&sl=es&tl=fr&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsociedad.elpais.com%2Fsociedad%2F2013%2F09%2F29%2Factualidad%2F1380481430_145483.html&anno=2 111 Congreso internacional de Enseñanza bilingüe de centros educativos. Link to webpage: http://www.cieb.es/ Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) – British Council . Link to webpage: http://www.britishcouncil.org/europe/our-work-in-europe/content-and-language-integrated-learning-clil CLIL debates questions and answers – The Guardian. Link to webpage: http://www.theguardian.com/guardianweekly/story/0,12674,1464367,00.html CLIL for success. Link to webpage: http://clilforsuccess.blogspot.com.es/2014/06/community-of-madrid-guarantees.html CLIL in Spain. Link to webpage: http://tv.unir.net/videos/10383/0/CLIL-in-Spain El fracaso del plurilingüismo en Castilla La-Mancha – Junta de personal docente no universitario de Cuenca. Link to webpage: http://www.ste-clm.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/JUNTA_PERSONAL_NOTA_PRENSA_A3_1_15.pdf Estadistica educativa (y otros escritos) - para turistas – Comunidad de Madrid (Educational Statistics). Link to webpage: http://estadisticaeducativaparaturistas.blogspot.com.es/2014/03/el-bilinguismo-cani-en-el-espejo-de-las.html Fernández, R, Harris, C & Aguirre-Perez, C Secciones Europeas – promoting bilingual programmes in Castilla La-Mancha Spain. Link to webpage: http://conference.pixel-online.net/ICT4LL2009/common/download/Proceedings_pdf/Raquel_Fernandez,Harris,Aguirre-Perez.pdf Las 14 claves de la reforma educativa de Wert (The 14 keys to Wert's educational reform)– El Diario.es. Link to webpage: http://www.eldiario.es/sociedad/ley-afecta-modelo-linguistico_0_79092567.html Mackenzie, A How should CLIL work in practice? - One stop English. Link to webpage: http://www.onestopenglish.com/support/methodology/teaching-approaches/how-should-clil-work-in-practice/156531.article Santillana's webpage. Link to webpage: http://www.santillana.es/es/w/sobre-nosotros/lineas-editoriales/clil/ To teach English is human, to teach CLIL is divine? Link to webpage: https://jeremyharmer.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/to-teach-english-is-human-to-teach-clil-is-divine/ Zona CLIL (CLIL Zone). Link to webpage: https://clil.wordpress.com/ 6. APPENDIX 1 A comparison of EOI English language instruction and a European Section/CLIL Project in a secondary school in Motilla del Palancar (adapted from Dale & Tanner (2012)). CBLT CLIL Who teaches and how long? Language teachers, 4 hours Language teachers, 4 hours Maths and technology teachers, 7 hours What kind of language do they work on? English language, topic based content and disposable/grammar content based on a Key Competences syllabus. English language while supporting subject-related topics and language in their classrooms where Key Competences are prominent Language of 2 subjects through English where Key Competences are prominent What is the aim? To teach English in a syllabus To teach English in a syllabus To teach 2 subjects (and some English) What do they teach? EFL subject matter (extra topics) in another language EFL with Burlington 1st to 4th year materials Subject matter and subject language Who do they work with? English department and DOS English department and the Plurilingual Advisor Subject departments and the Plurilingual Advisor, EFL teachers and a native assistant Assessment Assess and mark language Assess and mark language Assess and mark content (sometimes language) Feedback On language On language Subject matter (and sometimes language) Language being referred to Language knowledge Language knowledge Content knowledge Assumptions about learning English is learned in context, through topics English is learned in context, through topics Content depends on language, language depends on content