Running header: A CLOSE-UP ON CLIL

A close-up on CLIL
Kinga Jdrusiak
University of Warsaw

A CLOSE-UP ON CLIL
Abstract
Content and language integrated learning is reaching significant fame and appreciation among
schools in many countries. Despite the high interest in this teaching approach, people frequently
look at this concept superficially. This article intends to explain the complexity of language and
content issues in regard to CLIL. It allows a reader to understand the crucial aspects of this
approach and to gradually look more profoundly at the elements that build its essence.
Keywords: language, content, integration

Introduction
To fully understand the complexity of creating a CLIL unit and conducting a lesson which
supports both language and content, it is advisable to provide an explanation as to what the
concept of a CLIL really is. The term CLIL, which stands for Content and Language
Integrated Learning, means a dual-focus educational approach in which the teaching of nonlanguage subjects and learning are conducted in an additional, foreign language. (Coyle, Hood
& Marsh, 2010, p. 1). It means that in the CLIL class, other language than mother tongue is
used to study and give instruction (Szpotowicz & Szulc-Kurpaska, 2009, p. 36). The central
idea of this approach is the integration of both content and language.

Although this concept may seem to be new and innovative for some people, this kind of
teaching practice dates back to prehistory. About five thousand years ago, a tribe called
Akkadians wanted to get to know the Sumerian language to conquer their land. At the beginning
Sumerian language was the medium of communication and it was used to teach theology or
zoology. They noticed that mastering the foreign language and combining it with the content
might be extremely beneficial. A clearer example of using another language as a medium of
instruction was the widespread use of Latin. For many years, this language was commonly used

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at many universities in Europe. Science, theology, medicine or philosophy are just a few
examples of subjects that were taught in Latin (Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008, p. 9).
However, we should be aware of the fact that the use of Latin to teach content cannot be called
CLIL in the pure sense because universities there did not develop the local languages. It means
that CLIL focuses not only on the second language but also its aim is to contribute to the
progress of the first language.
In 20th century, the idea of CLIL was revived in Canada, where the problem of English-speaking
children in the French-speaking areas occurred. In response to the situation, the local authorities
established the immersion programme that made the children learn all the subjects in French.
However, it should be stressed that this Canadian immersion is slightly different from CLIL in
European countries. This is because the second language is the other official language in the
country and it entails the fact that it is easier to find highly-qualified subject teachers who use
the language (Dalton-Puffer, 2008, p. 2). In European countries it is more complex as a
general/subject teacher rarely is a native speaker of e.g. English. That is why we should take
into consideration many aspects such as the teachers profiles (their area of knowledge, what
studies they finished), their experience in teaching, the foreign language competences (if they
graduated also from the language philology or they are qualified with the certificate allowing
them to teach the language) and the teachers use of the second language in class (Enever, 2011,
p. 82-83). What should be taken into account in many cases is also the collaboration of the
subject teacher and the language teacher if they have common goals or whether they are eager
to cooperate with each other.

Regardless of the country, there are two faces of CLIL which are informally called soft and
hard. The term soft CLIL means that a teacher integrates the language in the curriculum,
whereas the second term hard CLIL refers to the language implementation of bilingual

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education step by step (Szpotowicz & Szulc-Kurpaska, 2009, p. 37). Despite the types of CLIL,
the essence of this approach is the integration of content and language. The roles of the language
teacher and the subject teacher are crucial as they should cooperate to support students
learning. They have to enable students to acquire the knowledge of curriculum subjects (such
as e.g. Art, Geography, Music, Math, Science, History) in a target language (Handbook for
Teachers, p. 2) and also remember that the students should be able to use their skills in the
mother tongue.

The content of learning

The content in CLIL may be derived from a national curriculum or it can be drawn on the issues
that appear during the lessons and are somehow connected with the topic. Moreover, the content
can also be interdisciplinary, cross-curricular, which leads to the linking of many themes from
different subjects. Creating situations in which students can reach beyond the regular
curriculum greatly enriches the process of learning (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 28). It
allows to build a bridge between the subjects that too often are treated independently like
separate elements. In everyday life people encounter situations which require knowledge and
skills from different areas, that is why cross-curricular themes are highly recommended.

Curricula and syllabuses, prepared by groups of professionals, include crucial aims and more
detailed objectives. However, they are said to show what a teacher may require from the
students, but there is no space for analysis of the effectiveness of teaching in different contexts.
It is not enough to focus only on skills and information that students have to gain. Effective
content learning should put emphasis on the use of acquired capacities through cognitive
challenge, coping with unexpected situations or solving emerging problems (Coyle, Hood &
Marsh, 2010, p. 29). Therefore, content is also associated with personalized learning, which

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means creating the knowledge and understanding skills by students who are treated individually
with the remark of having different learning strategies and experiences (Meyer, 2010, p. 12).
Thus, lack of the integration between content learning and different types of thinking is said to
be a mistake. The process of constructing the knowledge includes two levels lower-order
thinking and higher-order thinking, both of which were described by Bloom. His taxonomy of
cognitive processes leads to the concept that a teacher should not only focus on the goals that
require remembering and understanding things, but s/he ought to guarantee activities allowing
the students to apply their knowledge into practice. It is only the mixture of this two types of
thinking that leads to integrated, effective learning (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 30).

There are many concerns connected with teaching children curricular subjects in second
language. The one criticism which appears most frequently is that the foreign language has an
influence on the learning content. The insufficient knowledge of the language may lead to the
low level of understanding of the subject, which as a result can affect students mood and trigger
some emotional problems frustration, low self-esteem, lack of confidence. However,
Christiane Dalton-Puffer quotes the research conducted by Day & Shapson which shows
positive results that CLIL learners achieve the same amount of content knowledge as their peers
that are taught in the mother tongue (Dalton-Puffer, 2008, p. 4).

The language of learning

Firstly, it is important to notice that schools have to take into consideration which language to
choose. The criteria of choosing a particular language may be different e.g. the principal can
take into account the geopolitical situation of the region where his school is located. English,
which nowadays seems to be a global language, should not be the only one language of CLIL

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(Szpotowicz & Szulc-Kurpaska, 2009, p. 38). The language in a CLIL classroom is connected
with the authentic context for use.

First of all, to master the content, the students have to get to know the terminology linked with
the specific subject (content-obligatory language). Another type of language, called contentcompatible, includes the words, statements and expressions which are introduced to the
students and may come in handy but are not absolutely necessary for the understanding of the
content. Content-obligatory language consists of i.a. technical vocabulary, syntactical features,
language functions needed for a specific content, whereas the content-compatible language is
useful for expressing students thoughts and ideas (Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008, p. 104).

Regardless of the type of language that is used, the crucial activities are connected with oral
interaction among students. What is important is the fact that communication does not just come
down to grammatical progression and although grammar knowledge is important, it cannot be
forgotten that without the meaning-making CLIL would not succeed. Focusing on meaning,
learning language with the use of appropriate context is the main principle of communicative
approach which was summarized briefly by Savigon:
- language is a tool for communication,
- diversity is recognized and accepted as part of language development,
- culture is instrumental,
- there is no single methodology for language and teaching, or set of prescribed techniques,
- the goal is language using as well as language learning. (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 32).
As CLIL is connected with the authentic context for use, these principles are relevant for this
approach. Therefore, the main notion of CLIL with regard to the language and content is that

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teachers should support students understanding of form and link it with meaning in the areas
of subjects.
Moreover, CLIL includes an extra focus on students interests and cooperation among the peers
(Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008, p. 108). Encouraging students to cooperate and share their
thoughts with others will lead to an ability to construct their own meaning and to use the
language connected with a learning context. To achieve this aim, the teachers have to plan their
lessons strategically and constitute both language and content objectives of particular activities.
What makes it easier to support the content of a lesson and the required language equally is a
conceptual representation called the Language Triptych (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 36).

Figure 1. The Language Triptych

(Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 36)

This Language Triptych shares three different but interrelated perspectives of the language used
in a CLIL classroom: language of learning, language for learning and language through
learning. The first perspective shows the language as an essential tool to gain the access to the
fundamental concepts and skills which are related to the specific subject. In other words, there
are key words or phrases, grammatical structures that are needed to understand the content,

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e.g. if the topic of the lesson sounds water, then the language of learning consists of key words:
oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, pond, rain, steam, ice etc. Language for learning highlights the need
of effective operations in the environment where the foreign language is used. It is the language
to collect arguments against/for something, to write a report, to work in groups, to ask and
answer questions. Coming back to the water topic the language for learning is connected
with the ability of asking e.g. what do you know about the Baltic Sea? What does steam mean?
Or the ability to contrast and compare e.g. the animals living in seas are bigger than the ones
living in the rivers. The third type of perspective on language is connected with the language
emerging in CLIL settings that is full of active involvement and different types of thinking
(Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 63). It is the language connected with the activities such as
looking for something in dictionaries, listening to the teachers feedback, making use of a peers
explanation, learning new word that appeared in the others presentations etc.

As the students may feel that language needed to gain the knowledge of the subject is very
challenging, the teachers should support their language learning and acquisition. The first step
to do it is creating a supportive, friendly environment in which students would not feel stressed
and afraid of making mistakes. In the beginning the use of mother tongue during the lessons
may occur (especially at the primary level) and the first months can be devoted to building the
gradual development of the language skills. In teacher talk the teacher has to strike a balance
between unnatural, exaggerated, extremely slow pace of the speech and the pace that is too fast
for students to understand. It is not only the pace of speech that is very important, but the
language level as well. The teacher has to adjust it carefully, avoiding both too complex and
too simple structures and vocabulary. What reinforces the meaning is use of gestures,
demonstrations, facial expressions and visual aids. Moreover, the topics should refer to the

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students lives and experiences, which makes the process of learning meaningful and authentic
(Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008, p. 106).

Integrating language and content

The integration of both content and language learning is the valid notion of the CLIL. Marsh,
Coyle & Hood describe four main dimensions of building this integration. These aspects are:
content, communication, cognition and culture, which together constitute so called the 4Cs
framework. Effective CLIL takes place when all these elements have a strong relationship. On
the basis of this framework teachers can create CLIL units and then implement them (Coyle,
Hood & Marsh, 2010, p. 41).
Teachers have to bear in minds that planning a lesson is very demanding and complex,
especially with regard to CLIL and the market still suffers from the shortage of ready-made
materials that can be easily used during the lesson. After the selection of the lessons topic,
which has to be wide enough to cover many different aspects, teachers have to consider the
content. What is useful is looking at the content as though it is a collection of skills that the
students will gain the access to. After that, making connections between content and cognition
should take place, which means that the teacher is obliged to analyze in depth what kinds of
thinking and cognitive levels may be useful for the content. Blooms taxonomy describes these
cognitive skills and is helpful for designing the lesson plan. The third step is linking the content
and cognition with communication and this process is based on the use of the Language
Triptych which was described above. The fourth C in the CLIL framework stands for culture
and it refers to the students ability to work with peers from different backgrounds and cultures.
The students consider the cultural implications for development of the theme (Coyle, Hood &
Marsh, 2010, p. 54). This convergence between the learning of language and content helps
students to perceive their experiences more profoundly.

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Moving towards the implementation the theory into the practice there is an example of the CLIL
unit below, showing the way of planning the lesson.

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Conclusions
Although, a dual-focus educational approach that puts emphasis both on a foreign language and
the content dates back to the prehistory, it started getting more and more conscious notice in
20th century. This interest is gradually increasing and it is being implemented into curricula in
many countries. The valid notion is the integration of both content and language learning in the
concrete local educational context. To discover the potential located in CLIL and let its
principles be fully adopted in the different environments, headmasters and teachers have to be
aware of the link between the language and content. The mixture of context, culture, content
and language gives students an opportunity to fully understand the word which surrounds them.
Integration, convergence and learning focused on participation and experience are the factors
that respond to the demands of the modern age. Despite the fact that there are many wonderful
teachers and well-prepared materials to teach the language, we face many problems with
English the effectiveness of teaching in our schools. The learning outcomes fall dismally and
that often is caused by the teaching without the context. Also, the content taught in another
language than mother tongue may be understood more profoundly by the students. That is why
CLIL should take more and more place in our schools enriching the learning environment and
posing an extra challenge for both learners and teachers.

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Bibliographical references
Coyle, D., Hood, P. & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL. Content and Language Integrated Learning.
Cambridge University Press.

Dalton-Puffer C. (2008). Outcomes and processes in Content and Language Integrated Learning
(CLIL): current researches in Europe.

Enever J. (2011). ELLiE Early Language Learning in Europe. British Council.

Handbook for teachers CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning, University of
Cambridge.

Meyer O., (2010) Towards quality CLIL: successful planning and teaching strategies.

Mehisto P., Marsh D., Frigols M. J. (2008). Uncovering CLIL. Content and Language
Integrated Learning in bilingual and multilingual education. Macmillan Publishers Limited.

Szpotowicz M., Szulc-Kurpaska M. (2009). Teaching English to Young Learners.

Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.