Introducing content and language-integrated learning at a Saudi Arabian university (original) (raw)
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International Education Theory and Practice, 2022
This paper attempts to explore ways to support learners and learning particularly in the acquisition of literacy skills in the target language in an internationalised education setting. In this paper, I argue for the necessity of the content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach in the teaching of content areas to promote whole school support for second language learners of English. The first section of the paper provides a brief description of my setting, the rationale for the exploration and its intended objectives and outcomes. The second section takes a look at literacy skills in general and how this can support UNESCO's 4 Pillars of Education. The third section specifically talks about content and language integrated learning (CLIL). Findings revealed three themes in order to effect change in the teaching and learning practice-teacher identity and beliefs about teaching and learning, collaboration, and offering opportunities to change learner behaviour.
CONTENT & LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING
To begin with, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) refers to any dual-focused educational context in with an additional language, thus not usually the first language of the learners involved is used as medium in the teaching and learning of non-language content. Our task is to form either a defence or a repudiation of the notion that ‘CLIL is the approach for the future’. We have made a research and we shared our experience so as to arrive to our conclusion, our own perspective. We have taken into account advantages and disadvantages. First of all, we considered the different attempts to a definition, how a curriculum is divided, contents, the very basic considerations, age and cognitive states. We also analysed the types of CLIL practice, for example that it tends to be measured in quantity because the movement is relatively new. Then, the teacher should involve adequate target-language competence, subject-knowledge and materials in the target language, institutional and parental approval of CLIL practice, inter-departmental co-operation and institutional bilingual/multilingual policy across the curriculum.
Second Language Teaching Pedagogy in Bilingual Classes
Teaching in a bilingual context can definitely be considered something more complex than “standard” teaching, but unfortunately it is lacking the same amount of research which has been put into its “regular” counterpart. This contradicts an ever increasing trend of globalization, people migrating, social and cultural tendencies evolving, linguistic shifts taking place and education policies updating to meet the modern times of our days. As we evolve as a society, the teaching practices from the 20th century can no longer be effective in this climate. As research is being done with regards to regular teaching as a whole (with different particularities, of course), so it should be done in terms of teaching a secondary language in a bilingual context, since there are fewer and fewer schools all over the world where the student population is 100% made up of natives. Of course, in rural settlements this shift has not yet made its presence felt, but in urban areas this is slowly becoming a reality. CLIL (content and language integrated learning) is one of the few breakthroughs in this respect, in the sense that it combines content learning and language learning. Immersion classes are being created to facilitate the transition of children who arrive in a new country without properly knowing the native language. There is a need for specialized teachers, just like in any branch of education. Improvisation might have worked a while ago, when changes weren’t as significant and not linguistic in nature, but nowadays that is no longer the case. We need to make sure that teachers are well prepared for such a type of education and that is what I will try to find out through this paper.