Plurilingualism for effective Content and Language(s) Integrated Learning

In Catalonia, CLIL is often done by translating the content of a subject into English and teaching it in this language, but CLIL is not actually based on doing so. This is what may lead to negative results, and learners may not learn an additional language in an effective way. On the basis of this, we have decided to look for solutions by exploring the ideas of plurilingualism.

Apart from the content, the linguistic side is also a very important aspect in CLIL subjects, so using languages other than English could be useful for having an effective CLIL performance. Nowadays, there is a lot of emphasis on plurilingualism, but few studies have examined it together with CLIL, which could be helpful for their sociocultural benefits, the possibility to include home languages and the learning of additional languages apart from English.

One of the studies exploring plurilingual practices in CLIL programmes has been the one of Milán-Maillo and Pladevall-Ballester (2019). They explored the various uses of the home language in CLIL contexts with co-teaching methodologies. They wanted to know if it is actually beneficial to be exposed to plurilingual input in an additional language setting and if students could develop strategies with their mother tongue to acquire the additional language (Milán-Maillo & Pladevall-Ballester, 2019). After analysing the results, they concluded that the home language “acted as a compensatory strategy that coped with CLIL demands and was beneficial both for learners and teachers.” (p.212) Therefore, if the native language is used and planned in a pedagogical way, it can be helpful for learners to develop the additional language (Milán-Maillo & Pladevall-Ballester, 2019).

Keywords: Additional languages, benefits, effective, strategies, learners

An ace up your sleeve! Part #1

by Usoa Sol

We teachers like to play it cool, but deep inside we're always a bit on edge. We always plan, plan, plan, but regardless of the thousands of activities and ideas our brains store, we all have a secret fear of not being quite prepared for our sessions. It doesn't matter that you haven't been able to do all the activities you had planned for a session for the past fifteen years, there's still that nagging feeling that we might run out of gas long before the bell rings. Fear no more, here you have a series of low-prep ideas that you can use for a variety of purposes: to get to know your students better, to energize them after a long task, to give them fun practice opportunities or to notice expressions or certain language aspects.

In these two videos, Usoa describes a series of fun, inspiring and easy-to-prepare activities. She also shares ideas on materials and topics you can use, and discusses how she uses these activities with her students in order to stretch all of them into participating in her sessions, regardless of their level. Put the focus on students, and get them using English meaningfully.

Here are the activities you'll find in part #1:

Would you rather?

Reverse taboo

And in part #2:

Sentence pictionary

Word bingo

An ace up your sleeve! Part #2

We teachers like to play it cool, but deep inside we're always a bit on edge. We always plan, plan, plan, but regardless of the thousands of activities and ideas our brains store, we all have a secret fear of not being quite prepared for our sessions. It doesn't matter that you haven't been able to do all the activities you had planned for a session for the past fifteen years, there's still that nagging feeling that we might run out of gas long before the bell rings. Fear no more, here you have a series of low-prep ideas that you can use for a variety of purposes: to get to know your students better, to energize them after a long task, to give them fun practice opportunities or to notice expressions or certain language aspects.

In these two videos, Usoa describes a series of fun, inspiring and easy-to-prepare activities. She also shares ideas on materials and topics you can use, and discusses how she uses these activities with her students in order to stretch all of them into participating in her sessions, regardless of their level. Put the focus on students, and get them using English meaningfully.

Here are the activities you'll find in part #1:

Would you rather?

Reverse taboo

And in part #2:

Sentence pictionary

Word bingo

Hands-on ideas to nail your writing

Some people find writing a very calming activity that helps them reconnect with themselves and with past experiences. We write much more than we know, albeit maybe not quite as correctly as we like to think. But writing taks can be daunting for many students (and non-students), in their first language and even more so in any additional languages. Writing in a foreign language involves many complex processes, and students often find it hard to deal with contents, structure, vocabulary, decoding, purpose, audience...

In her video, Raquel shares with us some tips to avoid writer's block and to feel on top of any writing task by breaking it down into more manageable units. When we make students be aware of and apply the same processes effective writers follow, we help them develop their own writing strategies. The more they practice these strategies across different writing situations and purposes, the more efficient they'll be, and the more comfortable they'll feel when writing in high-stakes situations.

Here are the strategies Raquel will present, along with ideas to work them into your sessions:

- Sentence stems

- The burger method to write for and against essays

- Random Facts about me!

- Lacasitos and... writing!

Check them out, use them, and let us know how they turn out!