CLIL: language teacher or subject teacher?

Well, I should say I’ve some experience in CLIL projects. I had the opportunity to attend different courses and conferences on the subject, I shared ideas with colleagues from lots of schools (in my area and throughout Europe), and I actually run with colleague & friend Sandra some CLIL courses, which turned out to be very successful (at least in terms of students’ involvement).
Anyway, I still feel uncertain. And whenever I start a new course, I feel I have to re-invent everything from the very beginning. I must say I’ve not found the key yet.

Dr Diana Hicks seems to help me here. First of all, she said we should understand what CLIL is not. 1) CLIL is not teaching the same things twice, in two different languages. 2) CLIL is not monolingual teaching in a second language. And this second point is just GREAT: it means we – I mean, subject teachers – still have a chance. Language teachers are not destined to delete us from the teachers’ list, after all. Just kidding – well, half kidding. We all know how burning the question is: subject teachers or language teachers for CLIL lessons?
Too often language teachers tell us our English (or French, or whatever foreign language we speak) is not good enough. We may even do some harm with our poor pronunciation and grammar. On the other hand, we (subject teachers) usually say language teachers just can’t have it all: even if they speak perfect British English (if such a thing does exist, after all), this doesn’t mean they know History, or Geography, or Science as well. They say our knowledge of the language is not good enough. We say their knowledge of the subject is not good enough.
So what’s the answer?

Maybe we should just work together.
As Dr Diana Hicks helped us understanding, we, as subject teachers, are teaching content through language, not the opposite. But language is still an important part of our lessons. This means there should be collegiality between us and the language teachers. And we should share responsibilities: for the subject specific vocabulary, for the language functions required by the subject, for the planning of the lesson itself, and so on. It’s important to be clear, and to plan in advance who is going to do what.

In my experience, the very best thing is to actually be together. In our most successful projects, there used to be the three of us in the CLIL classes: me (History/Geography), Sandra (Maths/Science) and Renzo (English). Unfortunately, fewer and fewer schools – at least in Italy – can afford to pay for more than one teacher at a time in the same class. So we should actually find a way to be “together” even being alone.

And this has to do with the lesson planning… that will be next time !!!

Hope I’m not being boring, but these days are a real challenge to me. And a great source of inspiration.

As always, I’d love to get to know your ideas.

Keep tuned for more :)

Laura

... did you know? English as a Lingua Franca

I’m attending a Comenius in-service training course organized in Cheltenham (UK) by International Study Programmes, dealing with CLIL in Humanities (History, Geography, Economic studies, Music, PE…). The course is great – unfortunately, the weather is not as great… and coming from sunny Italy it has been quite a shock!

Our first lesson with Dr Diana Hicks, our CLIL expert, opened lots of new “doors” in my mind: and one of these led to a new awareness regarding my English.

Ok, I’m definitely not an English teacher, and I’m definitely not speaking – nor writing – perfect British English. But I’m using English as a Lingua Franca (ELF).“It is often observed that English has become a global language, and the majority of its non-native speakers (NNSs) use it as a lingua franca among themselves rather than as a “foreign” language to communicate with its native speakers (NSs).” (J.Jenkins, “English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and Identity”, Oxford Univ Press).
And what about these NNS? Well, they (we) are quite a lot. The proportion between NSs and NNSs is at the moment an estimated 1:4 (1 native to 4 non-natives).

What does it mean to us non-English teachers? Well, that means a lot to me as far as CLIL is concerned. It means stop obsessing over perfect English. It means relax, concentrate on planning a good balanced lesson and have the students speak. Choose sometimes fluency (as Dr Diana Hicks said, “let it out”) instead of accuracy (“get it right”). Accuracy cannot be forgotten, of course, but a CLIL lesson has to do with comprehension first.

And this leads to another distinction which was completely new to me: that between BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). This controversial distinction (Jim Cummins), which may not be new to the Language Teachers, was very useful to me. It helped me thinking in terms of languageS and grammarS instead than seeing Language as a sort of monolith. Which means, put the correct language in the correct context.
And that’s extremely interesting in speaking – and teaching – my own language as well…

Ok, if you have any further knowledge about these subjects, any useful reading to suggest, or any idea of your own, they’ll be more then welcome.

Meanwhile, my CLIL pathways goes on…


[reflection in progress]

Teachers on holiday... in Edutopia

Just wishing you all a relaxing summer holiday !!! I know many of us will take advantage of the summer break to meet in person (great!).

For all the others, what about meeting in Edutopia?
http://www.edutopia.org/

Have fun, enjoy some time in the open air (we can't be glued to our pc 24/day) and come back with loads of new ideas !!!!

Laura

Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves

Thank you Elena :)

eTwinning and professional development

“Make it as free as you can.”
This sentence was one of the turning points in my growth as a teacher. With these words Professor Sugata Mitra ended his speech at the eTwinning Conference 2008 in Bucharest. After this speech I actually was a different teacher – I had a different perception of myself in my job, of what I was supposed to do, and how.

Through Professor Mitra’s words, I realized the link between social inclusion, education, and remoteness. He was talking about Indian slums, and his famous “Hole in the wall” experiments, proving that children in groups could self-instruct themselves via the internet. Soon I realized he could as well be talking about students anywhere in the world. A child doesn’t have to be born in a slum to experience remoteness.

In the exciting environment of the Conference, with enthusiastic teachers, awards, experts, futuristic ICT projects, Professor Mitra suddenly shifted the light from “teacher” to “pupil”. He introduced us to a situation where a teacher was barely needed: children, left alone with a computer, could learn by themselves, via a self organizing learning environment. I have a vivid memory of the audience being shocked. Is the internet a “better” teacher? Is the teacher useless? Or do we have to think of a different role for the teacher?

When I say I’m different since then, it doesn’t mean I do anything new. I just try to do it better.
I’m striving to change the pupils’ perception of who I am as a teacher – I’m accompanying them in their learning, not leading them. My eTwinning projects are flexible, no musts, no set pathways: our goals are fixed, but students are free to proceed at their pace and explore alternative ways. An already arranged project, where students are actors in a predetermined script, may give you a sense of success, but it’s fake, and above all boring. You don’t need an award to prove you succeeded in your job: sometimes the smallest steps, that won’t earn your project any prize, will be the most rewarding for your students. Now I run the risk of meeting the new and unexpected in my job. I work with my students, not have them work. And I just make it as free as I can.


Laura Maffei
Voices of eTwinning

School Beyond Borders

School Beyond Borders
Colle Val d'Elsa, May the 3rd, 2011

Conference Proceedings

The seminar "School Beyond Borders" was held in Colle Val d'Elsa on May the 3rd 2011, in the context of initiatives for the Comenius Week 2011.

With this event, our aim was to collect and enhance the experience of the Valdelsa region referring to school partnerships in Europe.
Our area has, in fact, a strong tradition of involvement in Community programmes - mainly with Socrates first and LLP and later.

The seminar was born out of many years of involvement by the school "Arnolfo di Cambio" in LLP, especially Comenius in its various actions: multilateral partnerships, in-service training, eTwinning projects.

Our involvement culminated in March 2011, when Mrs. Laura Maffei with her Class III L of Casole d'Elsa won the eTwinning Prizes 2011 for the age group 12-14: the resulting participation in eTwinning Conference & Camp in Budapest, with the resonance given to it by the media, has helped to spread on the territory knowledge of the action and involvement of families and entire community.

At the same time, the Institute has expanded the participation of classes in the running Comenius, achieving excellent results in terms of sharing among colleagues and professional growth.

It was therefore felt the need to cooperate with schools in the area, at all levels of education, in order to share strategies and solutions in the area of European projects, while stimulating the involvement of territory, stakeholders and Authorities to a higher level.

Therefore, the work was aimed at an audience of "experts", in particular managers and teachers coordinators of European projects. Our goal was to share good practices, recognize common problems and develop possible solutions together.

We wanted to adapt each other's success stories and paths to the different learners' needs and to create a local "network", a vehicle for training and information.

A new LLP action was introduced as well: individual pupil mobility, which could be a new opportunity for the students in Valdelsa.

The seminar resulted in a new commitment: the commitment to meet in the future on a regular basis, the commitment to keep up the exchange and sharing at the local level and beyond. And finally, the commitment to share the moments of dissemination.

We thus hope that this event will be just the first in a series, because by confrontation and cooperation from local to global, the school could really go beyond borders: not only geographical borders, but ideological and social borders as well.

We thank all the participating schools:
- Primo Circolo di Poggibonsi
- Secondo Circolo di Poggibonsi
- Istituto Comprensivo Folgore da San Gimignano
- Scuola Secondaria di 1° Grado “Arnolfo di Cambio” di Colle Val d’Elsa – Casole d’Elsa - Radicondoli,
- Liceo Statale “A. Volta” di Colle Val d’Elsa.

We thank the teachers and Headteachers who shared their ideas and innovations.

We thank Mrs Alexandra Tosi and Mrs. Maria Lacovara, who brought the experience and support of the National Agency, illustrating the opportunities offered to schools, pupils, and teachers.

Finally, we thank the Municipality of Colle Val d'Elsa, for the organization of the event: because we believe that in order to create successful European project, we need to have strong roots in our own area.

June, the 2nd

On June the 2nd we celebrate the Italian Republic, which was born in 1946.
This year we're having a very special day, as we're celebrating 150 years of Italian independence as well. So, we're now celebrating our homeland, our freedom and our independence.

Happy birthday Italy!