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Introduction
| Overview
| Becoming an LC
| CILT support
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CILT-SLC case study |
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Tomlinscote School |
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) |
Bilingual learning
In 1999 we joined a bilingual project ‘SALT’ (Second Acquisition and Language Teaching) which had been launched by the cultural centres of the Spanish, French and German embassies in co-operation with Nottingham University. The aim of this project was to explore ways in which language teaching could be revitalised in secondary schools through the introduction of a range of other curricular areas delivered through the medium of the target language. In conjunction with a colleague who had done the BILD PGCE (itself a bilingual project) with Dr Coyle at Nottingham University, we prepared a mini module on ‘Hitler’s seizure of power’ which was delivered in May 2000 during the German classes in a top set Year 9. The project was very successful in two ways. First, the students’ feedback was positive and full of enthusiasm. Second, it was clear that such work promises to provide much needed alternative approaches to the question of foreign language acquisition within the National Curriculum.
We were invited to present our project at the annual CILT conference in London on 26 January 2001 and at the ‘Flying High’ conference at Homerton College in Cambridge on 1 February 2001. A wide range of teachers were impressed enough to want to try the module in their schools. Our materials were praised as they were practical, differentiated and suitable for all students’ needs. In addition, they had the advantage of motivating the majority of boys who took part in the project. This latter point indicates the potential for enhancing boys’ performance in language learning by combining it with other curriculum areas in this way.
In June 2002 we applied to become participants of the Content and Language Integration Project (CLIP) and were accepted as one of the eight participating schools in England. This enabled us to raise the profile of the bilingual section at our school and to co-operate with other schools in England. We plan to introduce bilingual lessons on other topics in French and Spanish. These will be in addition to the already existing module in History, which has been taught through the medium of German for two years.
Two members of staff, a native French speaker and a bilingual Spanish teacher who has a degree in History will deliver the proposed projects. The Spanish teacher who was appointed at our school in September 2001 has since set up an exchange link with a school in Spain and is in continuous correspondence with her Spanish colleague in order to organise not only a student exchange but also an exchange of authentic resources for the project. The French teacher who was also appointed in September 2001 as the Head of the French department is in contact with a school in Quebec and is similarly developing an appropriate resource base. The History department has been working very closely with our department and provided specialist support and advice as well as resources. One of the members of the History department is actively involved in the teaching of the already existing History/German project as a competent speaker of German and a specialist Historian.
It is intended that the proposed bilingual projects in French and Spanish take place in the summer term of 2003. In addition, Geography will be taught in the autumn term in Year 8 in 2004. In the summer term of 2005 the bilingual projects will be expanded to include Maths in Year 8. This means that in 2003 History will be taught in French, Spanish and German to Year 9 during an 8 week period in the summer term. This will continue along these lines for Year 9 students in 2004 and 2005. In addition during the autumn term Geography will be taught in the three languages in Year 8 in 2004 and 2005. As a further extension of the bilingual section Maths will be taught in all three languages in Year 8 in the autumn term, 2005. We are fully committed ourselves to the three year programme and have the consent of the principal and the governors.
This current project also aims to explore ways of exploiting new technologies in order to make the material and ideas more widely available to other schools. In order to achieve this objective, a website has already been designed, incorporating the most significant features of the work and the materials developed for the project in History/German. This highlights the potential of IT in opening up professional debate nationally about the content and purpose of language teaching in Britain, the potential of websites as resource sharing channels for language professionals and the cultural implications of high quality materials targeted at particular groups via the internet.
Despite being a Language College we continue to encounter a certain lack of motivation, particularly in boys and a slight decline in GCSE examination grades. To counter these trends we feel that the National Curriculum has to be delivered in ways which are of more relevance to our students. We do not believe that in themselves changes in the examination syllabi and procedures contribute to more engagement with languages from our students. We are convinced that bilingual lessons motivate students in many ways; the topicality of the subject matter, the correspondence of vocabulary to their level of maturity and the variety in the range of activities demanded.
Feedback from students who have already been involved in the History/German project endorses this. Students gain in confidence and the level of their reading ability in particular has been raised.
Year 9 has been chosen for this exciting and productive experiment as
it is a crucial time in students’ academic life. They have to decide
which subjects they are going to study at KS 4. A minority of students
choose to continue learning two foreign languages in Year 10. Offering
the students an alternative to the prescribed topic of holiday which is
normally delivered in the summer term of Year 9, we are hoping that they
will realise that languages are more than simply learning new words, learning
role plays by heart, writing a paragraph about their home town and being
continuously tested. We are also hoping that we can raise the National
Curriculum levels through a more demanding way of reading longer abstracts
of text, describing visual materials, discussing authentic sources while
giving them the necessary support. Our primary aim, however, is to motivate
our students to enjoy the experience of learning a language.
Please visit the CLIP pages for further information.
Danny Brown, Tomlinscote School, July 2003
