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CLIL in the European Partner Schools:

1. Definition of CLIL2. Summary questionnaire part 1 –

evaluation questions 1 to 43. Summary questionnaire part 2 –

evaluation table

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Definition of CLIL: In general CLIL is a method to enlarge the In general CLIL is a method to enlarge the

students’ intercultural, social and students’ intercultural, social and communicative competence in a foreign communicative competence in a foreign language through teaching an individual or a language through teaching an individual or a content-specific subject like history, physics, content-specific subject like history, physics, politics, geography etc. in a foreign language.politics, geography etc. in a foreign language.

The foreign language is not the subject matter The foreign language is not the subject matter but just the medium used to negotiate the but just the medium used to negotiate the learning and working process. learning and working process.

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Definition of CLIL:

Content

MethodsLanguage

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Evaluation of questions 1 to 4:

Question 1: How would you define CLIL?

> Teaching an individual subject or a content- specific subject in a foreign language focusing on the taught content to promote students’ language and communicative skills especially in English.

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Evaluation of questions 1 to 4:

Question 2: What do the officials expect of CLIL? An improvement of the students‘ speaking,

learning and communicative competence in a foreign language like English/German/Gaelic.

An improvement of the quality of teaching using diverse materials, methods and contents.

To evaluate the conclusions and results together with the students and colleagues.

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Evaluation of questions 1 to 4:

Question 3: How is CLIL officially implemented in your school and your national curriculum?

Only in Spain is CLIL a mandatory part of the national curriculum.

In general CLIL is not officially implemented; it is a question of how schools implement CLIL, e.g. in Germany there are just some schools/federal states which offer special bilingual classes and projects.

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Evaluation of questions 1 to 4:

Question 4: What official support does/did your school receive for CLIL-activities?

All countries received financial subsidy from the European Union especially for COMENIUS to buy material and to meet the partner schools.

Some federal states in Germany like Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse are going to organize a set of University courses to train future CLIL teachers (foreign language knowledge, methodologies etc).

There is no extra salary for CLIL teachers.

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Part 2…

Summary questionnaire part 2 – Evaluation of the table...

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Evaluation of the table:

Which and how many classes were involved in this CLIL project / age of students?

There were 20 classes which had CLIL lessons. Some of the classes had CLIL lessons in different

subjects with different teachers. All students had a certain age range: in general

students‘ age was between 12 and 20 years. Most of the students were 14 to 16 and 16 to 18 years old.

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Distribution of the classes:students‘

ageclasses

12 3

13 6

14 7

15 7

16 5

17 7

18 8

19 3

20 1

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Evaluation of the table:How many lessons/units?

Approximately 60 units were taught. The understanding of a period of one unit was

different in every country – it ranges from 1 up to 40 lessons per unit.

The typical period of one unit was 8 to 10 lessons.

In some countries the main focus was on a single or a double lesson within one unit.

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Evaluation of the table:What topics/subjects?

Physics: reflection of light/refraction of light (optics), The Solar System

Maths: definite integral

Geography: globalization, deserts, tropical rainforest, climatology, Eurotunnel, Ireland, India

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Evaluation of the table:What topics/subjects?

Biology: cells and tissues, food in Europe

Religious Education: Creationism versus theory of evolution

Music: Rock Music etc.

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Evaluation of the table:What topics/subjects?

History/Politics: Industrial Revolution, Declaration of Independence, The US Constitution, The story of the Union Pacific Railway, The Congress of Berlin 1878, The Truman Doctrine, Colonisation of Africa by the Europeans, The causes and results of the First World War, the Vietnam War, Reagan and Gorbachov, Friedrich Engels about the situation in Manchester/Manchester Capitalism, World War 2, Boston Tea Party, Life in the Middle Ages, The Romans, The European Union etc.

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Evaluation of the table:What topics/subjects?

Information and Communication Systems:Introduction to the Personal Computer, Computer Assembly Step-by-Step, Network fundamentals, Living In a Network-centric World, Communicating Over The Network, Introduction to the OSI and TCP/IP models, the process of data encapsulation, Application Layer Functionality, protocols, services, and applications, with a focus on HTTP, DNS, DHCP, SMTP/POP, Telnet and FTP, OSI Transport Layer, TCP and UDP protocols etc.

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Evaluation of the table:

What methods used? In general co-operative methods were

used especially presentations and discussions.

New media were used, e.g. computers, projectors, PowerPoint, etc.

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Evaluation of the table:

How did the pupils respond? Pupils responded differently. Some liked it, because

they had no basic problems to understand the foreign language and to speak English.

Others had difficulties and severe problems with the foreign language, e.g. understanding certain words or English texts.

Some said, that CLIL lessons were more interesting.

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Evaluation of the table:How did the pupils respond/citations?

The pupils’ response to CLIL was great, at the beginning just due to curiosity, later because of the fun they had and finally for the results they had both in the use of English and in the understanding of the content. (Romania)

The response was excellent. (Lübeck) Students were surprised, sceptical but willing to work. (Spain) Those who are good at speaking and comprehending English

were enthusiastic, the ones with very poor linguistic ability were mainly focused on understanding single words. (Poland)

Students accepted this methodology. (Italy) Students were encouraged and interested in CLIL. (Frankfurt)

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Evaluation of the table:

How intense was the use of the foreign language? In general the use of the foreign language

depended on the age of the pupils – the older the more intense.

In 1/3 of the classes the use of the foreign language was less intense, in 1/3 intense and in 1/3 very intense.

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Evaluation of the table:

Were the teachers of the CLIL lessons also English teachers?

There were 7 English teachers and 17 teachers who have other subjects.

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Thanks for your attention!