CLIL & ESP E-tivity 1 - WebQuest - Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL - A. Ferrara - Blog di economiaaziendale
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
___________
CLIL & ESP
(ALBERTO FERRARA)
_______________
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”
E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
INTRODUCTION
The methodological message of the CEFR1 is that “language learning should be directed
towards enabling learners to ACT in REAL LIFE SITUATIONS, expressing themselves and
accomplishing tasks of differents natures.”
Starting from this statement this webquest aims to shed light on the current state of art of the use of
CLIL2 in the learning paths by seeking out some experiences of implementation in Europe but not
only.
In the first paragraph I wrote about the use of CLIL in STEAM showing that a this point in time
there are few cases in European schools involving teachers of a DNL 3 in the CLIL methodology
which fit perfectly the aforesaid CEFR objective.
In the second paragrah I wrote about some experiences, but small and isolated, regarding the use of
CLIL and its relationship with ESP4. In particular, I chose an experience that shows the use of CLIL
in Business.
English for Specific purposes (ESP) has a long tradition, dating from the 1960s, as a movement
designed to respond the needs for communication in specific scientific fields and professional
settings.
The result of this webquest which I carried out underline not only the general importance of using a
non language subject to improve both the language profencie and content, but it displays the
relevance of using a substantial language path like the CLIL to make this combination truly
effective and a profoitable collaboration between NL and L teachers, no one of them is self-
sufficient.
CLIL reveal the usefulness of adopting authentic situations to foster the acquiring of another
language, After this webquest I noticed that it is essential using an others subject to promote the
language skills, escpecially the communicative ones.
Thanks to this metacognitive aspect the learning process become more significative and more
lasting.
Ultimately, tacken for granted the need to strenght the learning of a foreign language these days,
this unsatisfactory situation strike me not a little and I think there is a need for more incisive
actions by the bodies in charge to make the CLIL a reality in our schools.
1 Common European Framework of Referance
2 Content and Language Integrated Learning
3 Discipline Non Linguistic
4 English for Specif Purpose
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”
E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
CLIL IN STEAM - CURRENT SITUATION
To figure out the state of art of CLIL I report an extract from an ainterview by Egbert Weisheit 5
who points out the challenges and the benefits of teaching Science in English and the lack of
cooperation between science teachers and language teachers in Germany.
I do believe that this frame is the same for every other STEM6 subject and for any other country.
But before that I want to underline the essentiality of adopting a combined approach across
discipline through a simple, maybe even trivial, example but I think effective It is deduced from
an article on FLUENTU website:
1. (https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator/what-is-clil/)
In CLIL, the subject matter provides the fodder as well as the communicative context in which the
target language is learned. That means every vocabulary word, phrase and concept is both
immediately relevant and meaningful. There is a direct context in which the word becomes useful,
vivid and alive. In a French cooking class, or a Greek philosophy class, the linguistic strides have a
base to grow from.
Students learn the words, phrases and concepts as they need them. In fact, in CLIL, students
often first feel the necessity of learning the word/concept before they actually discover what it
means. Students might be thinking, “I have no idea what the professor is saying—I don’t even
know what tranche means. But I need to learn it if I ever want to make this dish.”
Compare this to a dry vocabulary list, where students first learn the translation of certain words or
phrases and then think up scenarios where they can apply them. In many language classes, for
example, students might first learn the French expression Allons-y! (Let’s go!) and later think of
situations where this could be appropriate. Meanwhile, students in a French cooking class would
hear “Allons-y! Allons-y! Allons-y! ” as the chef walks around the tables, spurring students to
chop, slice and dice faster.
Through a subject mater the language
became meaningful and relevant
What says Egbert!!
2. (CLIL in Germany: Interview with Egbert Weisheit | Onestopenglish)
“There is a broad gap between science teachers and language teachers in the majority of european
countries schools. They tend not to communicate with each other at all about their work with
students and their curriculm objectivies. One of the problem is to bridge the gap between the
understanding of language from the language teachers and from the science teachers.”
He concludes by stating that there are several initiatives on the use of English in teaching another
subject but they are SMALL and ISOLATE and what's more they do NOT ADOPT a proper
METHODOLOGY to achieve both objectives in terms of content and language.
The gap between DL and DNL is wide in
the majority of the EU countries
5 He is a teacher of Biology and Chemistry and a teacher trainer
6 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (plus Art in other cas)
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”
E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
EXPERIENCES OF CLIL AND ESP
COURSE OF BUSINESS FROM LA SORBONNE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS
3. (CLIL in the Business English Classroom, Dana Di Pardo Leon-Henri, University of Paris IV – La Sorbonne (Paris, France)
This is a study to determine the extent to which studentes in a business english course found
their learning enhanced by the use of CLIL.
Marsh (2012) assertes that the use of Content and Language Itntegrated Learning (CLIL) in
language teaching at the higher education level has the potential to encourage learners to acquire
language in an immerson style setting, since the integration of language and content provides a
substantive basis for language teaching and learning. The content provides a motivational and
cognitive foundation for language learning because it is of interest and value to the learner.
Students learning by doing and using language as a tool of communication and understanding.
Hence, CLIL is also a means to assist in the development of analytic and reflective skills. The
real challenge is to keep students communicating and exchanging in the target language, while
providing new information and methods to capture ad keep their interest.
In the context of English for Specifc Purpose (ESP) and more precisely, a course with a Business
English focus, this study aims to analize if and how a CLIL-based approach can be implemented
to teach a varity of professional skills, while assisting students in the development of their
metacognitive ability.
In the context of ESP content provides a
motivational and cognitive foundation
-
CLIL develop the metacognitive ability
According to Marsh, the objective of CLIL is to promote content and language mastery, and
with ESP students learn a language and then use it as a tool to accomplish concrete tasks with
specific communication skills (Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, 2008 p. 11). When compared to more
basic grammar-based teaching methods and rote learning, content-driven activities within
professionally oriented courses can prove to be more interesting and collaborative tasks. By
working together in small groups, students are not obliged to communicate and understand
each other, but they are also required to deal with the potential for disagreements, develop
negatiotion strategies and find concrete solutions to their problems.
Furthermore, the various stages of the task can be organized that the focus is placed on creative
autonomy through the use of activities such as improvisation and role-play. This will
encourage intrinsic motivation (Brown, 1994, p.44) since the learners are (such as stage fright or
shyness), which are often related to making mistakes in public. In the case of this study, role-play
and improvisations activities were a crucial part fosterd to push their limits and conquer their
fears of the business presentation. For this resaon the student were encouraged to prapare early and
practise to avoid anxiety.
Groups work and Role Play commit
learners to cooperate, deal with
disagreement, develop strategies, find
solutions enhancing specif
communicative skills
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”
E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
By definition, content-based learning focuses the learner on useful and practical objectives since
the subject matter is perceived to be relevant to long term goals (Brown 1994 p.220). Learners
are more willing to adhere to a task and related activities when they can percieve the long
term practical usefulness of an assignement.
The SUBJECT MATTER is crucial to
make students percieve the relevance of a
task as a long-term goals.
As Mehisto illustrate, the CLIL methodology encompasses three main goals: content,
language and learning skills. In terms of language learning, the integration of all three goals can
offer students a variety of usefull skills, such as language proficiency, cognitive and social skills, as
well as the potential for high levels of academic achievement.
Whit regards to lesson planning, Coyle, Hood and Marsh (2010) insist that teachers must
elucidate the interrelationship between content objectivies and language objectivies. For this
reason, they have devised a conceptual representation that makes these connections in the form
of a Language Triptych.
The language Triptych was constructed with the objective of taking into account the need to
integrate congnitively demanding content with language learning ad using.
Students must be cognitively engaged and encouraged to become aware of their own learning
through the development of mertacognitive skills such as learnign to learn. Interactive classrooms
are typified by group work, student questioning or critical analysis and problem solving. CLIL
students are required to cooperate with each other in order to make use of each other's strenghts and
compensate for weaknesses. They must learn how to operate collaboratively and effectively as a
group.
As teachers, our role is then much more supportive in nature, we facilitate learning by
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
observing the students and guiding them. Students who work in a collaborative way have the
opportnity to develpo life skills such as observational and interpersonal skills. This can represent a
source of motivation and a safe haven to build confidance and improve communication skills.
In the case of Business English course instead of having to present a purely descriptive
business presentation about company, the students were given the task of preparing a
collaborative project based on the role play of professional scenario.
In the activities leading up to the final task, the students created language content (script and
dialogue). They were encouraged to evaluate their progress and negotiate outcomes, as they
built on and shared knowledge, they repacjaged information, while thinking creatively and
critically. The emphasis was placed both on verbal and non verbal communication, as well as
interactive and intercultural communication.
The role play involved choosing a partner and scenario, structuring presentation, preparing a
script and finally providing a feedback on the various activities and tasks.
In this way, the core features of CLIL methodology were respected. According to Mehisto some
of the core features are as follows:
Multiple focus
Supporting language learning in content classes
Supporting content learning in language classes
Integrating several subjects
Organizing learning through cross-cultural themes and projects
Supporting reflection on the learning process
Safe and enriching learning environment
Using routine activities and discourse
Building student confidence to experiment with language and content
Guiding access to authentic learning materials and environments
Increasing student language awareness
Authenticity
Letting the student ask for the language help they need
Maximizing the accommodation of student interests
Making a regular connection between learning and the students’ lives
Using current materials from the media and other sources
Active Learning
Having students communicate more than the teacher
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
Encouraging students to help set content, language and learning skills outcomes
Obliging students to evaluate their progress in achieving learning outcomes
Favouring peer co-operative work
Negotiating the meaning of language and content with students
Allowing teachers to act as facilitators
Scaffolding
Building on student’s existing knowledge, skills, attitudes, interests and experiences
Repackaging information in user-friendly ways
Responding to different learning styles
Fostering creative and critical thinking
Challenging students to take another step forward and not just coast in comfort
Co-operation
Planning courses/lessons/themes in co-operation with CLIL and non-CLIL teachers
Involving the local community, authorities and employers
With time and planning, it is then possible to design activities that integrate most or all of the above
features. At the heart of these core features is the thinking (cognition) behind the teaching and
learning process. Simply stated, the more powerful the thinking, the greater the learning. In the
case of this study, students were given an outline of instructions; however, they were encouraged to
create and improvise their scenarios while providing detailed information.
According to Mehisto et al. (2008, p.30), thinking (cognition) is defined as the mental faculty of
knowing, which includes:
perceiving;
recognizing;
judging;
reasoning;
conceiving;
imagining.
Cognition is required in lesson planning, but to heighten the intellectual challenge of a particular
task for students, it should also be integrated into the task itself, so as to encourage the learners to
develop their individual metacognitive, critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. According
to Flavell (1978), metacognition refers to higher-order thinking that involves active control
over the cognitive processes engaged in learning. It consists of both metacognitive knowledge
and metacognitive experiences. He further explains that it plays an important role in oral
communication of information, oral persuasion, oral comprehension, language acquisition,
memory, problem solving, social cognition and various types of self- control and self-instruction
(Flavell, 1979). In due course, the integration of the aforementioned theories in language lesson
planning can bring constructive results on many different levels both for the language learner and
teacher.
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
An activity with CLIL must engage and challenge
students with authentic problem solving acitivity
with
the teacher act as scaffolding to support them
Pedagogical Focus
This pedagogical intervention was conducted in the academic year 2013-2014, at the University of
Lorraine and more precisely, in the Business Administration and Management Department of the
Institute of Technology in Metz, France. At the outset of their two-year program, students must
possess many different professional, interpersonal and business- related skills. For example,
they must be at ease with the use of modern modes of communication (from business software
to presentation materials, such as tablets). They are required to work efficiently and
independently, but at the same time, they must be capable of communicating with culturally
diverse teams. They need to develop their ability to analyse various situations and defend their
stance on any given subject, as well as acquire strong written, oral and professional skills in
English. (BLOG)
The pedagogical goals were to acquire
modern mode of communication, work
independenlty – to learn how to
communicate in a team – to acquire
professional english
Procedure
The task was given during the second half of the students’ first year studies. The advantage
was that the students already knew each other and they were free to choose their working
collaborators. The students formed groups of two and sometimes three at the most. One month
before the date of their oral presentation, they were given the name of a recently created
international company or association. Some of the companies were oriented towards an innovative
product or service, while others were based on newer trends such as crowd funding and business
angels. The students were encouraged to meet often outside the classroom, to research their
company or association, to write a short scenario which would present all of the information related
to their company, to learn and rehearse their roles, and then finally, to act out their scenario in
front of their classmates and the teacher.
Previous to this activity, the teacher provided a lesson on the qualities of a successful oral
presentation, including the role of body language and voice projection as well as the use of audio-
visual aids in business presentations. During the month leading up to the presentation date, the
teacher merely guided the students in their research and answered questions only if
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
necessary. Their scenario, which included an interactive role for the audience, had to be based on
one of the following five different business scenarios:
a presentation to new shareholders (the audience),
a job interview (the audience is the hiring committee),
a conference-type presentation with the new international managers (the audience),
an annual meeting for (some new) executive & administrative employees (the audience),
the annual review for the finance department (some new employees & the shareholders).
The students were asked to improvise (and not read notes), to be creative, professional and
original. They were encouraged to use humour, but cautioned that the ambiance had to remain
professional.
From the beginning, it was made clear that all students had to possess a clear and discernible role
and that each one of them would be obliged to speak in an equitable fashion. Students were
instructed that the scenario presentation was to last between 10 and 15 minutes in duration. Team
work in problem-solving was encouraged.
As with any CLIL-based activity, the overall intent of this activity was to integrate content with
language and learning skills. Nevertheless, this activity was a result of much didactic reflection
after observing the purely descriptive business presentations that were given by the students in the
first semester. The primary objective was to create a task that would involve a more authentic
and professional dimension (the role-play and scenario) to offer the students an opportunity
to conceive and design original language immersion settings. Equally important was the need to
develop a framework in which the students would create their scenario while taking risks and
boosting their confidence level in public speaking situations.
During the various presentations, the students were offered an opportunity to share their knowledge
with the others who observed the role-plays and discovered the new content (company,
organization or association, etc...). In order to heighten the intellectual challenge and encourage the
students to develop their analytic, reflective and hypothesizing skills, the students were obliged to
take an active role in and provide views on learning about how they learn.
Research Discussion
This study ultimately serves to determine the extent to which students in a business English
course found their learning enhanced by the use of CLIL, the integration of professional
communication skills, and finally, the development and analysis of metacognitive skills. At the
same time, the study investigates the students’ impressions on the pedagogical intervention
through the use of a questionnaire. This questionnaire was originally conceived and created by
closely examining and decomposing the various stages and activities involved in preparing the final
role-play presentation task. In general terms, the study was designed to answer the following
preliminary research question: In a BE language environment is it possible to create a pedagogical
activity founded on a CLIL-based approach to motivate students and teach a variety of professional
skills, as well as help students to enhance English language learning, while developing
metacognitive and problem-solving skills?
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
Discussion/Interpretation of Research Study
The findings provide valuable insight into the students’ opinions regarding this pedagogical
approach to business English teaching. The findings reveal that using CLIL- based activities in
the business English classroom to provide a forum for immersion-style language learning can
encourage risk-taking as well as confidence building. A CLIL approach to teaching language not
only enhances language learning, but it also empowers and motivates the learners since they
become more aware of and thus more in control of the development of their own learning
strategies. since it provided them with an opportunity A large majority of the students expressed
that this activity improved their language learning to learn a great deal of business English,
as well as practise and acquire more general English during the various stages of conception and
planning to presentation and observation. The activity also helped some students to ‘come out of
their shell’ and overcome their shyness. In terms of content and language learning, the students
agreed that they were intellectually challenged since they learned about many different content
areas (business and administration, verbal and non-verbal communication skills, intercultural
themes and metacognitive skills development). In the same way, the majority supported the idea
that the scenario-based format, while simulating authentic and practical role-plays, had stimulated
creativity and enthusiasm.
This response demonstrates that the CLIL methodology does indeed have the potential to function
as a catalyst for professional development. The vast majority of students also supported the idea
that the final role-play presentations should have been recorded and filmed so that the scenarios
could have viewed by the other groups of students.
This study shows that it is possible to design language learning activities that not only
promote language learning in an autonomous, peer collaborative and interactive fashion, but
also encourage the development of professional communication skills. Concurrently, the
study focuses on the importance of the awareness or analysis of one’s own learning and
thinking in the professional communication and language learning process.
The findings provided encouraging results
in terms of language improvments and
communicatives ability.
Conclusion
Using CLIL-based activities in language teaching is a viable didactic approach.
This study explored the possibility and effectiveness of using the CLIL approach in business
English teaching. The research showed that using CLIL methodology and peer collaborative
tasks can enhance the development of professional communication skills as well as
metacognitive ability through the implementation of an active analytical communication
activity. In fact, in the context of language teaching, assisting students in the development of
metacognitive and analytical skills may be beneficial for them not only to improve their linguistic
skills but also to empower and inspire them to become lifelong language users and learners.
CLIL empower and inspire to become
lifelong users and learners
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
Rethinking ESP
Another experience that put in ESP and CLIL was caried out at the Aristotle Univeristy of
Thessaonki, School of Journalism & Mass Communications The title is “Rethinking ESP”
It wants highlight the main points of convergences between CLIL and ESP, presents the main
feathures of CLIL pedagogy, and shows how they were implemented in the design of an ESP
Journalism course in a Greek university. The 4Cs Framework was used as a basic theoretical tool
for the design of the materials. Attention was paid to both content and language through a multiple
authentic materials through scaffolding.
English for Specific purposes (ESP) has a long tradition, dating from the 1960s, as a
movement designed to appeal mostly to adult tertiary students in non-English speaking countries
responding to their needs for communication in specific scientific fields and professional settings.
Although Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), with its dual focus on both content
and language, emerged almost thirty years after the advent of ESP, both movements are
driven by common factors, including the omnipresence of English as the international
language of communication and the demands of world economy. Indeed, some researchers have
pointed out the common characteristics shared by both approaches. Johns (1997), although not
directly referring to CLIL but to Content-based Instruction (CBI), upon which CLIL draws,
highlights the common features between the two approaches. The first point of convergence is
that both movements combine language teaching with the contexts and demands of real
language use. A difference, however, lies in the fact that CBI is generally addressed to ESL
(English as a Second Language) contexts whereas ESP is related to foreign language learning and
thus it is more internationally focused, a feature it shares with CLIL. Moreover, ESP mostly
addresses language issues, that is, it involves teaching the English language necessary for
communication in specific situations. Both ESP and CLIL can be seen, however, as occupying
places on a continuum with ESP standing towards one end as a more language- driven approach
and CLIL on the other as more content-driven (Räsänen, 2008).
Table 1 presents some of the key features of CBI, CLIL and ESP allowing, thus, for a comparison
among the three approaches.
There are points of convergences between
CLIL and ESP
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
Methodology
According to the 4Cs Framework (Coyle, 1999) language learning (communication and
cultures) is integrated with learning (content and cognition). Effective CLIL is achieved
through successful understanding of the content, activation of cognitive processing,
interaction in a communicative setting, developing language knowledge and skills and
increasing intercultural awareness.
In the first module covering the print media the students had to write news stories for the college
newspaper which would appear on the School’s website. Basic concepts were first introduced such
as news values, the genre of the news story, newspaper language, story structure (e.g. the inverted
pyramid-style) and also the function ofheadlines and lead paragraphs. The students were also
introduced to lexico-grammatical features of textual analysis, such as nominal groups, connectors,
referents and also the use of active/passive voice and modals in specialised discourse.
Input was provided through authentic data taken from British and American newspapers, both
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
quality and tabloid. The analysis provided the students with conceptual knowledge regarding news
stories. This introduction was followed by a task where the students, in groups of four, had to write
a news story by applying the journalistic guidelines they had been introduced to and thus they were
able to develop their skills and the competences necessary for the production of a piece of writing
belonging to this genre.
This task-based activity draws on CLIL principles in that it pays attention to authentic
materials, it focuses on output and, through group work, allows for interaction which would
otherwise be limited in a class of 40 students.
Students were also exposed to the differences in the Greek and Anglo-Saxon writing style, thus
allowing for the development of intercultural awareness.
CLIL draws upon social-constructivist theories of learning which focus on interactive,
mediated and student-led learning (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010). This type of pedagogy
involves social interaction among students and teachers and requires scaffolding. Hammond
and Gibbons (2005, p. 9) define scaffolding as “support designed to provide the assistance
necessary to enable learners to accomplish tasks and develop understandings that they would not be
able to manage on their own”. An important characteristic of scaffolding is that it is temporary. It
aims at building independent learning, thus teacher support should be gradually reduced as
the students become increasingly autonomous in tackling a task. Scaffolding applies to both
language and subject content and involves the cognitive skills required to carry out tasks. The
theoretical basis of scaffolding lies in Vygotsky’s (1978) notion of the zone of proximal
development, which is best described as the kind of learning which is always challenging yet
within the grasp of the students, provided they are furnished with adequate guidance and
scaffolding. The teacher’s role is to facilitate cognitive challenge within a student’s zone of
proximal development and to gradually withdraw support as learning progresses.
The following tasks were planned as a sequence of scaffolding that would facilitate both content
and language learning in the second module focusing on the broadcast media. Students were given
the opportunity to watch a news-in-brief programme videotaped from a British channel. After the
presentation they were asked to fill in a table with similarities and differences between news
writing for the print media (e.g. the press) and news writing for the broadcast media (e.g. TV). It
should be noted here that the students were already familiar with story structure and writing style
for the print media and they had produced news stories for the college newspaper during the
previous weeks. The teacher facilitated the process by eliciting previous knowledge from the
students and guided them through the task by pointing out specific characteristics of broadcast
writing and the structure of the broadcast news story (e.g. climax-cause-effect or lead-body-
concluding part).
The next step involved the actual writing of a news story for television. The students were given a
story that appeared on a British newspaper and were asked to convert it into a broadcast news story
by taking into consideration the table they had filled in with relevant information. At this point the
video was played once more.
By this time students were sufficiently exposed both to the language and journalistic conventions
which are appropriate for copy writing and were ready to move on to the final stage, the
presentation of a news-in-brief TV programme which was recorded at the School’s electronic
media laboratory. During this stage the students had the opportunity to internalize their new
knowledge, to synthesize their previous work and to accomplish independently a real-life task. It is
worth pointing out that, based on classroom observation, the students seemed to be highly
motivated, especially in anticipation of the recording at the studio.
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
CLIL is by nature dynamic and student-centred, requiring students to take on a more active
role and become responsible for their own learning (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010). In this
way CLIL classes build on both the students’ previous knowledge and the internalization of
newly-acquired knowledge through tasks that focus on active negotiation of meaning.
In an attempt to explore active learning in the ESP class we used collaborative group work and
project work, thus helping students engage in meaningful exchanges that would facilitate
acquisition of the target language and internalization of content knowledge. The students were
divided in groups of four; we made sure that every group included at least one Erasmus student, so
that the students would converse only in English. At the same time a cultural element was
incorporated, in a natural way, in the groups since the involvement of the exchange studentsbrought
in intercultural understanding and awareness in the classroom. Each group was assigned one of the
following topics: On-line vs Print Newspapers, Social Media and Internet Addiction, Trash TV in
Europe, and Censorship in the Media. The students researched their topic by conducting
WebQuests on a template prepared by the teacher at the School’s computer laboratory. The
WebQuest incorporated an oral presentation where the students delivered a five-minute talk on
their topic to the rest of the class following a set of questions and guidelines posted on their
WebQuest. Marsh (2004) highlights the importance of WebQuests as both scaffolded learning
structures and authentic tasks which are used to motivate students’ investigation of a topic, to
develop individual expertise and to promote student participation in a group process that
allows new information to develop into more sophisticated knowledge. The project work
received very positive comments from the students, who mentioned that they had enjoyed the
process and had gained considerable knowledge not only on the topic they were researching but
also on how to conduct research on the Internet, to use and evaluate sources and prepare an oral
presentation, skills they had been introduced to at the beginning of the course.
2.2. Evaluation of the course
The success of the course was reflected in the student evaluation, in which students gave a positive
rating to acquiring new knowledge in their fields of study (score 3.9 on a 5-point scale, SD=.7,
n=53), to engaging in real-life tasks (score 4.2, SD=.8) and to interacting with each other in English
(score 3.9, SD=.7).
3. Conclusion
The design of the ESP course outlined here presents an attempt to incorporate elements of the CLIL
approach to an otherwise language-centred programme. As a general reflection on the experience it
could be noted that the implementation of CLIL-based activities seems to contribute to the course
objectives and to enhance student motivation. Furthermore, it seems that learning becomes more
effective as students are more engaged in real-life tasks and work collaboratively to produce
pieces of work that the professional community expects. On the whole, it appears that ESP
courses would benefit from the implementation of the core principles of CLIL.
ESP benefit from implementation of the
core principles of CLIL
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
SURVEY ON REACTION OF STUDENTS ON CLIL
Law and Business Students’ Attitudes towards Learning English for Specific Purposes within
CLIL and Non-CLIL Contexts Candela Contero Urgal
4(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334001909_Law_and_Business_Students'_Attitudes_towards_Learning_English_for_Sp
ecific_Purposes_within_CLIL_and_Non CLIL_Contexts/link/5d12950f299bf1547c7f3732/download)
According to this research there is a relevant
difference in the perception of ESP course in
students depending if it was with CLIL
metodology
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses are offered in most undergraduate programmes in
Spanish universities. A good example of this is the University of Cádiz, where the Department of
French and English Philology is the second largest in this institution, with approximately 50% of its
teaching staff committed to delivering ESP courses.
This has been thought as a way to foster the internationalization of the students' curriculum. It is a
fact that students getting into university in recent years are enjoying a progressively more
international environment, as some of them have already participated in bilingual or plurilingual
academic programmes. They may also have a minimum level of the Foreign Language (FL)
certified. Nevertheless, having acquired a certain level of the FL, students may show some
reluctance to having ESP courses when their studies are not directly related to linguistic content.
As the rejection level in bilingual programmes seems to be less than in monolingual programmes,
we wonder whether Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is offering our students a
unique opportunity through which learning ESP can become a motivating challenge.
The survey was conducted during the last sessions of the course under the name “Basic Legal
Terminology in English” which is located in the Spring semester of the fourth year of the Law
Degree. Students were given a list of nine statements.
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
Results
The results obtained from our study can be classified into the following threemain topics: (1) skills
expected to be developed by the students in an ESP course; (2) students’ positive attitude towards an
ESP course which has already been delivered; and (3) students’ awareness of the usefulness of ESP
in real life.
The surveyed students were asked whether they were expecting to develop law-related or
language-related skills throughout this legal English course, as this course seems to help
students acquire cross curricular competences.
Law students’ expectations towards the skills to develop in Business students’ expectations towards the skills to develop
their ESP course. in their ESP course
The participants in the survey were given a list of statements so as to identify their degree of
agreement with them by using a Likert scale.
Such a scale ranged from 1 to 5, where 1 was “strongly disagree”, 2 “disagree”, 3 “neutral”, 4
“agree” and 5 “absolutely agree”.
They noticeably saw the application of their legal English course in their own life. Results were
more driven towards total agreement when in previous studies most business students
appreciated a clear usefulness of the ESP course they were taking part in in their real life.
Figure 5. Business students’ and Law students’ opinions towards the application of ESP in real life .
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”E-tivity 1 - WebQuest – Learning experiences with ESP and CLIL – A. Ferrara
Discussion and Conclusions
CLIL resources used in class are expected to be authentic. It is the ESP teacher that can foster
authenticity in class so as to combine the effectiveness of both teaching approaches. The final
results of our survey demonstrate students’ attitudes towards learning ESP are rather
positive. . As we explained in the introduction to this paper, students’ attitudes were not that
positive at the beginning of the course, in which certain preconceptions of what the ESP course
would consist of lead students be rather skeptic towards this module of their degree. One of the
causes which might have provoked this skepticism is the scarcity of information offered to
students regarding the course’s competences to be developed and goals to be achieved. If students
are convinced from the very first lesson of the purpose for the inclusion of that course in the last
phase of their undergraduate studies, they will probably be taking the course in a much more
positive attitude. The reason why this survey was compared to the results obtained in a previous
study conducted in the Business and Administration Degree within the same institution is that the
business students were also studying ESP. However, this ESP course had the characteristic of
being located within the framework of a CLIL context. Students immersed in a CLIL
programme are certainly more used to the integration of content and language in a natural way.
This suggests they are more accustomed to acquiring and using a FL in an authentic context in
which the connection between the teaching goals and their real life is highly perceptible. That
made the data obtained in this prior study more positive regarding the students’ attitudes
towards the course. The generation of an authentic context in which the acquisition of a FL is
facilitated is recommended both within CLIL and non-CLIL contexts. Developing a positive
attitude towards an ESP course canbe stimulated by a clear recognition of the competences
expected to be acquired by the students. This can be done by means of teaching strategies which
can be used by the ESP teacher both within CLIL and non-CLIL programmes in order to foster
authentic exposure to the FL, therefore creating a real necessity and willingness in the students to
learn.
Students are most accostomed to acquire and
using an authentic context in which the conection
between the teaching goals and their life is highly
perceptible
Corso di perfezionamento ed aggiornamento professionale “Discipline e lingue straniere in approccio integrato - CLIL”You can also read
