CLIL training programme

I recently experienced my first in-service course for European teachers of English at primary level. This two-week training programme, organised by the International Study Porgrammes in the UK, focused mainly on CLTL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and bilingual teaching.

The ISP offers its services in different parts of the UK. I chose to attend the one in Exeter, which is not a city overcrowded with overseas students, and offers a typically English environment.

The course, which was well organised, was attended by 16 teachers from Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and Malta. This gave us more of a chance to share ideas and opinions about the CLIL.

Teachers Dr Diana Hicks and Paul Bress, both from the UK, Silvana Rampone from Italy and Annetta Sadowska-Martyka, from Poland, all work with CLIL, so this was a great opportunity for feedback about their ideas and works, and also for us for hands-on experience and evaluation.

All participants, including myself, had the opportunity to gain a wealth of new teaching ideas, practical classroom skills and EFL materials for use in the primary classroom as well as improving our command of English and our knowledge of Britain and British life.

In the European Commission's recent document "Promoting language and linguistic diversity - an action plan 2004-2006," it is stated that CLIL, in which pupils learn a subject through the medium of a foreign language, has a big contribution to make to the Union's language learning goals.

"It can provide effective opportunities for pupils to use their new language skills now, rather than learn them now for later use. It opens doors on languages for a broader range of learners, nurturing self-confidence in young learners and those who have not responded well to formal language instruction in general education. It provides exposure to the language without requiring extra time in the curriculum, which can be of particular interest in vocational settings".

This course explored features and advantages of CLIL through the expertise of teacher trainers involved in the European Socrates Comenius 1.1 project 'CLIL for young learners' which aims to create and experiment with CLIL materials in English for primary children (aged six to 11).

The course gave the participants the opportunity to reflect on:

• the characteristics and needs of the CLIL learner in second language acquisition

• methodological approaches to facilitate the communication of the content through English (TPR - Total Physical Response), frequent rephrasing, and use of pictures/ mime/mini-plays/groupwork.

• the role of storytelling and picture books to develop listening and comprehension skills

• the use of authentic materials and their suitability in second language acquisition for young learners.

We worked as a group to gain experience in planning CLIL lessons, including length of lesson, learners' motivation, communicative skills, resources/materials, expected language reaction, expected outcomes, assessment and evaluation.

We also focused on how to develop materials related to different topics, such as school and its surroundings, the environment, healthy eating and living, art and craft, ecology, etc.

An integral part of the course were the study day visits in a typical English school where together with five other colleagues, I visited the Broadclyst Community School and The Eden Project in Cornwall.

Visiting a school abroad was exciting. Though the British educational system is quite similar to ours, the school environment is completely different. Classes are grouped in different buildings, depending on age and year.

There is a lot of open air space for pupils to use at their own leisure during break time, part of which is covered with turf, thus creating an opportunity for pupils to sit comfortably under the shade of the surrounding trees or play in a safe environment.

The visit to Eden Project in Cornwall was also interesting. Not only is the Eden Project, with its gigantic humid tropics, one of Britain's most important tourist attractions, but above all it has enormous scientific, environmental and educational significance.

The visit to the Eden Project and its new education centre gave us an insight to some of the activities and projects offered to visiting primary school groups.

The training programme was an interesting experience. Above all, I gained a lot of knowledge and ideas about how CLIL could easily be adopted in our educational system Malta being a bilingual country.

I believe CLIL can be adopted by all language teachers. I know this is not an easy task, especially at secondary level, where subject teachers are then introduced, but I believe this could be implemented only through collaboration between teaching staff. Working together to help young learners gain the necessary skills to develop their own knowledge is extremely rewarding.