Good CLIL practice (2)

Do you believe here can be good CLIL and bad CLIL?

What constitutes good CLIL practice?

As I said before, we cannot say that there can be bad “Content and Language Integrated Learning, if it is bad so it is not CLIL because I understand that CLIL constitutes the use of best practices incorporating some approaches like EMI   (English as a Medium of Instruction), LAC (Language Across the Curriculum) and CBI (Content-Based Instruction), and the use of Scaffolding, for example.  With all of the stuff that CLIL implies, students learn building their language and reaching the position where they have to. Something that we have to remember of everything thing we have studied in this course is that CLIL is based on language acquisition rather than enforced learning.    

One of the best practices, for me, is when we plan our classes trying to use the principles of the 4Cs, coined by Coyle, D. (2008), which focuses on the language curriculum and on the interrelationship between content, communication, cognition and culture. All together units learning theories, language learning theories and intercultural understanding

Evaluation and Assessment in CLIL also constitutes a good practice since the idea for combined assessment of content and language together. This mix will help in the process of learning of our students and make them reach higher performance when they become professionals, helping them communicate, listen, to and learn from others.    

In addition, a good practice is to use all the tools that Scaffolding proposes because it will aid students in the construction of permanent learning since the acquisition and creating knowledge by interacting with their peers as well as teachers will impulse them to reach a solution to a task. Later on this process will help to achieve the higher level of knowledge that Bloom’s Taxonomy proposes, i.e., these students will be able to analyze, add, and apply essential information.     

Another example is when we use Bloom’s framework. Finally, Teachers in CLIL should also consider the 3As tools, Bloom’s Taxonomy. The use of them, i.e., Analyze, Add, and apply are essential in more detailed lesson planning. With them we can use activities that engage learners. For engaging learning we have “Scaffolding”, for example. Why Scaffolding?