Supporting Thinking Skills in CLIL Courses

1. Supporting thinking skills in CLIL courses
上智大学言語教育研究センター
准教授
逸見シャンタール（ＥｄＤ ＴＥＦＬ）
chantalhemmi@gmail.com

2. Outline
1
• What is CLIL?
2
• Practical application of a CLIL approach
3
• Supporting thinking skills through integration of content and language
4
• Demo lesson
5
• Student research project
6
• Heavy CLIL
• Students’ reflections
7
• Conclusions and implications

3. The most popular
definition
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
is a dual-focused educational approach in which an
additional language is used for the learning and
teaching of both content and language.
(Coyle, Hood and Marsh 2010:1)

4. The 4 Cs of CLIL
CLIL
Cognition
Communication
Content
Community
Uncovering CLIL
Mehisto. Marsh, Frigols (2008)
Macmillan Books for Teachers

5. CLIL in Europe
PROVISION IN ALMOST ALL COUNTRIES
In nearly all European countries, certain schools offer a form of education provision according to which
non-language subjects are taught either through two different languages, or through a single language
which is 'foreign' according to the curriculum. This is known as content and language integrated
learning (CLIL – see the Glossary, Statistical Databases and Bibliography section). Only Denmark,
Greece, Iceland and Turkey do not make this kind of provision.
Figure B9: Existence of CLIL provision
in primary and/or general secondary education, 2010/11
Source: Eurydice.
Explanatory note
CLIL provision in some schools: The practice is not necessarily widespread. For detailed information on CLIL
provision in each country, see Annex 2.
CLIL provision in all schools
CLIL provision in some schools
CLIL provision within pilot projects only
No CLIL provision

6. Hard CLIL and Soft CLIL?
O Hard CLIL is a form of subject teaching in
L2 which highlights academic
achievement within the subject and treats
language development as important, but
as a bonus.
O Soft CLIL may be offered for a short
period-perhaps half a year- and it will only
occupy a portion of the hours available to
the subject: perhaps one in three.
Ball, Kelly and Clegg (2015). Putting CLIL into Practice. Oxford: OUP.

7. CLIL is wrongly used to refer to
local forms of L2 subject
teaching.
O There are long-established forms of L2
medium education and new introductions
for example, English Medium science and
maths adapted to the local context.
Ball, Kelly and Clegg (2015). Putting CLIL
into Practice. Oxford: OUP
Ball, Kelly and Clegg (2015:10)

8. Different types of education in
diverse educational settings
Education in a
second language
Immersion
education
Minority education Bilingual education
English-medium
education in
developing
countries
Recent English
medium science
and maths
programmes
Ball, Kelly and Clegg (2015). Putting CLIL
into Practice. Oxford: OUP
Ball, Kelly and Clegg (2015:6-10)

9. How is CLIL different?
O CLIL tends to be taught in a particular
school in one or a limited number of
subjects; it rarely involves large
proportions of the curriculum.
O CLIL learners have a basic minimum level
of L2 ability when they enter a programme,
which is considered adequate for them to
flourish in it.
O CLIL is dependent on good levels of CALP
on the part of learners.
Ball, Kelly and Clegg (2015:10)

10. How is CLIL different?
O CLIL is normally offered in secondary
schools, though many primary schools do
offer effective CLIL courses.
O In European CLIL, learning a subject in L2
can have high social value for parents and
can achieve high levels of language and
subject knowledge.
Ball, Kelly and Clegg (2015). Putting CLIL
into Practice. Oxford: OUP
Ball, Kelly and Clegg (2015:10)

11. Literacy and cognitive skills
O It is widely accepted and well supported by
research (Cummins, 2000) that learners
with good L1 literacy skills and academic
language proficiency are better equipped to
learn in L2.
O A ‘common underlying proficiency’
consisting of CALP skills-once learnt in one
language , can transfer to a second.
Ball, Kelly and Clegg
(2015:13)
Ball,B. Kelly, K. and Clegg, J. (2015). Putting CLIL into
Practice. Oxford: OUP.
Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy:
Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual
Matters.

12. http://eslrw.ucalgary.ca/files/eslrw/Learner_
profiles.pdf

13. Cognition
HOTS
(Higher Order
Thinking Skills)
LOTS
(Lower Order
Thinking Skills)

14. Community (Culture)
World
Region
Country
Town/city
School
Classroom

15. http://www.slideshare.net/engnet/abcs-of-clil

16. http://www.slideshare.net/engnet/abcs-of-clil

20. Discussion
Graffiti can sometimes add an interesting
touch to the scenery in cities but some
people
are against it because they think that the
loud colours and images spoil the
environment. Discuss whether you agree or
disagree with the statement below, giving
reasons for your opinion.
‘Graffiti should be banned in all public
places.’

23. Sharing your stories
O Think of a childhood memory and share your
story about how it has shaped who you are.
O Make a note of your partner’s story and report it
to another partner after you have finished
sharing your stories.

24. What I found interesting about my
partner’s story was that…
O She remembered the experience so well
O There is a vivid image of …
O She remembered how…

27. What is identity? Definitions
 Identity answers the
question, ‘Who am I?’
(Sarbin and Scheibe,
1983; Weigart et al,
1986).
 ‘Identities are defined
with respect to the
interaction of
multiple convergent
trajectories’ (Wenger,
1998:154).
 ‘A community of
selves’ (Mair, 1997)
 ‘Identities and beliefs
are co-constructed,
negotiated and
transformed on an
ongoing basis by
means of language.’
(Duff &Uchida,
1997:452)

28. Part 1.3
Who cares? Memories of a Childhood in Care
Fred Fever
16 pages

29. 1. How old was the writer when he was
adopted?
2. What were the first parents like?
3. What was Patrick like?
4. What did David do?

30. Let’s check the homework.
1. How old was the writer when he was
adopted? Three months old
2. What were the first parents like?
Jenny was warm and friendly and
loving.
3. What was Patrick like?
Patrick was humiliating, punishing
and
violent.
4. What did David do?
He sexually abused him; He threatened him with castration.

31. What happened in the rest of the story?
(True or false?)
1. In 1974, Fred was fostered by Betty and
Bernard Simmonds.
2. Fred made many friends in Barrow Grove.
3. Fred was not interested in his school work
at all.
4. Fred got bad grades from school.
5. Fred was happy to go to a children’s home.

32. The nature of autobiographies
In your view, what is the nature of
autobiographies?
O It is a true story.
O There are real descriptions.
O However, is it alright to trust the stories?
O Is it a good tool for research?

33. Personal reflections: What I did in the CLIL classes (Not necessarily what
should be done in a CLIL class in a prescribed way)
CLIL classes Language-focussed classes
1. Starting the
lesson
Sharing session
Teacher just listens to find a
‘tag’ from which to scaffold
new information
Warmer
An activity focussing on the topic,
often with an aim to study
linguistic difficulties/student
learning needs. (Often
diagnostic)
2. Shape of the
lesson
Less-controlled-controlled-
less controlled (TB)
Often the background
reading was set for
homework so students came
with prior knowledge to the
classroom
PPP: Controlled-Less controlled-
Less controlled
TTT: Little control-Control-Little
control-Control
TB: Controlled-Less controlled-
Controlled
3. Correction on the
language
Done in the following
session to avoid distraction
from the content and to
avoid embarrassment
Often done on the spot because
of requests from students to do
so.
Sometimes group
correction/peer correction using
codes
4. Materials Very visual
Authentic materials
Visual
Textbook and authentic
materials
5. Vocabulary Taught in context Pre-taught before the main
activity

34. Personal reflections
CLIL classes Language-focussed classes
6. Approach Task-based with an end-
product
Completely integrated
Content : language (50:50)
Communicative approach
Information gap
Sometimes task-based
Process approach
Skills-focussed and achievement
orientated
7. Role of teacher Facilitator
Manager
Suggestion maker for
informed choices
Manager
Giver of advice on accuracy and
fluency
Time-management controller
Advocator of efficacy
Counselor (0ne-on-one)
8. Thinking skills Core factor Always an important factor but
the main factor was about the
achievement of language
accuracy and fluency
9. Study skills Very important factor Very important especially in the
EAP courses I taught
10. Assessment Portfolios, exam, essay,
presentation
Continuous assessment

36. What is critical thinking?

37. What is critical thinking?
An active, persistent and careful
consideration of a belief
Supposed form of knowledge in the light
of the grounds which support it
(Dewey, 1909)
Dewey, J. (1998) How We Think. Dover Publications.

39. Reflection
OAccording to Schön (1987) a
reflective practitioner thinks a
he/she does things (reflection
in action) and reflects on the
actions taken (reflection on
action).
Schön, D. (1987) Educating the Reflective
Practitioner. Jossey-Bass Publishers: London.

41. Critical thinking skills-
a disposition?
OEnnis (1987) focused on the
ability to reflect skeptically and
to think in a reasoned way as
one’s capability or disposition.
Ennis, R. (1987) A taxonomy of critical thinking dispositions
and abilities. In J.Baron and R. Sternberg (eds.). Teaching
Thinking Skills: Theory and practice. New York:
W.H.Freeman.

42. Critical thinking: a set of skills
OCottrell (2011:1) supports the
view that critical thinking can be
taught as a set of skills.
OShe advocates that it is a
cognitive activity that uses
processes such as focussing
attention, categorisation,
selection and judgment.
Cottrell, S.(2011) Critical Thinking Skills, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

44. What are the benefits of focussing on
critical thinking?
OWe can help students to be able to
think and present their opinions with
reasons.
OWe can help students to listen critically
to others and agree/disagree with
reasons.
OWe can help students in the selection
of materials they read.

46. What are the benefits of
focussing on critical thinking?
OWe can guide them to take
control of their learning and
become more autonomous in
what and how they learn.

48. Research questions
O What kind of reflection is shown in the students’
reflective papers?
O How did student thinking develop through the
course?
5. The study

49. Data collection
O First six weeks of term before the students launched
on a project related to identity and diversity
O Reflective papers were sent to me by e-mail

50. Sample paper

51. Data analysis
O I used a grounded theory approach to analyse
the data (Glaser & Strauss, 1968), so that the
findings remain close to the actual data and
as far as possible retain the ‘voices’ of the
participants. I aimed to identify the
commonalities in the kinds of thinking that
took place, but at the same time, I wished to
understand the stories that individuals told
about their learning and thinking.
O I analysed the data in this way so as to
identify commonalities amongst what the
students’ had expressed in their papers.

52. What kind of reflection is shown in the
students’ reflective papers?
O Personalising concepts
O Exploring definitions
(personalising the
definitions)
O Making comparisons
O Analysing content
O Thinking about
language
O Learning through
collaboration
O Thinking about culture
O Thinking about
emotions
O Forming a hypothesis
O Theorising personally
O Thinking about
suggestions

53. Thinking about content and
language
The data from the reflective papers showed that the
students had thought about both the new content
learnt on the course, as well as the English language
itself.
Thinking about content
Three categories emerged from the data; analysing
content, personalising concepts, and making personal
theories.

54. Personalising concepts
It is illuminating that students had personalised
concepts by referring back to their own past
experiences.
O Eriko said,‘ I have read some biographies before, but
I didn’t think about what is the power of that what is
the difference between biographies and other
writings.’
She is comparing biographies and other kinds of writing
to understand what kind of impact they have on the
readers. She compares the autobiography we read,
which had real data on how Fred was abused in an
orphanage. This text was used in class to analyse how
Fred’s identity was formed. It is interesting that Eriko is
trying to personalise a new concept about the power of
autobiographies by comparing them to other books she
has read.

55. Analysing content
(Making comparisons)
When Eriko read an auto-biography of a British person who
had lived in orphanages, ’Who cares? Memories of a
Childhood in Care’ (Fever, 1995), there was a reference to his
grades from school. Eriko wrote:
O ‘I do not know whether it is a big difference or not but on
the left side one which is written on 19th February in 1976,
the teacher refers Fred as ‘Alfred’ though on the right side,
the teacher write ‘Fred’. I know those two words refer to the
same person but I wondered what has happened during
five month.’
The above text shows that Eriko is comparing the way the
teacher referred to the author differently and Eriko guesses
that something must have happened in the relationship
between the teacher and Alfred. She is questioning herself by
saying, ‘ I wondered what has happening during five month’.
She does not make explicit what her guesses are but she
formed a question to analyse the differences in which Alfred
was addressed.

56. Exploring definitions
O When I was a junior high school student I always changed
my attitude with whom I talk and I felt difficulty in defining
myself because I didn’t have my consistent character and
didn’t know who I was. It was hard for me to live school life
not knowing what my character was. However, one day I
noticed that to try to define my character is just my ‘identity’.
That is, to think about ‘identity’ is exactly identity. (Saki 1-2)
O I was very interested in the matter of identity, and I
rediscovered the importance of the events in each personal
lives, by listening the lectures of professor and also the
opinions of the classmates. They reminded me of a
traumatic episode, which changed my life. I am fascinated
by the fact that our identity stands on the layers of tiny fatal
occurance. (Naho 1-5)

57. Making personal theories
Students wrote out their own definitions in order to make personal
theories about identity. For example, Saki said:
O ‘Identity was a difficult thing to explain and I have not found the
definition of identity yet…In the last class, having listened to other’s
opinion that identity is what makes our core, I have a definition of
identity, that is, a consistent tendency that one always have.’
I was intrigued by the concept of ‘a consistent tendency that one
always [has]’, as I think that Saki is thinking about the fact that one’s
identity can change, depending on the people one is interacting with,
and that identity is socially constructed. However, she is thinking there
must be a ‘core’ person who determines who they are. She uses the
word, ‘tendency’ to explain that although there is a ‘core person’ within
a person, they may change. ‘Tendency’ is translated as ‘keikou’ in
Japanese, and what she means here is that one may tend to behave
differently depending on the circumstances of the social situation and
who one’s interlocutor is. By making such a personal theory about
identity, Saki is internalising the content she learnt in the lesson.

58. Making personal theories
O I think identity is made up with how person
spend his or her life so the biographies tell
the readers about the writer’s identity
more deeply and efficiently than the
novels they wrote. However, actually the
writer might try to be a hero or heroine of
tragedy throughout their writings so I
agree with the opinions that ‘feelings may
not be reliable’ and subjectivity would
change the truth. (Eriko1-2)

59. Thinking about language
O Content is more important than pronunciation. I think
many people in British Council thought Sadako Ogata’s
speech is professional, gentle, and easy to hear, and
right speed. The more I hear her speech I like Sadako
Ogata’s speech more. In Japanese there are many
people (including me) who think that their pronunciation
is not so good. But now, I change my mind. Even I can
become a good English speaker if I care about the
contents and have the will to share my opinion to
everyone. (Aya 2-1)

60. Learning through
collaboration
O Before I took this class, I had thought that
my words were reliable and I could talk
my experiences truthfully because they
were what I actually experienced and
believed that both what I experienced to a
thing and what others experienced were
the same. However, I found that there
was a difference of the way of
understanding to a same thing between
others and I. (Saki 1-5)

61. Thinking about culture
O What I found interesting was that just
speaking English makes me feel I am
touching foreign culture. Of course English is
not Japanese culture, so it is quite natural for
me, Japanese, to feel so. But through using
English to communicate with other students,
this might be my over-reacting but, what I
think is not the same when I speak Japanese,
I guess that is because speaking English is
not common to me. So my brain is working
more than speaking Japanese, I like this
feelings. (Keisuke)

62. Thinking about emotions
O Autobiography is interesting. It was the first
time for me to read autobiography; therefore
Fred Fever’s sad childhood day’s records
really touched me. I heave read a biography
of my favourite author J.R.R.Tolkien and it
was entirely different. The reason why Fred
Fever’s autobiography touched me is its word
had a ‘power’; alternatively, it included his
emotion.
O As I read this article, I could experience his
happiness, fear, anger and all
sorts of feelings which he experienced.
(Natsumi 1-1)

63. Forming a hypothesis
and making a suggestion
O I wondered if the voters are included other
English native speakers who is like from
USA, Australia or Canada, the results
may different from this one.
O I think if this type of research would be
done, the results might be more
influenced by the preferences of the
selectors. (Eriko 2-2)

64. How did the students’
thinking develop through the
course?O They started to apply their own thinking initially to
personalise new concepts that were presented in
class.
O They did this by comparing things they knew,
referring back to their own experiences.
O They made their own definitions and understood
that they were allowed to make mistakes.
O They learnt to make a hypothesis and made some
assumptions with reasons.
O They started to theorise and make suggestions
about problems that needed to be sorted.
O The developed their confidence in making critical
comments about what the teacher had said.

65. Development of student
thinking
Analysing
content Making
comparisons
Thinking
about content
Thinking
about
language
Learning
through
collaboration
Thinking
about cultureThinking
about
emotions
Forming a
hypothesis
Making
personal
theories
Thinking
about
suggestions

66. Conclusions and Implications
1. In the light CLIL course, students needed a lot of
support in ‘the language for learning’ (Coyle, Hood
and Marsh,2010:60’)
2. In the heavy CLIL course, students used their
reflective papers to monitor their own understanding
of content and concepts related to identity.
3. In future, I need to devise a more triangulated way in
which to analyse students’ development of thinking
skills.