Content and Language Integrated Learning in Estonia – a
project launch.
| The British Council in Estonia (www.britishcouncil.org/estonia)
launched a new project, April 18th 2006, with a focus content and language
integrated learning at their offices in the heart of the old town of
Tallinn. Project manager Kaarin Truus invited teachers from around Estonia to a one-day information and awareness raising workshop on CLIL and colleagues participated from schools in Tallinn and Tartu looking into opportunities for developing CLIL projects in their home contexts. Colleagues were presented with an introduction to CLIL and issues for consideration in getting started covering materials provision, teacher and learner language levels, school issues, training and others. |
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The second half of the workshop was dedicated to providing language
support in foreign language content teaching including dealing with new
terminology, developing listening and speaking skills and investigating
language within content specific texts. |
The three-hour workshop offered an insight into successes
and challenges in a number of CLIL contexts around Europe and elsewhere
including the Basque Country, Germany, Italy as well as Lithuania where a
project has been under way for the past three years.
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The meeting ended with a brainstorming session on what follow-up meetings should
provide teachers and the results included:
| The afternoon saw the group move to the English College in
Tallinn for an observed lesson on Genetics which colleague Anu Parks, thanks
for having us, began with the production of concept maps outlining core noun
and verb phrases from the topic and which continued with a debate on the
issues related to genetic science. The whole lesson was filmed and the
students, Form 11, coped very well with the 15 teachers sitting at the back,
being filmed, not to mention the marvellous way they performed in English.
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Day two of the visit involved a round table discussion with a small ‘task
force’, which I helped to facilitate, dedicated to discussing and planning for
the future growth of the CLIL project in Estonia.
Outcomes from the meeting, in brief, had three core strands. The group concluded
that follow-up should involve awareness-raising among educational management
within Estonia. It was also agreed that there was a need for some form of
progression of teacher development which would revolve around a partner scheme
between schools already established in using English as a medium for instruction
and other schools with the view that it would be more democratic, it would
encourage networking and sharing among teachers and it would also offer the CLIL
project the challenge to show that it actually can work in the mainstream of
education in Estonia. Parallel to these strands there should be an ongoing
process of needs analysis and materials development within partnership schools
to outline a foundation for development as well as a means for achieving
objectives targeted.
The British Council is looking initially at seeing what they can set in motion
during this financial year and in involving strategic partners and raising
awareness among managers in education in Estonia, as well as identifying and
consolidating a task force working on the project, there will be a strong
foundation for the sustainability of the project beyond 2006-7.
The Baltics as a region is developing content and language integration and it
should be a very interesting place to keep an eye on for the rest of us. The
real challenge here for colleagues in the long term will be to get CLIL on the
agenda institutionally and into pre-service educational programmes, to get these
courses recognised and certified, so that there will be new generations of
teachers coming out of the universities and pedagogy training institutions and
into schools equipped to deal with teaching their subjects in a foreign
language.
We’ll keep you all posted!
Best wishes
Keith
Keith Kelly (Language Education Consultant)
FACTWorld Coordinator (www.factworld.info)
NILE Associate Trainer (www.nile-elt.com)
SAW Consultant (www.scienceacross.org)
Home address: 146 St Leonards Rd, Leicester, LE23BZ, UK
Home tel: 0044 1162700962
Mobile: 0044 778 2356776
email: keithpkelly@yahoo.co.uk
The Forum for Across the Curriculum Teaching - Supporting and
Developing Content and Language Integrated Learning
Download the report in PDF format here.
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