Oman - CLIL in Oman

Content and Language Integrated Learning in Oman

Alex McGee (alexandra.mcgee@om.britishcouncil.org) hosted my visit to Oman and meetings with a group of colleagues from the Ministry of Eduction and British Council teachers, and Stephen Monteith (stephen.monteith@om.britishcouncil.org) hosted my presentation to the ELT Network group of teachers, Fri 2nd to Sun 4th March, 2007.



The Ministry of Education is investigating the introduction of English-medium Science, Maths and IT education in its schools nationally.  I met with key colleagues at the Ministry of Education and this is an important area to look out for in Oman in the near future.  There was a great deal of discussion about needs analysis in this context and there is likely to be a return trip to visit schools to carry out a base-line study into training needs, resource needs, language needs and many others.



An interactive talk was arranged at the British School in Oman (http://www.britishschoolmuscat.com/) for the ELT Network.  55 teachers were expected and there were 65 participants.  The focus of the talk was CLIL Issues, resources, networks as well as the Science Across the World progamme.  There was enthusiasm among the group to be able to carry out similar meetings with content colleagues. 



The discussion revolved around defining CLIL and the teachers positioning themselves in along the CLIL continuum.  There was a great deal of interest in the area, both from an ELT perspective and from the point of view of content learning in Omani schools and how this relates to language teachers like those in the audience.The teachers agreed to let me have the contact details of the colleagues in the audience so that they can be added to the database in Science Across the World.

There was a strong interest in Science Across from the group and I will make contacts with Science Across to look into a return visit with support from them in offering resources to teachers in the region.  It is a significant result in itself that now 65 teachers in Oman are aware of the programme and will hopefully sign up and make the most of the communication opportunities the programme offers.



A session was organised for Teaching Centre Teachers at the British Council in Oman.  The focus for the meeting was CLIL, issues, resources, networks and given the nature of the meetings in the TCs in Bahrain and Qatar, I focused largely on Science Across the World.  Again, there was interest in using the programme for communication with other teaching centres around the world.  This is a great idea which I will try and support from Science Across the World.


Bahrain, Qatar and Oman in a week, it was a lot to see and take in and there are many areas to follow up on.  It's also a result to have three new countries join our network.  I'm particularly excited about the opportunity to promote Science Across the World in the region, especially since we now have a pack, Drinking water, available in Arabic!  Don't forget that for a limited time only the subscription is free to Science Across the World!

Many thanks to all for hosting me and looking after me.  Can't wait to be back.