TESOL Arabia's 15th Annual International
Conference
English in Learning: Learning in English
Content, Language and task-based
learning: a balancing act
Jane Willis
Honorary Visiting Fellow Aston University
A balancing act
Content, Language and taskbased learning: a balancing act
Overview
1. Learning in English
2. Content and tasks – CLIL
and TBL together
3. A focus on English in
learning - getting the
balance right
1. Learning in English
What are the main benefits for your
students of Learning in English?
Exposure to language in use – rich potential
input
Real purpose for using language – to learn
something new
Real purpose for learning language integrated within a real context
If well
can
If wellimplemented,
implemented,itlearning
in English can
-increase
learner
motivation
increase
learner
motivationand
andparticipation
participation
-save
time
andand
lead
to to
higher
save
time
lead
higherlanguage
languagelevels
levels
- be be
satisfying
and
satisfying
andrewarding
rewardingfor
forthe
the teacher
teacher
and and
learner
learner
So what is Content and Language
Integrated Learning?
Do Coyle, CLIL: Motivating Learners and Teachers,
explores the dual aims of CLIL and defines it thus:
‘a powerful pedagogic tool which aims to
safeguard the subject being taught whilst
promoting language as a medium for learning
as well as an objective of the learning process
itself.’
http://www.scilt.stir.ac.uk/Downloads/slr/issue_13/SLR13Coyle.pdf
Some successful FL projects
Content Based Instruction in FLs e.g. NASA space
team, diplomats, peace keeping forces – intensive
courses in the USA 1990s
Immersion Education in Canadian schools – French and
English
Bilingual Schools Project integrated Spanish/English
Curriculum 3-16 year old children in Spain 1966
Content and Language Integrated Project (CLIP)- 8 UK
schools begun in 2002
In the Middle East – a variety of projects at a range of
levels to be reported at this conference
In what ways were these successful?
A recent evaluation of the Spanish project has reported the
following successes:
interest and motivation on the part of the children
the enthusiasm of the parents
a growing sense of satisfaction from head teachers in
schools, many of which are in economically deprived areas
learning in two languages not only contributes to the
progress of the children in their first language, but would
appear to assist the children's cognitive development.
Feedback on the UK CLIL project
a researcher:
… it allows pupils to use language in a range of different
ways,[] and in more complex ways; they have a higher
level of comprehension skills, develop better strategic
skills… [] focus less on word-by-word comprehension..
a teacher:
You change your mind about what is possible. I would
never have believed it before- that beginners could make
so much progress so quickly.
Do such projects always succeed?
NO!
David Graddol speaking at the IATEFL CLIL debate
in 2005:
…. there is a potentially large downside to it. In many
countries they just don't seem to be equipped to
implement Clil. When it works it works
extraordinarily well, but it is actually quite a
difficult to do well. My feeling is that it may actually
take 30 or 40 years for a country to really to pull this
one off.
Hong Kong - Secondary Schools
Amy Tsui reported at the same CLIL debate
a) the students who learned content through English ended up
two years behind those learning in Chinese
b) Chinese-medium school students got much higher grades
when taking the Chinese school-leaving public examination
c) by the 3rd year of CLIL, the self perception, self esteem of
English-medium students were significantly lower than
Chinese-medium students - and motivation as well.
IT’S NOT EASY
Possible reasons for failure
Teachers’ perceived linguistic competence
Stakeholders’ beliefs
Assessment procedures and grading schemes
Other challenges mentioned by teachers
Making content input comprehensible
– new concepts and new language together
Mother tongue use – when to allow it
Learner motivation – how to increase it
When and how to work on language
and focus on form? Before? In parallel but
separate? Integrated?
The last four challenges
can be met by making
flexible use of tasks
within a coherent
framework
Need to start small –
with support…..
So on to Part 2….
2. CLIL and TBL together:
How can tasks help?
There is a rich literature on TBL which can be
applied to the problems of CLIL .
Tasks have to be about something and Content
can provide the topics.
Content has be broken down into activities that
learners can engage with, and these fit our
definition of a Task.
CLIL through Tasks
Do Coyle lists Task design in her curriculum planning model and
stresses the need for a ‘strategy for promoting genuine
communication in the FL if learning is to take place’.
 Tasks can be the main strategy
She adds: The CLIL environment demands a level of talking and
interaction that is different from the traditional language
classroom.
 Tasks provide opportunities for genuine communication
and rich meaning-focused interaction
Characteristics of effective tasks
have a primary focus on meaning
have a clear outcome for learners to achieve
relate as far as possible to real world activities
engage learners’ interest
CLIL and Music - a task to try
MUSIC syllabus for
children
Here is an activity
with the aim: to
develop left hand /
right hand coordination
ARE YOU READY?
How did that fit the criteria?
Characteristics of effective tasks
a primary focus on meaning
a clear outcome
a real world skill
engaging
---------------------------------------------------------------------Language: one hand / the other hand / both hands /
both together
and lots of other input
A higher level task
DESIGN A LIBRARY BROCHURE
Design a Library Brochure for
new students
a sequence of enabling tasks
planned by the students
themselves
Followed by three evaluation tasks
after the publication of the brochure
HCT Ras Al Khaimah Men’s College
http://ilc.rkmc.hct.ac.ae/ILCSite/1FB_Mohamed%20Khaled
_1.pdf
A Task-based lesson framework
Tasks are most effective when used within a
coherent Framework.
Priming & Preparation
Task Cycle
Task >> Planning >> Report of outcome
Form focus
Pre-task priming and preparation
can help make content input more comprehensible.
It requires:
prior analysis of the linguistic and cognitive
demands
a series of mini- tasks, often teacher-led
lots of visual support
BBC.co.uk
GEOGRAPHY
Rivers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/riversandcoasts/index.shtml
Use the web and fine-tune activities
BBC Homepage
Schools
>>What is a river?
The water cycle
How do rivers change?
People and rivers
What is a river?
A river is fresh water flowing across the surface of the
land, usually to the sea. It flows in a channel. The
bottom of the channel is called the bed and the sides of
the channel are called the banks.
All rivers are different, but they all work in a similar way.
The key idea to remember is that water flows
downhill. Flowing water has ENERGY!
Now make a diagram and label it.
Choose 3 useful phrases to remember.
Framework – Task cycle
Priming & Preparation
Task Cycle
Task >> Planning >> Report of outcome
Form focus
Sample tasks for rivers
All the next few tasks have a purpose for the report except
one – which one?
If water is flowing down the river to the sea, why doesn’t
the river empty, dry up, or run out of water? The
answer lies in The Water Cycle.
Read the web-link, and write a full caption for each of
the six stages in the process. Then mix them up – to
use as a quiz next lesson.
Map task: settlements
Note: Settlements are villages or towns
Use a map and trace a local (or famous) river from its
sources to its mouth. How does the size of the
settlements change? How does their shape change?
Work in twos. Plan how to report your findings to the
class in English.
Compare your findings – find one thing in common.
Exploring reasons why we settled by rivers
a) Why were so many towns and villages built by
rivers? List 3 reasons. Prepare to tell the class and
compare lists. Add one more reason.
b) In groups of 2 or 3, choose one reason and expand
it further, giving two or three examples (do some
research!) Exchange with another group and think
of two questions to ask them.
(Written or spoken).
Problem-solving: floods
a) Flooding is a major disadvantage of living near a
river. How might this be overcome?
b) Flooding can also be an advantage – in what way?
Read the text on the river Nile .
Planning and Report stages
Which task did not specify a purpose or report stage?
The report stage is important because it
- gives a purpose for task completion – enhances
motivation and chance of success
- presents opportunities for learner’s personal language
development at the planning stage, before ‘going public’in English
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------Motivation was one problem – L1 use was another
L 1 use – when in the task framework?
Priming & Preparation
Task Cycle
Task >> Planning >> Report of outcome
Form focus
3. A focus on English in learning
integrating
language
and
getting the balance
right.
When to work on language and focus on form?
Priming & Preparation
Key lexis & useful phrases
Task >> Planning >>>> Report of outcome
Language extension >> Prestige language use
Form focus
Analysis & practice
of language features from
texts written or spoken that learners have read or heard
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------C. Eide (PI in Abu Dhabi):
Learners record their tasks, then ‘listen, transcribe, discuss..’
From a text-based Task…. to form focus
TASK Look at your river on the map again. Read this text- how far
is it true for your river? Compare with another group.
TEXT (from web-site)
Remember that the source of a river is on higher ground, and is
often remote. The middle course is usually hilly ground. The
lower course is usually flatter ground and the mouth of a river is
nearly always at the sea.
The shape or form of the landscape through which a river flows will
affect the form of settlements beside the river. Some towns and
villages will be long and thin, along the river's banks, others will
be able to spread out in all directions.
To form focus – for Geography
1. Underline 4 phrases for parts of a river; what others do you
know? What other landscape features are mentioned?
2. Find 5 or 6 phrases with prepositions, describing location. Write
them with a gap omitting the preposition. Play ‘what is where?’
3. Find 4 phrases with frequency adverbs expressing probability.
4. Find 3 phrases with will. What does ‘will’ mean here? Is it
expressing future? Or predicting? Does this happen in Arabic?
Remember that the source of a river is on higher ground, and is
often remote. The middle course is usually hilly ground. The
lower course is usually flatter ground and the mouth of a river is
nearly always at the sea.
The shape or form of the landscape through which a river flows will
affect the form of settlements beside the river. Some towns and
villages will be long and thin, along the river's banks, others will
be able to spread out in all directions.
Form focus … for science
From science experiment to form focus
Analyse language…. identify typical features, patterns, functions…
How are experiments laid out?
What general language features are typical in each section?
What topic specific collocations? (e.g. properties of materials,
verbs that are used with liquids)
Create exercises to focus on these.
A fundamental shift in the language syllabus
Both TBL and CLIL recognise the need for a
fundamental shift in the language syllabus:
No longer can the FL be parcelled into a grammatical
progression, leaving past tenses and more complex
linguistic structures until later. […]The topic of
sustainability requires access to expression of future;
the Industrial revolution will require past tenses…
Analyse the language of the content area
A need to analyse
the language
features typical
of each
subject.
What
discourse
types? What
language is
typically used
in each?
…
Written & visual sources, e.g.
web,
text book,
other learners’ output,
journals, magazines
Realia – e.g. notices, leaflets, brochures
Spoken sources (planned and
spontaneous) e.g.
teacher monologue,
teacher + class interaction,
group discussion,
presentations,
outside experts
CDs, DVDs, radio, podcasts
Materials planning process
Work with specialist to choose content and break it down
Design your target tasks & task sequences
Design priming and preparation tasks for your learners
Devise form focused exercises
TRY IT ALL OUT
Evaluate and follow up – with learners and colleagues
And before long you will succeed in – and enjoy….
… getting the balance right!
www.willis-elt.co.uk
Advice from CLIL and TBL practitioners
Any new project needs management / institution /stakeholder backing
to clarify rationale and support mechanics and motivation for change - and allow
time for
co-operation between content specialists and language teachers
to plan, trial and evaluate materials and methods for teaching and assessment
‘co-operation is the key’
Teachers need motivation to change, a strong project leader and ongoing
support especially in early stages, and regular, confidence-boosting reviews
Students need an understanding of the process and end objectives - not
just content syllabus aims but what levels of English are acceptable for each
type of activity?
Start small – choose a topic and design some simple task sequences with
clear achievable outcomes
Involve learners
Be positive
Bibliography and references
About CLIL
If you only have time to read one article about a CLIL project see Do
Coyle:
http://www.scilt.stir.ac.uk/Downloads/slr/issue_13/SLR13Coyle.pdf
She reports on the results of a pioneer project run in 8 Secondary schools
in the UK for different FLs . She gives a sample lesson plan and a
Framework for the process of CLIL Curriculum Design.
For a shorter very basic account of what CLIL is about, Steve Darn:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/content-languageintegrated-learning
Useful background:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/teachers/specialistareas/clil/websites-discussion-lists
http://www.britishcouncil.org/spain-education-bilingual-project
Resources
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/11_16/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/riversandcoasts/index.shtml
http://www.internet-at-work.com/hos_mcgrane/egypt/egypt2.htm
Books
Bygate M. P. Skehan and M. Swain (eds) 2001. Researching Pedagogic Tasks: Second
language learning, teaching and testing
Edwards, C. and J. Willis (eds) 2005. Teachers Exploring Tasks in ELT. Palgrave MacMillan.
Prize winner - British Council ELT Innovations Awards 2006
Ellis R. 2003. Task-based Language Teaching and Learning. Oxford, OUP
Estaire S. and J. Zanon, 1994. Planning Classwork: a task-based approach. Oxford:
Macmillan Heinemann
Foster P. 1996. ‘Doing the task better: how planning time influences students’ performance’.
In Jane Willis & Dave Willis (eds) Challenge and Change in Language Teaching.
Heinemann pp17-30
Leaver B.L. & J. Willis, (eds) 2004. Task-based Instruction in Foreign Language Education:
practices and programs. Washington DC, Georgetown University Press. (See Chapter 1 for
an overview of TBL perspectives and practices).
Mohan, B. A. 1986 Language and Content Addison-Wesley
Paterson, A and Willis, J. 2008 English Through Music OUP
Stryker, S. B. and Leaver, B. L. 1997 Content-Based Instruction in Foreign
Language Education: models and methods. Georgetown University Press
Willis D. 2003. Rules, Patterns and Words: Grammar and Lexis in English Language
Teaching. Cambridge University Press
Willis, D. and Willis, J. 2007. Doing Task-based Teaching Oxford University Press