Soft CLIL in Infant Education Bilingual Contexts in Spain

International Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics 2015; 1 (Special Issue: Bilingual Education): 30-36 Published online October 10, 2015 (http://www.ijlal.ir) ISSN: 2383-0514 (Online) © 2015 Khate Sefid Press

Soft CLIL in Infant Education Bilingual Contexts in Spain Soraya García Esteban Centro Universitario Cardenal Cisneros, Madrid, Spain Email: [email protected]

Abstract — Learning in a bilingual environment involves the challenge not only to teach new contents but also to introduce and reinforce the foreign language. According to Marsh (2000), the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach advocates greater success in learning an additional language (i.e. English) and functional curricula through areas such as Art or Science than teaching it in isolation or in forced situations as an independent subject. However, the Spanish curricular organization of Infant Education is different from the Primary or Secondary stage in which the program is structured in subjects; in Infant Education contents are integrated into three main areas. Considering this arrangement and the psychological characteristics of young people, we agree with Riera Toló (2009) in the need of organising preschool contents from a global, comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective rather than developing CLIL in unrelated areas. This idea of teaching the curriculum through specific topics or cross-curricular contents as part of the foreign language lesson is called ‘Weak or Soft’ CLIL (Bentley, 2010) and seems the most realistic model that can be implemented in the Infant bilingual classroom. This paper refers how this principle can serve as a practical tool for teachers who need to develop lesson plans in bilingual environments. The theoretical approach is illustrated and assessed with a group of 29 students taking the Infant Teacher Degree. Outcomes show that the application of this specific CLIL approach in pre-primary can be considered effective as it facilitates not only teaching another language and curricular contents but also cognitive development, real communication and cultural awareness. Further proposals suggest implementing different CLIL frameworks to competence development in Infant Education. Index Terms— Soft CLIL, Topic-based Bilingualism, Infant education, Curricular areas

functional separate curricula areas (Marsh, 2000). However, bearing in mind the psycho - evolutionary characteristics of children (Ellis, 2002) and that the organization of Preschool Curriculum is very different from other stages, it should be considered that, instead of focusing on teaching English through just one subject (as it is usually done in Primary), it would be more efficient to plan CLIL lessons as the preschool stage is arranged: in different topics that few times affect just one subject but that usually affect more than one if not all of them (Riera Toló, 2009). We agree with Coyle (2005) that there is no single model for CLIL. Different types share the common founding principle: content and language learning integration, and the most typical model is hard CLIL. Bentley (2010, p. 6) defines „hard‟ CLIL as a type of partial immersion when almost half the curriculum or more is taught in a non-native language. In contrast, in „Weak or Soft‟ CLIL language teachers do crosscurricular work or teach topics from the curriculum as part of a language course. Following Stöller (2004, p. 267) and the limitations in crafting a curriculum around a single content area when teaching young learners, the approach proposed in Infant Education bilingual contexts is following the so called Soft CLIL approach. This study focuses on Ball‟s (2009) model on subject/topic/thematicbased teaching to deliver effective lessons in Infant education.

II. LITERATURE REVIEW

learning,

Curricular information on preschool EFL education in Spain highlights the importance of an early start of foreign language learning in schools and emphasizes the development of children‟s oral communication skills as well as the integration of content from other curricular areas (Ping et al. 2013). This training is however not standardized and each community is developing its own training program following different methodologies to improve the student´s English level (Levy, 2015, p. 3). The will to improve English proficiency has led to implement bilingual experimental programmes in which FL teaching starts at age 4. This policy now extends to practically every single school, which is the reason why

I. INTRODUCTION In school contexts there is greater success in learning foreign languages through subjects than through Received September 3, 2015;

Accepted October 1, 2015.

© 2015 Khate Sefid Press 30

International Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics 2015; 1 (Special Issue: Bilingual Education): 30-36 Published online October 10, 2015 (http://www.ijlal.ir) ISSN: 2383-0514 (Online) © 2015 Khate Sefid Press

in the last few years CLIL programmes have started to be implemented (Lasagabaster, 2006). Promoting bilingual education has basically derived in the establishment of two subsystems within Spanish education; one that consists in teaching English and some subjects in the foreign language, and another that involves teaching English as a foreign language and the rest of the lessons in the mother tongue or the co-official language (PIALE, 2011). This education is carried out following different bilingual programmes. Ball (2009, p.6) identifies five types of CLIL programmes: immersion, partial immersion, subject courses, language classes based on thematic units and language classes with greater use of content. Dale and Tanner (2012, p. 4-5) and Bentely (2009) propose however just three types depending on contact time (Partial immersion -about half of the curriculum-, subject-led and language led courses). Despite each region and school in Spain have different linguistic policies and have made their own adaptation, all of them share the same main objective: to achieve content acquisition and communicative competence in second and foreign language across the curriculum, and CLIL represents a useful support to bilingualism (Lasagabaster & Ruiz, 2010). We agree with Coyle (2005) that CLIL is flexible and that there are many different models on a range of contextual factors. These differences can be seen on a monolingual, bilingual or multilingual continuum where the learning focus and outcomes differ according to their model adopted, depending on each infant school and program. These models may consist on a) exploring the subject from a different perspective whilst improving foreign language (i.e. teaching the topic Transport in History, Maths, etc.); b) Cross-curricular projects involving subject and language teachers planning together (i.e. study on different aspects of Healthy Food); c) Language teachers developing a content type approach to a theme (ie. Housing/Settlements in West/Eastern cultures); d) Re-conceptualize the curriculum in an integrated way (i.e. study of the topic Christmas from different perspectives such as poetry, art & crafts, etc.); e) A global project such as those organized by Science Across the World, where identical topics (i.e. The space) are studied by learners in different countries and in different languages, and then the results compared. In contrast with hard CLIL, in which content is taught similarly as it would be in subject classes, soft CLIL “is a type of content and language integrated instruction taught by trained CLIL language teachers to help leaners develop the foreign language competency as a primary aim, and their subject/theme/topic knowledge as a secondary aim” (Ikeda, 2013, p. 32). This pedagogy allows students acquire the specific knowledge of an area and develop curriculum issues (Kelly et al., 2013). Theme or topic-based teaching has been practised in the UK since the 1960s, where children typically spend all day with the same teacher. In this setting, different areas

of the curriculum can be taught in an integrated way, without being separated into subject areas, which is claimed to suit the way that children naturally learn. As its original (first language) uses, this approach requires teachers to choose a theme or topic and then plan a range of teaching and learning activities related to a curricular area (Knowledge and Understanding of the World, Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication, Language and Literacy). However, when transferred to the teaching of English as a foreign language, the focus should be placed on communicative language teaching so that children have the opportunity to learn the foreign language through the thematic content (Cameron, 2008, p.181), which requires the use of pertinent teaching frameworks that ensure not only language and content acquisition, but also cognitive and cultural development The implementation of CLIL means significant changes in the way in which teaching is planned, sequenced and carried out. The creation of integrated didactic units, in which the teachers involved in plurilingual teaching contribute to the goals and common contents of their linguistic and non-linguistic subjects becomes the central element in CLIL (Pavón & Rubio, 2009, p. 52); and this instruction requires appropriate teacher training. This profile should cover the four target areas of expertise (Escobar Urmeneta, 2010, p.196-97) that were identified as vital for the CLIL teacher, namely: 1. Specific pedagogical competence in their particular area of expertise to allow student teachers identify, plan and implement quality teaching. 2. Pedagogical-communicative competence so as to manage efficient academic interaction in CLIL classrooms. This involves a combination of advanced communicative and pedagogical competences to articulate academic discourse in adaptive ways (Duffy, 1998), so as to match and strengthen the developing cognitive and communicative abilities of the students. These include being able to construct explanations, clarify, frame, give instructions, elicit, provide feedback, organize, check, discipline, evaluate, encourage, gather and keep learners‟ attention, and the rest of the communicative abilities which are essential in teaching situations. But also, being able to structure tasks and use materials and/or teaching strategies which facilitate and encourage the students‟ contributions to the lesson, no matter how limited their linguistic repertoire might be. 3. Inter-area collaboration skills: collaborative skills and flexibility to discuss, plan and teach in collaboration with peers from different epistemological traditions. 4. Professional skills that will allow the initiation of a sustained process of self-development and innovation through shared reflection on their own teaching practices. However, some strategy is needed to avoid the confusion and insecurity that could derive from an 31

International Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics 2015; 1 (Special Issue: Bilingual Education): 30-36 Published online October 10, 2015 (http://www.ijlal.ir) ISSN: 2383-0514 (Online) © 2015 Khate Sefid Press

TABLE 1. ANALYSIS, ADAPTATION AND DESIGN OF EFFECTIVE MATERIALS AND CLIL LESSONS

unstandardized curriculum in bilingual Infant Education contexts, to guarantee that the course holds the necessary cohesion, and that basic curricular areas are covered. This is achieved through the mindful development of an appropriate Soft CLIL framework.

Analysis of published FL materials for Infant Education 1. Matematitico (OUP), 2. Wild animals (SM), 3. EntusiasMAT (Tekman books) 4. Muevo mi cuerpo (SM), 5. Los pequeños zapateros (Montessori method), 6. The House of the Island (Edelvives), 7. Festival de colores (Nubaris), 8. Lectoescritura (Santillana) 9. Ludiletras (Tekman books) 10. Captain Jack (Macmillan)

III. PROCEDURE The major goal of this project was to study how Soft CLIL can serve as a practical and necessary tool for teachers in Infant Education to develop appropriate lesson plans in bilingual environments. The study was based on a microteaching practise following Allen & Wang (1996) to explore the learner‟s training, analysis and reflection on this principle. The participants of this study were 29 third-year full time students of the subject Designing and delivering effective CLIL lessons doing a BA (Hons.) in Infant Education (Bilingual Program) at Centro Universitario Cardenal Cisneros (Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain). The main task consisted on the analysis, adaptation and design of effective materials and CLIL lessons for Infant bilingual contexts in which English is taught as Foreign Language. The action was designed to reinforce the contents of the subject and to reflect on the need of following an appropriate teaching methodology. It was divided into three different sections after Seidel‟s (1998) model of qualitative data analysis: noticing, collecting and thinking. Thus, in the first stage previous to the microteaching sessions the questionnaires were read with the students to get an overall understanding of the task (noticing). The evaluation process is an important part of any training program; therefore the second assignment required data collection and analysis. Finally, students were required to work autonomously and complete a closed questionnaire about self-performance to be rationalised with the instructor. Interviews were held in order to foster the students‟ critical thinking about their own teaching-learning methodology. As described in table 1, students were required to evaluate materials (books and workbooks) from diverse preschool (3-6) editors and schools to adapt them to be taught in a bilingual classroom (English-Spanish) following a theme-based CLIL approach. Specifically, in collaborative groups of 3, student teachers had to select a topic within a course-book and design a theme-based lesson plan to be taught following a rationalized CLIL model that might affect different curricular areas.

Adaptation & design of topicbased CLIL lessons

Curricular area to be covered

1. The space 2. Animals & their habitat 3. Colours, shapes & numbers 4. The body 5. Professions 6. Housing & family 7. Weather & seasons 8. Christmas 9. Healthy food 10.Transport

Knowledge and Understanding of the World (1,2,3) Personal, Social and Emotional Development (4,5,6,7) Communication , Language and Literacy (8,9,10)

CLIL approach and didactic teaching strategies had been previously explained in theoretical lectures (Bentley, 2010; Coyle, et al., 2010; Mehisto et al. 2008, etc.) and were expected to be considered during the action. Lesson plans were carried out using traditional (flashcards, puppets, etc.) and technological (YouTube Disney trailers, IWB, etc.) resources following Trujillo et al. (2004) as well as virtual collaboration (Garcia Esteban, 2014, 2015) that helped develop communicative skills in a motivating way. After adapting and designing their lesson plan following Pérez Torres (2009), in the last lesson of the whole academic year student teachers were required to work through a close questionnaire about selfperformance and evaluation using an appropriate Soft CLIL framework. In the questionnaire, based on Dale & Tanner (2012), students had to select one of the three Likert-scale responses (1=yes, 2=sometimes and 3=no). Quantitative data comprised ten questions related to the adaptation and creation of materials for the effective teaching and learning of some curricular topics focusing on content and language. Qualitative data were obtained from an open question concerning rationalization of the experience, which read `Please make any further comment you may have on the choice of your topic-based lesson plan and the curricular area and CLIL model it is related to´. The use of direct quotes will be used in order to provide evidence of the views stated by the participants.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The outcomes of the learners‟ responses and reflections show that that the application of a thematicbased CLIL approach in Infant education can be considered effective and necessary to facilitate not only 32

International Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics 2015; 1 (Special Issue: Bilingual Education): 30-36 Published online October 10, 2015 (http://www.ijlal.ir) ISSN: 2383-0514 (Online) © 2015 Khate Sefid Press

TABLE 3. MATERIAL DESIGN FOCUSING ON THEMEBASED LANGUAGE Focus on Language Yes (%) Sometimes (%) No (%) I use a variety of activities 95 5 to help my learners use vocabulary related to the topic. I help my learners learn and 90 10 use subject-specific terminology. I use a varied repertoire of 70 20 10 speaking activities. I encourage (pre) written 65 35 output. TOTAL 80 17,5 2,5

teaching another language and curricular contents, but also cognitive development, real communication and cultural awareness, as shown in table 2. TABLE 2. MATERIAL DESIGN FOCUSING ON THEME-BASED CONTENT Sometimes Focus on Content Yes (%) No (%) (%) I provide different sorts of input (multimodal input) to 80 20 help my learners understand the topic. I encourage my learners to interact in my classes and use 70 30 a lot of pair and group work. I use graphic organisers or other forms of support to help 70 20 10 my learners understand input. I use a number of strategies or activities to help learners 70 30 improve their pre-reading and listening skills. I work actively with my learners on developing their 80 10 thinking skills. I formulate and use different kinds of LOTS & HOTS 70 20 10 questions TOTAL 73% 22% 5%

Concerning material design focusing on content language, outcomes revealed that most respondents used a variety of activities (games, songs, etc.) so that learners could use vocabulary related to the topic concerning the specific teaching topic (i.e. Animals). The main topic of our lesson was household & housework. To explain our subject, we proposed a game in which children played different Cinderella character roles. We aimed to explore where children live so that they can comprehend their world around within the area of Knowledge and Understanding of the World. The CLIL model we used was the content type approach to a theme.

The findings revealed that most participants (80%) tried to provide different sorts of input to help learners understand the topic, hence broadening the specific knowledge of curricular topics from Infant Education. 70% of the students designed activities that enhanced participation, although 30% admitted not to have provided enough group work. Similarly, 70% used simple tables or charts to present contents, however 20% explained that they did not feel comfortable using graphs or other complex charts; 10% found them difficult to be understood by infants. 70% put into practice different techniques and activities to develop pre-reading and listening skills, although 30% acknowledged to have designed funny art and craft activities (ex. masks and models, etc.) related to content forgetting to develop language through them. Although 70% of contestants used Low Order Thinking Skills (LOTS), only 20% of participants showed engagement in developing students‟ thinking and understanding by introducing “where?, who?..... of participants showed engagement in developing students‟ thinking and under High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) questions (what is your opinion? why?) due to the infant psycho - evolutionary characteristics of young children, which may prevent infants understand and carry out certain communicative activities. This is the reason why, although contestants tried to develop childrenitiesry characteristics of young children, which not to have provided enough scaffolding to assure it (20%).

Despite 70% participants stated to have proposed different speaking activities, 20% admitted to have considered common speaking activities (20%) or just teacher-student simple questions about a visual (10%). To develop Communication, Language and Literacy curricular area we dealt with the topic Christmas so that children could begin using language in dialogues to describe pictures, predict and explain events and sequence familiar actions. This topic was taught doing different activities from different perspectives such as poetry (rhymes) and art and crafts (portraits). As stated by only 35% of the contestants, pre-writing activities were not considered relevant due to infant‟s evolutionary limitations in writing. Personal and Social Development can be enhanced working the topic Professions. In one of the activities of the lesson plan children were required to re-write jobs and match them with their corresponding picture. This topic can be developed in a cross-curricular project in order to explain the evolution of transport in history. The above quotations are a selection drawn from the data set to give a sense of the perceived results on practice. The estimates show a clear evidence of student teachers´ self-awareness and attentiveness in the design of topic-based lessons to be applied in different curricular 33

International Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics 2015; 1 (Special Issue: Bilingual Education): 30-36 Published online October 10, 2015 (http://www.ijlal.ir) ISSN: 2383-0514 (Online) © 2015 Khate Sefid Press

areas (Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication, Language and Literacy, etc.) following different CLIL models (exploration of subjects from different perspectives, global and cross curricular projects, etc.). Data showed that Soft CLIL can be considered a useful resource to develop not only contents and a foreign language but also cultural awareness and thinking skills. As different topics had to be covered, student teachers often needed to prepare well for classes; thus realising that complex thinking/learning to learn language (Schmidt, 1994) and communicative activities require appropriate scaffolding and pedagogic techniques. We agree with Cameron (2008, p. 208) that language use in theme-based teaching is not, as in course-book subject lessons, selected in advance separately as a set of language items to be taught; it requires careful planning to enhance learning potential, and CLIL approach presents different frameworks (Garcia Esteban, 2013) that facilitate language and content learning.

paper, student teachers have the opportunity to learn not only how to teach any subject in English following an appropriate methodology, but also to analyse materials and adapt them to enhance children´s cognitive and cultural knowledge in particular contexts. Designing and delivering a topic-based didactic unit related to different curricular areas, pre-service teachers become acquainted and aware of the relevance of using a suitable methodology following comprehensive and interdisciplinary criteria to develop infant‟s cultural and thinking skills while teaching contents in a foreign language. Soft CLIL allows future teachers use the most suitable model adapting their pedagogy to any particular bilingual school program following a comprehensive and interdisciplinary method. Further study suggests the development of a specific CLIL pedagogical framework to foster the development of students‟ key competences and sub-competences in Higher Education.

V. CONCLUSIONS This study has attempted to draw a profile of how a specific teaching-learning approach (Soft CLIL) can be developed using a particular framework (four Cs‟ model by Coyle, 2007) to teach content through the foreign language in Infant Education bilingual contexts. This evidence is certainly not new, but the researcher believes that the student´s reflection on self-in-practice can enhance the effect in actual performance and the ability to analyse their own approaches in order to provide more effective curricular teaching techniques. Topic-based learning along the different curricular areas allows students learn and teach contents in a foreign language using different learning strategies. Classroom practice and know-how is based on the development of communicative activities and integrated skills through a variety of tasks supported by cooperative and experiential learning that cover the different CLIL teacher‟s areas of expertise. Following a Soft CLIL approach, teaching linguistic, mathematical, or artistic contents, etc. in the FL can become a evolving experience for young learners as students are encouraged to use new language in a natural way. From early stages children can learn how to combine all their cognitive strengths and a variety of skills while they acquire new knowledge. This study has focused on illustrating how Soft CLIL represents a practical training need in Infant Education. Following European directives and different programs such as PIALE, Spanish education is introducing English as a Foreign Language from early years, which requires qualified educators and appropriate teaching procedures. This demand can be met training pre-service teachers at tertiary level in specific bilingual programs and CLIL. In some teacher training subjects, as the one reviewed in this 34

International Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics 2015; 1 (Special Issue: Bilingual Education): 30-36 Published online October 10, 2015 (http://www.ijlal.ir) ISSN: 2383-0514 (Online) © 2015 Khate Sefid Press

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Allen, D. & Wang, W. (1996). Microteaching. A Description. Beijing: Xinhua Press. Ball, P. (2009). Does CLIL work? In Hill, D. and Alan, P. (eds.) The Best of Both Worlds? International Perspectives on CLIL, pp.32-43. Norwich: Norwich Institute for Language Education. Bentley, K. (2010). The TKT Course CLIL Module. Cambridge: CUP. Cameron, L. (2008). Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Coyle, D. (2005). Developing CLIL: Towards a Theory of Practice. APAC Monograph 6. APAC: Barcelona. Coyle, D., Hood, P. & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge: CUP. Creswell, J.W. (2009). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. Dale, L., & Tanner, R. (2012). CLIL activities: A resource for subject and language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ellis, N. C. (2002). Reflections on frequency effects in language processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 24, pp. 297-339. Escobar Urmeneta, C. (2010). Pre-service CLIL Teacher-Education in Catalonia: Expert and novice practitioners teaching and reflecting together, in Lasagabaster, D. & Ruiz de Zarobe, Y. (2010). CLIL in Spain: Implementation, Results and Teacher Training. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishers, pp.188-218. Garcia Esteban, S. (2013). Three frameworks for developing CLIL materials in Infant and Primary Education. Encuentro, 22, pp. 49-53. García Esteban, S. (2014). Using virtual tools for developing autonomous learning and teaching communicative English for professional purposes in Primary Education Degree, Pulso, 37, pp. 249-273. García Esteban, S. (2015). Teaching CLIL with digital literacies. Verbeia, 0, pp. 47-63. Ikeda, M. (2013). Does CLIL work for Japanese Secondary School Students? Potential for the „Weak‟ Version of CLIL. International CLIL Research Journal, 2(1). pp. 31-43. Kavaliauskienè, G., Kaminskienè, L & Anusiene, L. (2007). Reflective practice: assessment of assignments in English for Specific Purposes. Ibérica. 14, pp.149-166. Kelly, P., Shaw, J. & Semler, L. (2013). Storytelling: Critical and Creative Approaches. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. Lasagabaster, D. (2006). The early acquisition of a FL in bilingual contexts: Some evidence from the Basque Country, in Laoirie M.O (ed.), Multilingualism in Educational Settings. Berlin: Schneider Verlag. 35

International Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics 2015; 1 (Special Issue: Bilingual Education): 30-36 Published online October 10, 2015 (http://www.ijlal.ir) ISSN: 2383-0514 (Online) © 2015 Khate Sefid Press

AUTHOR Soraya Garcia holds a Ph.D. in Modern Languages, Literature and Translation from Universidad de Alcalá and an M.A. from University of the West of England, Bristol. She is an undergraduate and postgraduate lecturer at Cardenal Cisneros & Universidad de Alcalá (Spain). She is involved in various research projects and publications in the area of lexicography and microteaching practice in infant and primary education. Her current research interests are CLIL, ESP and promoting language learning with technology.

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