Practice: "Healthy Food"

Once I know how does the CLIL method works, I want to look for some videos to watch how it is applied in a classroom. I found this interesting video in YouTube about a “Healthy Food” lesson and I would like to comment it. 

First of all, the teacher open the lesson asking some questions for introduce the topic. Later, she tries to make children think with more questions like “which food do we need to eat less/more?” And what kind of benefits do each food apports us. The teacher uses the same structure for the hole lesson: she show some photos or drawings about something related with food and then she asked questions to children. 

I think that the teacher didn’t take the completely advantages of a CLIL lesson.

First of all, the teacher talks every time and she don’t let children think about possibilities. I think that CLIL lessons should be more flexible and permit children develop their creative skills instead of asking them a lot of questions. For example, I would rather ask them to design in groups a healthy menu or maybe discuss the answers with the group of partners before answering. 

I designed an activity for the topic “Healthy Food” with the aim of reviewing content knowledge and practising communication skills that could be interesting:

We need to look for pictures of different fruits and vegetables and then cut them out. Then, we distribute them (one to each child). They need to think about where does their vegetable or fruit come from, for example, an orange from a tree or a carrot from de earth. Children will be sitting in groups so they can ask others if they don’t know where does their fruit or vegetable come from, and also, talk about different facts of their pictures. Finally, each children stand up and explain to the rest of the class what they have discovered about their food. 

Interview of a primary English teacher

Alejandra has been my partner while I was doing my practice lessons for been a preschool teacher last years. She has always been nice to me and she has accepted to answer the following questions: 

Are you teaching English in the present? What course?

Yes. As you know, I’m working in a school as responsible of conversation lessons for preschool children and also I teach English in first, second and third grade of primary.

What do you thing is the most difficult part of been a English teacher?

Well, I could mention a lot of issues but for me, the most difficult thing is related with new students that come from other schools and their English level is below than their mates. It’s difficult and challenging for me to include these new student in the course of the lesson because they need a lot of support and I’m just one person. For these students, I recommend reinforcement outside the classroom while they reach the level of the other students, but also it’s important that they attend to class and try to participate as much as they can.  

Do you need to prepare lessons in a different way in English than in the native language?

Yes, I think so. For example, when I’m preparing the lessons for preschool children, I tried to invent a story that include the context and vocabulary of what I want to teach them. In this grade, the grammar is not very important so I tried to make them to listen a new language and identify some words that they are going to use lately

Do you think that English lessons should be interactive?

I’m glad you asked about that because actually is very, very, very important to make English lessons interactive. The most important thing is encourage children to participate in activities, discussions, ask about things… even if they don’t speak correctly because they are learning a new language and it’s completely normal. There is a great improvement in children who love English lessons and try to interact with others as much as they can, unlike those who do not. 

Have you ever feel insecure about your English level? 

Of course I did. My native language is Spanish so when I started teaching English I thought that I would not be as good teacher as a native English speaker. Over the years, I learned that there is no matter in not knowing the language perfectly because the most important thing is to have the necessary knowledge to teach children what you want them to learn. Obviously a level of English is required, but if you have been chosen to develop a job as an English teacher, trust me that you can do it. 

Do you know CLIL method? What do you think about it? 

Yes, I heard about it. I think that is a very useful and successful way to teach a new language. In this school we don’t use it because you need preparation to apply it correctly and our teachers are not trained in this area (also resources that right now we don’t have), but maybe in the future we could renovate out teaching method and use it.

David Marsh on CLIL

David Marsh has been involved in teaching English for years. When he came to Europe, he thought that something was wrong because children who have been studying English for a long time, can hardly make a sentence with sense. Teachers thought that they could move a foreign language for teaching children who were already been taught in this native language.

In this point, he thought about working together with other professionals with the aim of develop in other way the second language. This is were CLIL was born. 

CLIL is an approach which integrates the teaching of different subjects through a foreign language. 

David Marsh thinks that is difficult to find places where CLIL is not successful but there are plenty of places where is bad teaching trough English (not CLIL).

Teachers has to be supported by other teachers to use CLIL and manage it properly. In countries where CLIL has been successful for example Germany and Italy teachers are actively supported by the system. 

CLIL is for teachers who want to be regenerated and learn new things, for teachers who really love their job and want to renovate themselves during their career. 

Researchers need to investigate more about what method make our brain work successfully while learning a new language, even if is not CLIL. In this way, we will be able to teach English as efficiently as possible.