Nowadays a wide range of digital tools are used to support the teaching and learning of languages. Their potential positive effects in the learning process can be particularly useful to address the challenges that may arise in approaches such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), where students are expected not only to gain mastery in the content of the subject, but also the foreign language that is used as a vehicle of communication. This paper aims to offer a proposal for the ICT-enrichment of CLIL subjects which has been implemented in a course of Biology and Geology in English taught in a Spanish Secondary School. A semi-structured interview with the teacher was used to analyse the needs faced in that particular educational setting. The results obtained, together with current literature on CLIL, were subsequently considered as the starting point for the judicious selection of digital platforms and tools to create and curate the supplementary resources from a principle-based approach. This process of ICT-enrichment is presented as a practice that could be applied in different CLIL courses to adapt them to the specific needs of each context.
Hoy en día se utiliza una gran variedad de herramientas digitales para apoyar la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de lenguas. Sus potenciales efectos positivos en el proceso de aprendizaje pueden ser particularmente útiles para abordar los retos que surgen en enfoques como el Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenidos y Lenguas Extranjeras (AICLE), donde se espera que los estudiantes consigan dominar no solo el contenido de la asignatura, sino también la lengua extranjera que se utiliza como medio de comunicación. Este artículo tiene como objetivo ofrecer una propuesta de enriquecimiento digital de cursos AICLE, la cual ha sido implementada en una asignatura de Biología y Geología en inglés impartida en un instituto de Educación Secundaria español. Se utilizó una entrevista semi-estructurada a la profesora para analizar las necesidades de aquel contexto educativo concreto. Los resultados obtenidos, junto con la literatura actual sobre AICLE, fueron considerados como punto de partida en la selección adecuada de plataformas y herramientas digitales para crear y curar los recursos complementarios desde un enfoque basado en principios. Este proceso de enriquecimiento digital se presenta como una práctica que podría aplicarse a diferentes cursos AICLE para adaptarlos a las necesidades específicas de cada contexto.
Hui dia s'utilitza una gran varietat d'eines digitals per donar suport a l'ensenyament i l'aprenentatge de llengües. Els seus potencials efectes positius en el procés d'aprenentatge poden ser particularment útils per a abordar els reptes que sorgeixen en enfocaments com l'Aprenentatge Integrat de Continguts i Llengües Estrangeres (AICLE), on s'espera que els estudiants aconseguisquen dominar no solament el contingut de l'assignatura, sinó també la llengua estrangera que s'utilitza com a mitjà de comunicació. Aquest article té com a objectiu oferir una proposta d'enriquiment digital de cursos AICLE, la qual ha sigut implementada en una assignatura de Biologia i Geologia en anglés impartida en un institut d'Educació Secundària espanyol. Es va utilitzar una entrevista semi-estructurada a la professora per a analitzar les necessitats d'aquell context educatiu concret. Els resultats obtinguts, juntament amb la literatura actual sobre AICLE, van ser considerats com a punt de partida en la selecció adequada de plataformes i eines digitals per a crear i curar els recursos complementaris des d'un enfocament basat en principis. Aquest procés d'enriquiment digital es presenta com una pràctica que podria aplicar-se a diferents cursos AICLE per a adaptar-los a les necessitats específiques de cada context.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) can pose certain difficulties for teachers and students, and appropriate materials can contribute to the successful achievement of the double objective of this type of subjects.
An appropriate use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) can have a positive impact in the process of language learning.
A proposal for the ICT-enrichment of a CLIL course informed by current literature on CLIL and based on specific pedagogical principles.
There are different digital tools available for education that can be used to provide CLIL students with extra materials, so that they can continue learning at their own pace.
The creation and curation of supplementary digital materials from a principle-based approach can be used to adapt other different CLIL courses to the needs of each particular educational context, with the aim of supporting the students’ simultaneous learning of content and language.
In the past decades, the world of education has experienced considerable changes as a result of the emergence of new technologies. A wide variety of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and Educational Technology (EdTech) tools are currently available for teachers to maximise students’ learning experiences, and they are frequently integrated into teaching practices of different subjects. In the case of language learning, multimedia can provide learners with a sense of not only acquiring but also experiencing content, and they may lead to better understanding and retention, stimulating the students’ senses, involving them in the learning process and arising emotions, among other aspects (
The advantages of using technology could be especially relevant in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), which refers to subjects where learners are expected to acquire knowledge, understanding and abilities related to a content area, while also developing their skills in a foreign language that is used as a vehicle for communication (
This proposal has been implemented in a CLIL course on Biology and Geology taught in a Spanish Secondary School. A needs analysis was carried out in the form of a semi-structured interview to the teacher in order to identify the challenges she faced in that particular context, and proceed to the design and selection of materials that could help address those difficulties.
The term CLIL was coined in 1994 by Marsh as referring to “situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through a foreign language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language”
Regarding its theory of language, (
As for the theory of learning underlying CLIL, (
Although CLIL can be a good opportunity for the students to learn about a subject-matter and a language at the same time, it may be a difficult enterprise that requires a complex process of planning and entails certain challenges. Among these, (
(
In this context, technology can be used to adapt a coursebook in order to address the aforementioned issues. Although there are different ways of understanding the concept of enrichment (
One way in which ICT-enrichment can be advantageous in a CLIL context is through the addition of hypertext and hypermedia, since these allow learners to access information about specific concepts or ideas in different forms (e.g. written texts, images, videos) just by clicking on the word about which they want to continue learning. Therefore, there can be several layers of resources that are easily and quickly accessible for the user, something that a traditional book does not offer (
Additionally, technologies can be helpful in providing students with extra linguistic support, as well as other ways of scaffolding. Indeed, multimedia resources may facilitate learning through the combination of different modes of conveying information, in a way that each type of information can be delivered through the most appropriate mode so that explanations gain in clarity. Moreover, different complementary representations of the same information can lead not only to better comprehension, but also to better retention (
Likewise, the use of technology can bring other benefits. It can help to develop the students’ autonomy and the key competence of learning to learn (
The present study aims to offer a proposal for the ICT-enrichment of a CLIL subject and illustrate it with the case of a course which makes use of the textbook Biology and Geology 1 (
In order to develop the proposal for this specific context, first, a needs analysis was carried out in the form of a semi-structured interview with the aforementioned teacher. The interview helped identify the main difficulties that she faced when teaching this subject and elucidate the type of support that she considered necessary and beneficial for the students’ learning. Then, the whole coursebook was read thoroughly in search for possible ways of enriching it, taking the results of the previous needs analysis as a guide. Afterwards, there was an exploration of resources available on the Internet and a reflection on the types of activities that could be designed with them, considering their affordances, with a view to addressing those problems. Later, the materials were created and curated in the
The teacher who was interviewed answered different types of questions regarding a variety of aspects related to her own experience as a teacher of CLIL and her practices and opinion about the use of ICT in a CLIL course. The main issues she mentioned were the existence of heterogeneity regarding the students’ level of English, which tends to be very low in certain cases; the subsequent language limitations when explaining certain concepts that some students do not understand; and an excessive reliance on the receptive and productive use of Spanish on behalf of some students who do not seem to make enough effort to communicate in English. Some of these findings show similarities to those obtained by (
As for the role of technology in the course, in her opinion the use of ICT is important in education, particularly in bilingual lessons, where resources such as audio-visuals can facilitate the students’ learning. In her experience, the use of digital tools can be motivating, especially for students with high capacities, who tend to get excited when asked to browse the web to look for information. Nevertheless, she explained that in-class digital activities involve technical aspects that often make them time-consuming, and therefore she expressed her preference for the design of supplementary activities that students can do at home.
Additionally, she pointed to the importance of integrating automatic correction in most of the supplementary activities to avoid an excessive increase in the teacher’s workload. She also commented on the units and topics with which students tend to have more difficulties, as well as on the type of exams and activities they usually do and the way they are assessed. This was crucial for the ICT-enrichment of the coursebook, since it needed to be aligned with the rest of the elements of the curriculum as specified and understood by this teacher in this particular educational context.
Given the characteristics of CLIL and the challenges it may pose, the design of supplementary resources for the students to do at home can help mitigate those problems and facilitate the learning process. Since class time is very limited, these materials should help students review what they learn in class, providing also extra support for those who may need it and offering students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge, working both at the level of language and at the level of content.
Different modes of representation can be used to facilitate the understanding of the content. Static and dynamic pictures such as GIF files could be included to illustrate some complex ideas and clarify possible doubts students may have with the definitions of specific concepts. Likewise, videos allow them to visualise a graphic representation of the content while listening to an explanation. In this way, multimodality offers certain affordances which may be useful to overcome some of the limitations mentioned by this teacher in the interview.
It is also advisable to include resources that help students process information and work with it in a different mode or way. Subsequent encounters with key terms can be programmed in different activities where students are required to recycle and manipulate them in various ways to achieve different non-linguistic outcomes (e.g. making suggestions, classifications), which may be necessary for students to actually learn the vocabulary (
In the same way, the present proposal argues for the adoption of a perspective that is close to what (
Furthermore, activities can be designed to help students develop three different types of thinking, namely convergent thinking, divergent thinking and metacognition. There can be some activities with a closed answer where students are required to find out specific data or make certain connections through a particular mental path, and the way of achieving the goal of the activity is quite restricted or predefined (e.g. multiple choice questions). These activities are useful to develop learners’ convergent thinking, which is the type of thinking “that looks for an only solution to a problem, which is the most apt, appropriate or correct one” (
Other activities need to be open-ended, so that students are required to look for alternative mental paths, adopting their own way of solving a problem or carrying out a task. In this type of exercises students are not expected to give a specific answer, since there is not only one way of solving them adequately. In fact, these activities develop students’ divergent thinking, which, according to (
Finally, the third type of thinking, metacognition (term coined by
Moreover, students need to develop not only their LOTS, such as remembering, understanding different concepts and applying theory in practical exercises, but also their HOTS. It is important that they are asked to analyse, evaluate and create. Nonetheless, following (
In addition to content, communication and cognition, culture, which is the fourth element of Coyle’s (
Another key aspect is the importance of differentiation, which needs to be sought at different dimensions. First, there should be differentiation in levels, so that students can choose between different options depending on their knowledge and self-confidence with certain topics. It also has to be taken into consideration that the use of online resources gives students the opportunity to do activities at their own pace and that they can use the resources to review and revise as much as they need. Likewise, the possibility of stopping and rewinding videos offers a degree of flexibility of which both learners and teachers can take advantage, since some platforms allow the latter to keep a record of the amount of times each student has watched each fragment and get an insight into what the most difficult explanations may be for the learners, identifying in this way potential difficulties to address. Besides, the ICT-enrichment of a course can try to help not only students with a lower level either in terms of content or in terms of language, but also more advanced students, including those with high capacities. Open-ended activities where each student deepens as much as they want or can, virtual labs, investigation exercises, creative tasks and additional resources can be useful for this purpose.
Furthermore, the existence of different learning styles (
Besides, it is advisable to integrate differentiation in interests, for instance by giving students the opportunity to choose the elements on which they want to work in certain activities. This can be done with the aim of increasing the motivation, which may also be pursued by asking learners to reflect on the importance of what they learn for real life and how it relates to their immediate context. Additionally, resources such as games, experiments and investigation activities can contribute to presenting the learning path as a journey where students can review and widen their knowledge while having fun.
Finally, it is necessary that any ICT-enrichment is aligned with the corresponding legal provisions in each case. In the digital enhancement of this Spanish course on Biology and Geology in English, apart from observing the Spanish national curriculum, the design of supplementary digital materials has tried to contribute to the development of the key competences proposed by the (
This section will present some digital platforms, tools and resources that have been used to design activities that enrich the aforementioned CLIL course on Biology and Geology adopting the principle-based approach described above.
One aspect to consider is the curation of materials. There are different platforms that can be chosen according to the needs of each particular teacher, subject and group of students. In the case of this course on Biology and Geology, the platform selected was
A series of resources have been used to create activities for students to work with vocabulary and review key disciplinary content. They allow to check comprehension and to review learning, and most of them primarily involve LOTS (e.g. understanding and remembering information), although some of them also work on HOTS (e.g. comparing and contrasting).
The platform
Similarly, labelling activities have been designed using the digital platform
Matching activities have also been created with
In other activities which have also been created with
Additionally, multiple choice activities have been designed using Moodle resources to help students draw some conclusions from the information they have learned, while reviewing useful language structures in a meaningful context (see
Some activities with open answers have been designed in order to help students develop their communicative skills while connecting what they are learning to their own context and life. For instance, different authentic educational videos about specific content have been selected and adapted using the
Likewise, the “essay” type of question page offered by
Different collaborative activities have been designed in order to help students work on their HOTS and develop their divergent thinking while learning from their classmates’ contributions. For instance, the platform
In addition to these, other resources have allowed us to incorporate different types of activities.
Likewise, interactive maps can be useful to encourage students to learn about other cultures and consider different perspectives from which to study a specific aspect. For instance, learners can explore time and seasons differences among countries as a result of rotation and revolution by clicking on different locations, and reflect on the fact that, depending on the area where people are, they tend to do different things at a specific moment of the day or of the year.
This proposal for the ICT-enrichment of a CLIL course tries to address the challenges that this type of subjects can pose for teachers and students. It takes into consideration relevant theoretical conceptualisations of CLIL and intends to work on the four paramount areas proposed by (
The proposal is characterised by several aspects. First, it suggests that supplementary materials can include explanations of relevant concepts that are supported with different digital resources, taking advantage of hyperlinking and multimodality. At the same time, these resources need to offer a great exposure to key vocabulary items, asking students to work with them in a wide range of activities. Likewise, verbal scaffolding can be provided for students to learn the language that they need in order to convey their ideas in a variety of meaningful tasks. Moreover, the proposal argues for the creation of activities that foster the development of cognitive, divergent and metacognitive thinking, and require learners to use both their LOTS and HOTS. Furthermore, it recommends integrating differentiation in the students’ levels, their learning styles and their interests, and incorporating potentially motivating elements which may not be found in an ordinary printed textbook.
This proposal has been implemented in a CLIL course on Biology and Geology, and a natural progression of this work is to evaluate the effectiveness of the materials in the context for which they have been designed. This could be done by carrying out a study in which the learning achievement results of an experimental group to whom these resources were made available were compared with those of a control group. Subsequent interviews with the teacher would also be useful to identify improvable aspects and make any necessary modifications accordingly.
To conclude, despite its exploratory nature, this paper has explained and exemplified how ICT can be used to design a set of supplementary materials for a CLIL course with the aim of better meeting the students’ needs. It has examined existing resources and platforms available on the Internet which could be useful to support the learning process and which either are free or offer a free version, with the option of subscribing for extra features. The systematic selection, design and curation of extra digital materials from a principle-based approach could lead to a more personalised type of teaching and may help bridge some gaps related to both language and content difficulties by offering activities which each student can do at their own pace. In this way, the enriching practices used for this course could be adapted to other CLIL courses, according to the particular needs of each group of students, to maximise learning opportunities and meet the demands of these double-aimed subjects.
The key competences for lifelong learning proposed by the European Commission (2006/962/EC) are communication in the mother tongue and communication in a foreign language, mathematical, scientific and technological competence, digital competence, learning to learn, social and civic competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, and cultural awareness and expression.
ESO stands for “Educación Secundaria Obligatoria”, which means Compulsory Secondary Education.