CLIL's understanding
EDF 6228 Assignment 1
Wenjing Yuan
After half of a semester of learning about CLIL, many new concepts and ideas have come to my mind. After knowing some theoretical issues, I am thinking about whether CLIL is as practical and good as many scholars have mentioned. Also I am curious if CLIL can be used properly in my context – the junior years English learning of high school in China. In this essay, I will first review the rationale aspects about CLIL, talking about the definitions, the features and the principles of CLIL. Then a brief introduction of my context will be presented. What’s the situation of English learning in mainland China. Finally, I will analyze the use of CLIL in China based on the critical review of the four articles: Content-based language teaching in China: contextual influences on implementation -- Philip Hoare (2010), Content and language integrated learning (CLIL): limitations and possibilities – Ena Harrop (2012), CLIL implementation: from policy-makers to individual initiatives – Yolanda Ruiz de Zarobe (2013) and Late immersion and language of instruction in Hong Kong high schools; achievement growth in language and non-language subjects –Herbert W. Marsh, Kit-Tai Hau, Chit-Kwong Kong (2000) in order to find out whether it is possible to have CLIL applied in China.
Rationale review of CLIL
Inspired by the immersion language program, content and language integrated learning (usually called as CLIL) is not a totally new pedagogy. It was first coined by David Marsh(1994): CLIL refers 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. Then in 2010, Coyle, Hood and Marsh explained CLIL in a more detailed way that ‘content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and
Wenjing Yuan
After half of a semester of learning about CLIL, many new concepts and ideas have come to my mind. After knowing some theoretical issues, I am thinking about whether CLIL is as practical and good as many scholars have mentioned. Also I am curious if CLIL can be used properly in my context – the junior years English learning of high school in China. In this essay, I will first review the rationale aspects about CLIL, talking about the definitions, the features and the principles of CLIL. Then a brief introduction of my context will be presented. What’s the situation of English learning in mainland China. Finally, I will analyze the use of CLIL in China based on the critical review of the four articles: Content-based language teaching in China: contextual influences on implementation -- Philip Hoare (2010), Content and language integrated learning (CLIL): limitations and possibilities – Ena Harrop (2012), CLIL implementation: from policy-makers to individual initiatives – Yolanda Ruiz de Zarobe (2013) and Late immersion and language of instruction in Hong Kong high schools; achievement growth in language and non-language subjects –Herbert W. Marsh, Kit-Tai Hau, Chit-Kwong Kong (2000) in order to find out whether it is possible to have CLIL applied in China.
Rationale review of CLIL
Inspired by the immersion language program, content and language integrated learning (usually called as CLIL) is not a totally new pedagogy. It was first coined by David Marsh(1994): CLIL refers 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. Then in 2010, Coyle, Hood and Marsh explained CLIL in a more detailed way that ‘content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and