Theory

B-Slim (Bilash's Success-guided Language Instruction Model) 

source http://www2.education.ualberta.ca

B-SLIM: Bilash's Success-Guided Language Instructional Model 

B-SLIM Overview

     We talk so much about self directed learning and have structured policies and proposed practices around the assumption that all learners are equally self-directed.  However, practitioners know that not all learners are equally self-directed.  In fact, teachers also know from experience that some learners need to be taught to be self-directed.  By being based on students’ ‘feelings of success’ in learning a second language (SL), B-SLIM (Bilash's Success-guided Language Instruction Model) incorporates enough scaffolding (structure and support) at each phase of a lesson or series of lessons for learners who are less self sufficient to succeed while simultaneously providing opportunities and direction for the more self-directed student to push forward.  For example, while a less self-directed student might need to follow a template several times before really ‘getting’ the structure of a form such as a brief event review (in order to be able to create one on his/her own as an OUTPUT or 'proving it' assignment), a more self-directed learner may only need to hear or see the model once and be able to replicate and creatively alter it!

What are the theoretical underpinnings of the B-SLIM model?

1. Cognitive Science (Piaget, Vygotsky, Gagne) (We organize knowledge of different types into schema through mental processes.  As learners who are active participants we require scaffolded instructional material that utilizes demonstrations, illustrative examples and corrective feedback to maximize memory retention.)
2. Constructivism (Bruner) (We construct our own understanding of the world by generating our own rules and mental models to make sense of our experiences.)
3. Developmentalism (Ryle, Schwitzgebel) (We learn concepts and dispositions in a gradual way frequently passing through periods of being "in between" genuine understanding and failure to understand.)

What are the goals of the B-SLIM model?

1. to develop self directed learners, especially in second languages
2. to ensure that every learner succeeds at each phase of the learning process by maximizing exposure to concepts through all learning styles/intelligences and encouraging intellectual/thinking growth in systematically developed steps
3. to help students develop all aspects of language by applying research findings from all areas of second language learning and acquisition (language awareness, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, situations- fluency-accuracy, culture and Culture, learning strategies, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, reading, forms, skills, content, motivation-attitude)
4. to ensure that learners can transfer what they have learned in one familiar context to new contexts.
5. to learn language and to learn through language.
6. to identify success in learning in concrete provable terms (assessment for learning and assessment of learning).

What are the characteristics of the B-SLIM model?

1. linear
2. hierarchical
3. recursive
4. success-driven

          It is linear in that each phase of B-SLIM is designed along a continuum and activities at the beginning of the phase are simpler (less cognitively demanding) than those at the end.  For example, activities at the beginning of the ‘getting it’ phase are more structured and focused than those at the end of the ‘getting it’ phase. The same is true about ‘using it’ activities. 

Similarly, each type of input or 'giving it' can be placed along a continuum so that L2 learners have specific goals at beginner, intermediate and advanced stages.  For example, being able to “speak” for a beginner may mean saying isolated words or short sentences with long pauses between them while speaking for an intermediate learner may be described as the ability to express simple and complex sentences in dialogue about familiar topics without pauses and with minimal errors.

It is hierarchical in that each phase is more difficult than its predecessor (it calls upon more cognitive resources than previous phases).  Furthermore, with the progression through each phase the teacher’s roles change and the class time should involve more and more time for students to produce or create in the L2.  However, just as one who is going up a set of stairs between the second and third floor cannot say precisely which floor they are on when they are going up those stairs, some activities may appear to belong to both the previous and next phases at the same time, being advanced versions of one phase and simpler versions of another. 

As a recursive model, the teacher can introduce an activity at ANY phase of the model and recognize whether the activity is appropriate for the student(s) or not; if it is too difficult teachers can clearly see what supports students need in order to progress through the phase and beyond and provide them.  If the task is not sufficiently challenging more advanced activities can be foreseen and provided.  Furthermore, the B-SLIM fully acknowledges that sometimes learners think they understand something but only when they begin to use or apply it do they recognize that their understanding is not totally clear.  Thus arises an opportunity for student questions, which is an opportunity for the student to take initiative to be a self-directed learner.  It also recognizes that some learners can mentally process information so rapidly that they can appear to ‘skip’ the ‘getting it’ phase (or that they may make hierarchical leaps through acquisition of some vocabulary, grammar or cultural features).

          Lastly, the B-SLIM model has at its core, the goal of making learners feel successful.  The model is success-driven in that it provides the necessary structure and support for students to feel successful at all stages of the learning process.  For example, in order to student success with oral language during the ‘getting it’ or ‘using it’ stages, teachers may want to provide visual supports, which will allow students to produce more than what they may be able to produce without this added support. By facilitating learner success through B-SLIM, teachers are able to increase positive feelings and attitudes in students which in turn increases student motivation and investment in the language.

source : http://www2.education.ualberta.ca

PPP

A Task-based approach

Submitted by TE Editor on 26 April, 2004 - 12:00

In recent years a debate has developed over which approaches to structuring and planning and implementing lessons are more effective. This article presents an overview of a task-based learning approach (TBL) and highlights its advantages over the more traditional Present, Practice, Produce (PPP) approach.

This article also links to the following activity.
Try - Speaking activities - Task-based speaking - planning a night out

• Present Practice Produce

• The problems with PPP

• A Task-based approach

• The advantages of TBL

• Conclusion

Present Practice Produce (PPP)
During an initial teacher training course, most teachers become familiar with the PPP paradigm. A PPP lesson would proceed in the following manner.

• First, the teacher presents an item of language in a clear context to get across its meaning. This could be done in a variety of ways: through a text, a situation build, a dialogue etc.

• Students are then asked to complete a controlled practice stage, where they may have to repeat target items through choral and individual drilling, fill gaps or match halves of sentences. All of this practice demands that the student uses the language correctly and helps them to become more comfortable with it.

• Finally, they move on to the production stage, sometimes called the 'free practice' stage. Students are given a communication task such as a role play and are expected to producethe target language and use any other language that has already been learnt and is suitable for completing it.

The problems with PPP
It all sounds quite logical but teachers who use this method will soon identify problems with it:

• Students can give the impression that they are comfortable with the new language as they are producing it accurately in the class. Often though a few lessons later, students will either not be able to produce the language correctly or even won't produce it at all.

• Students will often produce the language but overuse the target structure so that it sounds completely unnatural.

• Students may not produce the target language during the free practice stage because they find they are able to use existing language resources to complete the task.

A Task-based approach
Task -based learning offers an alternative for language teachers. In a task-based lesson the teacher doesn't pre-determine what language will be studied, the lesson is based around the completion of a central task and the language studied is determined by what happens as the students complete it. The lesson follows certain stages.

Pre-task
The teacher introduces the topic and gives the students clear instructions on what they will have to do at the task stage and might help the students to recall some language that may be useful for the task. The pre-task stage can also often include playing a recording of people doing the task. This gives the students a clear model of what will be expected of them. The students can take notes and spend time preparing for the task.

Task
The students complete a task in pairs or groups using the language resources that they have as the teacher monitors and offers encouragement.

Planning
Students prepare a short oral or written report to tell the class what happened during their task. They then practise what they are going to say in their groups. Meanwhile the teacher is available for the students to ask for advice to clear up any language questions they may have.

Report 
Students then report back to the class orally or read the written report. The teacher chooses the order of when students will present their reports and may give the students some quick feedback on the content. At this stage the teacher may also play a recording of others doing the same task for the students to compare.

Analysis
The teacher then highlights relevant parts from the text of the recording for the students to analyse. They may ask students to notice interesting features within this text. The teacher can also highlight the language that the students used during the report phase for analysis.

Practice
Finally, the teacher selects language areas to practise based upon the needs of the students and what emerged from the task and report phases. The students then do practice activities to increase their confidence and make a note of useful language.

The advantages of TBL
Task-based learning has some clear advantages

• Unlike a PPP approach, the students are free of language control. In all three stages they must use all their language resources rather than just practising one pre-selected item.

• A natural context is developed from the students' experiences with the language that is personalised and relevant to them. With PPP it is necessary to create contexts in which to present the language and sometimes they can be very unnatural.

• The students will have a much more varied exposure to language with TBL. They will be exposed to a whole range of lexical phrases, collocations and patterns as well as language forms.

• The language explored arises from the students' needs. This need dictates what will be covered in the lesson rather than a decision made by the teacher or the coursebook.

• It is a strong communicative approach where students spend a lot of time communicating. PPP lessons seem very teacher-centred by comparison. Just watch how much time the students spend communicating during a task-based lesson.

• It is enjoyable and motivating.

Conclusion
PPP offers a very simplified approach to language learning. It is based upon the idea that you can present language in neat little blocks, adding from one lesson to the next. However, research shows us that we cannot predict or guarantee what the students will learn and that ultimately a wide exposure to language is the best way of ensuring that students will acquire it effectively. Restricting their experience to single pieces of target language is unnatural.

For more information see 'A Framework for Task-Based Learning' by Jane Wills, Longman; 'Doing Task-Based Teaching' by Dave and Jane Willis, OUP 2007. 


source:  http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/a-task-based-approach




CBI

Content-based instruction

Submitted by NikPeachey on 13 August, 2003 - 12:00

In recent years content-based instruction has become increasingly popular as a means of developing linguistic ability. It has strong connections to project work, task-based learning and a holistic approach to language instruction and has become particularly popular within the state school secondary (11 - 16 years old) education sector.

• What is content-based instruction?

• What does a content-based instruction lesson look like?

• What are the advantages of content-based instruction?

• What are the potential problems?

• Conclusions

What is content-based instruction?
The focus of a CBI lesson is on the topic or subject matter. During the lesson students are focused on learning about something. This could be anything that interests them from a serious science subject to their favourite pop star or even a topical news story or film. They learn about this subject using the language they are trying to learn, rather than their native language, as a tool for developing knowledge and so they develop their linguistic ability in the target language. This is thought to be a more natural way of developing language ability and one that corresponds more to the way we originally learn our first language.


What does a content-based instruction lesson look like?
There are many ways to approach creating a CBI lesson. This is one possible way.

• Preparation
  • Choose a subject of interest to students.
  • Find three or four suitable sources that deal with different aspects of the subject. These could be websites, reference books, audio or video of lectures or even real people.

• During the lesson
  • Divide the class into small groups and assign each group a small research task and a source of information to use to help them fulfil the task.
  • Then once they have done their research they form new groups with students that used other information sources and share and compare their information.
  • There should then be some product as the end result of this sharing of information which could take the form of a group report or presentation of some kind.

What are the advantages of content-based instruction?

• It can make learning a language more interesting and motivating. Students can use the language to fulfil a real purpose, which can make students both more independent and confident.

• Students can also develop a much wider knowledge of the world through CBI which can feed back into improving and supporting their general educational needs.

• CBI is very popular among EAP (English for Academic Purposes) teachers as it helps students to develop valuable study skills such as note taking, summarising and extracting key information from texts.

• Taking information from different sources, re-evaluating and restructuring that information can help students to develop very valuable thinking skills that can then be transferred to other subjects.

• The inclusion of a group work element within the framework given above can also help students to develop their collaborative skills, which can have great social value.

What are the potential problems?

• Because CBI isn't explicitly focused on language learning, some students may feel confused or may even feel that they aren't improving their language skills. Deal with this by including some form of language focused follow-up exercises to help draw attention to linguistic features within the materials and consolidate any difficult vocabulary or grammar points.

• Particularly in monolingual classes, the overuse of the students' native language during parts of the lesson can be a problem. Because the lesson isn't explicitly focused on language practice students find it much easier and quicker to use their mother tongue. Try sharing your rationale with students and explain the benefits of using the target language rather than their mother tongue.

• It can be hard to find information sources and texts that lower levels can understand. Also the sharing of information in the target language may cause great difficulties. A possible way around this at lower levels is either to use texts in the students' native language and then get them to use the target language for the sharing of information and end product, or to have texts in the target language, but allow the students to present the end product in their native language. These options should reduce the level of challenge.

• Some students may copy directly from the source texts they use to get their information. Avoid this by designing tasks that demand students evaluate the information in some way, to draw conclusions or actually to put it to some practical use. Having information sources that have conflicting information can also be helpful as students have to decide which information they agree with or most believe.

Conclusions
While CBI can be both challenging and demanding for the teacher and the students, it can also be very stimulating and rewarding. The degree to which you adopt this approach may well depend on the willingness of your students, the institution in which you work and the availability of resources within your environment. It could be something that your school wants to consider introducing across the curriculum or something that you experiment with just for one or two lessons. Whichever you choose to do I would advise that you try to involve other teachers within your school, particularly teachers from other subjects. This could help you both in terms of finding sources of information and in having the support of others in helping you to evaluate your work.

Lastly, try to involve your students. Get them to help you decide what topics and subjects the lessons are based around and find out how they feel this kind of lessons compares to your usual lessons. In the end they will be the measure of your success.

Nik Peachey, teacher, trainer and materials writer, The British Council

soucre : http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/content-based-instruction

Listening

Teaching Listening

Listening is the language modality that is used most frequently. It has been estimated that adults spend almost half their communication time listening, and students may receive as much as 90% of their in-school information through listening to instructors and to one another. Often, however, language learners do not recognize the level of effort that goes into developing listening ability.
Far from passively receiving and recording aural input, listeners actively involve themselves in the interpretation of what they hear, bringing their own background knowledge and linguistic knowledge to bear on the information contained in the aural text. Not all listening is the same; casual greetings, for example, require a different sort of listening capability than do academic lectures. Language learning requires intentional listening that employs strategies for identifying sounds and making meaning from them.
Listening involves a sender (a person, radio, television), a message, and a receiver (the listener). Listeners often must process messages as they come, even if they are still processing what they have just heard, without backtracking or looking ahead. In addition, listeners must cope with the sender's choice of vocabulary, structure, and rate of delivery. The complexity of the listening process is magnified in second language contexts, where the receiver also has incomplete control of the language.
Given the importance of listening in language learning and teaching, it is essential for language teachers to help their students become effective listeners. In the communicative approach to language teaching, this means modeling listening strategies and providing listening practice in authentic situations: those that learners are likely to encounter when they use the language outside the classroom.

Teaching Listening

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Listening

Instructors want to produce students who, even if they do not have complete control of the grammar or an extensive lexicon, can fend for themselves in communication situations. In the case of listening, this means producing students who can use listening strategies to maximize their comprehension of aural input, identify relevant and non-relevant information, and tolerate less than word-by-word comprehension.

Focus: The Listening Process

To accomplish this goal, instructors focus on the process of listening rather than on its product.

• They develop students' awareness of the listening process and listening strategies by asking students to think and talk about how they listen in their native language.
• They allow students to practice the full repertoire of listening strategies by using authentic listening tasks.
• They behave as authentic listeners by responding to student communication as a listener rather than as a teacher.
• When working with listening tasks in class, they show students the strategies that will work best for the listening purpose and the type of text. They explain how and why students should use the strategies.
• They have students practice listening strategies in class and ask them to practice outside of class in their listening assignments. They encourage students to be conscious of what they're doing while they complete listening tape assignments.
• They encourage students to evaluate their comprehension and their strategy use immediately after completing an assignment. They build comprehension checks into in-class and out-of-class listening assignments, and periodically review how and when to use particular strategies.
• They encourage the development of listening skills and the use of listening strategies by using the target language to conduct classroom business: making announcements, assigning homework, describing the content and format of tests.
• They do not assume that students will transfer strategy use from one task to another. They explicitly mention how a particular strategy can be used in a different type of listening task or with another skill.

By raising students' awareness of listening as a skill that requires active engagement, and by explicitly teaching listening strategies, instructors help their students develop both the ability and the   confidence to handle communication situations they may encounter beyond the classroom. In this way they give their students the foundation for communicative competence in the new language.

Integrating Metacognitive Strategies

Before listening: Plan for the listening task

• Set a purpose or decide in advance what to listen for
• Decide if more linguistic or background knowledge is needed
• Determine whether to enter the text from the top down (attend to the overall meaning) or from the bottom up (focus on the words and phrases)

During and after listening: Monitor comprehension

• Verify predictions and check for inaccurate guesses
• Decide what is and is not important to understand
• Listen/view again to check comprehension
• Ask for help

After listening: Evaluate comprehension and strategy use

• Evaluate comprehension in a particular task or area
• Evaluate overall progress in listening and in particular types of listening tasks
• Decide if the strategies used were appropriate for the purpose and for the task
• Modify strategies if necessary

Using Authentic Materials and Situations

Authentic materials and situations prepare students for the types of listening they will need to do when using the language outside the classroom.
One-Way Communication
Materials:

• Radio and television programs
• Public address announcements (airports, train/bus stations, stores)
• Speeches and lectures
• Telephone customer service recordings

Procedure:

• Help students identify the listening goal: to obtain specific information; to decide whether to continue listening; to understand most or all of the message
• Help students outline predictable sequences in which information may be presented: who-what-when-where (news stories); who-flight number-arriving/departing-gate number (airport announcements); "for [function], press [number]" (telephone recordings)
• Help students identify key words/phrases to listen for

Two-Way Communication
In authentic two-way communication, the listener focuses on the speaker's meaning rather than the speaker's language. The focus shifts to language only when meaning is not clear. Note the difference between the teacher as teacher and the teacher as authentic listener in the dialogues in the popup screens.

Source : http://www.nclrc.org

Speaking

Teaching Speaking

Many language learners regard speaking ability as the measure of knowing a language. These learners define fluency as the ability to converse with others, much more than the ability to read, write, or comprehend oral language. They regard speaking as the most important skill they can acquire, and they assess their progress in terms of their accomplishments in spoken communication.

Language learners need to recognize that speaking involves three areas of knowledge:

• Mechanics (pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary): Using the right words in the right order with the correct pronunciation
• Functions (transaction and interaction): Knowing when clarity of message is essential (transaction/information exchange) and when precise understanding is not required (interaction/relationship building)
• Social and cultural rules and norms (turn-taking, rate of speech, length of pauses between speakers, relative roles of participants): Understanding how to take into account who is speaking to whom, in what circumstances, about what, and for what reason.

In the communicative model of language teaching, instructors help their students develop this body of knowledge by providing authentic practice that prepares students for real-life communication situations. They help their students develop the ability to produce grammatically correct, logically connected sentences that are appropriate to specific contexts, and to do so using acceptable (that is, comprehensible) pronunciation.

 Teaching Speaking

Goals and Techniques for Teaching Speaking

The goal of teaching speaking skills is communicative efficiency. Learners should be able to make themselves understood, using their current proficiency to the fullest. They should try to avoid confusion in the message due to faulty pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, and to observe the social and cultural rules that apply in each communication situation.
To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, instructors can use a balanced activities approach that combines language input, structured output, and communicative output.
Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities, reading passages, and the language heard and read outside of class. It gives learners the material they need to begin producing language themselves.
Language input may be content oriented or form oriented.

• Content-oriented input focuses on information, whether it is a simple weather report or an extended lecture on an academic topic. Content-oriented input may also include descriptions of learning strategies and examples of their use.
• Form-oriented input focuses on ways of using the language: guidance from the teacher or another source on vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar (linguistic competence); appropriate things to say in specific contexts (discourse competence); expectations for rate of speech, pause length, turn-taking, and other social aspects of language use (sociolinguistic competence); and explicit instruction in phrases to use to ask for clarification and repair miscommunication (strategic competence).

In the presentation part of a lesson, an instructor combines content-oriented and form-oriented input. The amount of input that is actually provided in the target language depends on students' listening proficiency and also on the situation. For students at lower levels, or in situations where a quick explanation on a grammar topic is needed, an explanation in English may be more appropriate than one in the target language.
Structured output focuses on correct form. In structured output, students may have options for responses, but all of the options require them to use the specific form or structure that the teacher has just introduced.
Structured output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specific language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with previously learned items. Instructors often use structured output exercises as a transition between the presentation stage and the practice stage of a lesson plan. textbook exercises also often make good structured output practice activities.
In communicative output, the learners' main purpose is to complete a task, such as obtaining information, developing a travel plan, or creating a video. To complete the task, they may use the language that the instructor has just presented, but they also may draw on any other vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies that they know. In communicative output activities, the criterion of success is whether the learner gets the message across. Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of it interferes with the message.
In everyday communication, spoken exchanges take place because there is some sort of information gap between the participants. Communicative output activities involve a similar real information gap. In order to complete the task, students must reduce or eliminate the information gap. In these activities, language is a tool, not an end in itself.
In a balanced activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities from these different categories of input and output. Learners at all proficiency levels, including beginners, benefit from this variety; it is more motivating, and it is also more likely to result in effective language learning.


Source : http://www.nclrc.org




Reading 

Teaching Reading

Traditionally, the purpose of learning to read in a language has been to have access to the literature written in that language. In language instruction, reading materials have traditionally been chosen from literary texts that represent "higher" forms of culture.
This approach assumes that students learn to read a language by studying its vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure, not by actually reading it. In this approach, lower level learners read only sentences and paragraphs generated by textbook writers and instructors. The reading of authentic materials is limited to the works of great authors and reserved for upper level students who have developed the language skills needed to read them.
The communicative approach to language teaching has given instructors a different understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that can be used in instruction. When the goal of instruction is communicative competence, everyday materials such as train schedules, newspaper articles, and travel and tourism Web sites become appropriate classroom materials, because reading them is one way communicative competence is developed. Instruction in reading and reading practice thus become essential parts of language teaching at every level.

Reading Purpose and Reading Comprehension

Reading is an activity with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader's selection of texts.
The purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. A person who needs to know whether she can afford to eat at a particular restaurant needs to comprehend the pricing information provided on the menu, but does not need to recognize the name of every appetizer listed. A person reading poetry for enjoyment needs to recognize the words the poet uses and the ways they are put together, but does not need to identify main idea and supporting details. However, a person using a scientific article to support an opinion needs to know the vocabulary that is used, understand the facts and cause-effect sequences that are presented, and recognize ideas that are presented as hypotheses and givens.
Reading research shows that good readers

• Read extensively
• Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge
• Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading
• Are motivated
• Rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic processing, recall
• Read for a purpose; reading serves a function

Reading as a Process

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is.
Reader knowledge, skills, and strategies include

• Linguistic competence: the ability to recognize the elements of the writing system; knowledge of vocabulary; knowledge of how words are structured into sentences
• Discourse competence: knowledge of discourse markers and how they connect parts of the text to one another
• Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge about different types of texts and their usual structure and content

The purpose(s) for reading and the type of text determine the specific knowledge, skills, and strategies that readers need to apply to achieve comprehension. Reading comprehension is thus much more than decoding. Reading comprehension results when the reader knows which skills and strategies are appropriate for the type of text, and understands how to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose.


Source : http://www.nclrc.org




Writing

I found this video on youtube. Interesting video.




CLIL

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)

What is CLIL?CLIL aims to introduce students to new ideas and concepts in traditional curriculum subjects (often the humanities), using the foreign language as the medium of communication - in other words, to enhance the pupils' learning experience by exploiting the synergies between the two subjects. This is often particularly rewarding where there is a direct overlap between the foreign language and the content subject — eg Vichy France, Nazi Germany, the Spanish Civil War.

How does the CLIL approach benefit pupils?
Although it may take a while for pupils to acclimatise to the challenges of CLIL, once they are familiar with the new way of working, demonstrably increased motivation and focus make it possible (and likely) that they will progress at faster-than-usual rates in the content subject, providing that the principles of CLIL teaching are borne in mind during planning and delivery. CLIL aims to improve performance in both the content subject and the foreign language. Research indicates there should be no detrimental effects for the CLIL pupils (and often progress is demonstrably better).

Other advantages include:

• stronger links with the citizenship curriculum (particularly through the use of authentic materials, which offer an alternative perspective on a variety of issues)
• increased student awareness of the value of transferable skills and
  knowledge
• greater pupil confidence.

What are the practical implications of introducing CLIL into the school curriculum?
The content subject should always be the primary focus of any materials used in the CLIL classroom. CLIL should not be used as an opportunity to use texts as glorified vocabulary lists, or to revise concepts already studied in the mother tongue. However, it is impossible to transfer existing content subject lesson plans across without modifying these to take into account pupils' ability in the target language, and therefore the planning process is vital. It is likely that, especially to begin with, lessons will need to be challenging cognitively, with comparatively light linguistic demands. Schools need to design materials to suit the needs of their learners, and to enable them to develop until they are working at high levels of cognitive and linguistic challenge.

What is the best approach to CLIL teaching?
The diversity of CLIL activity in UK schools is striking. It is not possible to generalise to any extent about the subjects chosen, the type of school pioneering such approaches, nor the ability of the learners chosen to participate. The predominant language of the projects is French, although a number of projects are operating in German or Spanish. It appears, then, that no approach to CLIL can be set in stone. One of the purposes of the Content and Language Integration Project is to compare the outcomes of different approaches in a variety of different schools.

What about staffing?
Although availability of CLIL-trained teachers is limited, preliminary research carried out by CILT indicates that schools have adopted a wide variety of different approaches to staffing, from non-native speaker linguists with no specialist content subject knowledge, to native speaker subject content specialists, and every possible permutation in between. CILT's evidence suggests that CLIL teaching is frequently delivered through a combination of solo and team-teaching, often supplemented by collaboration between departments in non-contact time.

How do schools tackle timetabling issues?
CILT research revealed a range of different approaches to timetabling CLIL, from isolated lessons over the school year and 'bilingual days', to modules and even occasionally a whole year's commitment. Many schools are starting to combine such work with class visits and/or partnerships with link schools abroad. Some schools choose to launch fast-track GCSE foreign language courses in Years 8, 9 and 10, after an initial diagnostic period. These run alongside lessons where the foreign language learning is integrated with another curriculum subject. 

source: http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/higgin01.html

CALL

Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Current Programs and Projects

Chris Higgins, Gallaudet University

For many years, foreign language teachers have used the computer to provide supplemental exercises. In recent years, advances in computer technology have motivated teachers to reassess the computer and consider it a valuable part of daily foreign language learning. Innovative software programs, authoring capabilities, compact disk technology, and elaborate computer networks are providing teachers with new methods of incorporating culture, grammar, and real language use in the classroom while students gain access to audio, visual, and textual information about the language and the culture of its speakers.

Computer-Based Foreign Language Programs

For many years, basic drill-and-practice software programs dominated the market in computer-assisted language learning (CALL). These programs focused on vocabulary or discrete grammar points. A vast array of drill-and-practice programs are still available; in addition, however, an increasing number of innovative and interactive programs are being developed. Simulation programs, while reinforcing grammar points, present students with real-life situations in which they learn about the culture of a country and the protocol for various situations. For example, the Ticket series by Bluelion Software and Recuerdos de Madrid from D.C. Heath are simulations that provide country-specific situations in a task-based format. PC Globe and encyclopedia-type programs are information programs that allow students to conduct research in the target language. Games such as the foreign language versions of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? by Brøderbund Software orTrivial Pursuit from Gessler publishers provide an entertaining environment for students to learn culture and the target language through problem-solving and competition. Writing assistants, like Salsa and Système-D (Davis, 1992; Garrett, 1991) aid students in writing compositions in the target language by providing help in grammar, style, and verb conjugation and use (Willetts, in press).

Customizing, Template, and Authoring Programs

The greatest flexibility for teachers using CALL is in the area of authoring programs. Teachers can use these programs to create simple or elaborate software programs using their own materials. In this way, teachers are able to design the program to fit their own lesson plans (Garrett, 1991; Willetts, in press). Authoring programs range from simple template programs to more complicated authoring languages. Template programs, such asChoicemaster and Storyboard from Eurocentres Software, provide teachers with the basic structure for a program into which they put their own exercises. Dasher by Conduit Software, and Calis, developed at Duke University, provide more flexibility in creating exercises that allow teachers to work with screen design and different types of programs. Teachers have the most flexibility in program development and design in authoring systems such as Toolbook, by Asymetrix (Davis, 1992), and Hypercard, packaged with each Macintosh computer (Garrett, 1991), which allow multimedia capabilities as well as less complicated authoring possibilities.

Computer Networks

In addition to their individual programs, computers linked together in networks are expanding the way we teach and learn foreign languages. Local area networks (LAN) are computers linked together by cables in a classroom, lab, or building. They offer teachers a novel approach for creating new activities for students that provide more time and experience with the target language. Certain LAN setups allow students and teachers to correspond with each other via computer or to conduct collaborative writing activities in the target language. For example, LAN set-ups like the ENFI system at Gallaudet University provide an interactive mode of learning. Exercises on such a system enable students and teachers to communicate back and forth. Students can also engage in cooperative writing exercises, conversations in the target language, and problem-solving exercises. Teachers can observe students' activities and progress and make comments to individual students from a teacher station similar to that found in an audio lab (Peyton & Batson, 1986).

Expanding the unique capabilities of the LAN, long distance networks--or computers linked together across long distances--facilitate communication with students throughout the United States and abroad. Computers can communicate across thousands of miles via modems and phone lines using telecommunications software. Communication abroad allows for direct interaction with native speakers. For example, Minitel, a French commercial network service available in the United States, allows students to correspond in French with native speakers in France (Krause, 1989).

Compact Disk Technology

Compact disk technology has many uses in foreign language education, including information retrieval, interactive audio, and interactive multimedia programs. The compact disk - read only memory (CD-ROM) allows huge amounts of information to be stored on one disk with quick access to the information. Publishers have put complete encyclopedias, which could fill more than a dozen floppy disks, on one compact disk (CD). Students and teachers can access information quickly and efficiently for use in and out of the classroom. In recent years, many foreign language computer programs have been put on compact disks, eliminating the need for many floppy disks.

A new dimension has been added to many of these programs; digitized sound. Compact disks that use digitized sound offer quick random access to information as well as superior sound quality (Garrett, 1991). The Hyperglot company has put its programs on a CD that they call Lingua ROM. This software has a program disk and various language disks that contain the digitized speech. With such programs, students are able to hear the pronunciation of a phrase, a word, or even a syllable or sound and then record their own voice following the example. The students can then listen to the original recording, as well as their own, and compare the two. They can record their own voices again and compare the two until they feel their pronunciation has improved or is correct. While digitized sound is far superior to tape recorded sound, the space needed to store digitized sound is relatively large. However, continuing advances in CD-ROM technology will alleviate the space limitations (Garrett, 1991).

The most recent advance in CD technology is the development of the CD-I (compact disk - interactive). This technology includes digitized sound, compressed video, animation, and possibly text to create a multimedia platform for interactive programs. While this technology is still developing, the Phillips corporation has recently made the CD-I available on the commercial market. Because Sega Genesis has already put CD-I on the home video game market, the advent of CD-I educational technology has begun.

Conclusion

Technology has the potential to play a major role in foreign language learning and instruction. However, the development of this potential is in the early stages. Issues on which the realization of this potential depend include "the shift from thinking of technology as assisting instruction to thinking of it as supporting learning; the problems attending the evaluation of technology's efficacy; the prerequisites to genuine individualization of software; and the advantages and disadvantages of pedagogically shaped as contrasted with authentic materials and of learner control over the learning environment" (Garrett, 1991, p.95).

source : http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/higgin01.html