Under one roof: considerations on integrating content and language

IATEFL held  its 53rd Annual Conference in Liverpool from 2  to 5 April  and those of us who could not attend this unique event can now access recorded sessions from the Conference through IATEFL Online, supported by their Strategic Partner, the British Council. 

One of the plenary speakers was Aleksandra Zaparucha. She is a Geography and English teacher from Poland, with 30 years of experience in Geography and EFL teaching, including 15 years of engagement in CLIL.  

Alexandra  pinpointed 10 characteristics of CLIL, arguing they should be adopted to any other situation where content and language are integrated, be it at primary, secondary or tertiary education level. The most important notion she conveyed throughout her talk was that  every CLIL lesson should adequately ‘tune in’ the procedure through which the relevant content is offered to students. I reckon that all of you who have been attending seminars on CLIL   for several years now will be happy to see that you are doing things the right way. You will also be happy to listen to her say that  CLIL is here to stay.

Before we start enjoying our well-deserved Easter break, may I share her superb reflection on CLIL with you:

 
On May 7^th we will meet again for our  CLIL seminar session and besides sharing  our CLIL units as we had scheduled, we will comment on  Alexandra’s inspiring conference. 

My heartfelt thanks to you, Alexandra, for encouraging us to continue developing CLIL  as we have been doing for more than twenty years now. The same as you,  we also believe that  CLIL is  here to stay because it enables us to bring  the real school curriculum into our classrooms.