Nowadays, all CLIL practitioners can get material for their content
areas from a variety of sources, such as the Internet or from coursebooks.
However, on many occasions materials have to be adapted so as to make them
easier for students. I have written other entries on this blog on the
convenience of providing students with visual scaffolding so today I would like
to give some clues on how to make content in a Music lesson easier for students
without diminishing the amount of content-obligatory
language.
Content-obligatory language could be defined as the language needed for subject matter mastery in the mainstream classroom. This language consists of
words, structures, collocations and functions which are essential for the topic they are
studying.
CLIL students will also need content-compatible language, i.e. the
everyday kind of language which is useful for both the study of a specific
topic and for general use (verbs like
blow, hit, play which will be useful in a Music lesson but also in everyday
situations)
I have mentioned the word language twice so it is important to stop at
this point to clarify that the CLIL teacher focuses on language only in the sense of
enhancing the effectiveness of this role; he or she should not spend his/her
time explaining the difference between
the past simple and present perfect. That is precisely why coordination between
language and subject teachers is essential in order to identify language
problems in the topic in advance so that they can be dealt with effectively.
Let’s focus on a text that can be part of a Music lesson on the
orchestra (string instruments) and see how we could make it easier for students
while respecting the necessary amount of content-obligatory language. This is my proposal.
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