CLIL in Norway

1
CLIL in Norway

• Førsteamanuensis Glenn Ole Hellekjær
• Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleutvikling
• Universitetet i Oslo

2
Overview of talk

• Immersion and CLIL- what are they?
• CLIL in Norway
• Some research results
• How to start up and teach

3
What is CLIL?

• CLIL is an umbrella term describing the
  teaching of non language subjects such as
  History, Geography or Physics in a foreign
  language, with both language learning and content
  learning as goals.
• Bilingual instruction
• Extended language learning
• Content based language instruction
• TCFL- teaching content in a foreign language
• FLAC- foreign languages across the curriculum
• Foreign language/English medium instruction

4
Immersion

• At least 50 of the curriculum is taught through
  the foreign language
• Total and partial immersion
• Early, delayed, and late immersion

Genesee, 1987, p.21
5
Immersion goals

• Additive immersion - majority language students -
  bilingualism as goal
• Submersion - subtractive immersion - language
  minority - assimilation and monolingualism as
  goal
• Maintenance/heritage language programs- Sami in
  Kautokeino
• Colin Baker (2001) Foundations of Bilingual
  Education and Bilingualism, chapter 9.

6
Principles of organization

• theme-based courses
• modules, FL or subject-matter teachers
• sheltered-instruction
• a subject matter course, separate class,
• subject matter teacher
• adjunct-instruction
• linked subject-matter and language courses
• used for language development/enhancement
• successful for French/German CLIL classes
• See LK06 syllabus - opens for cooperation between
  language and content subjects

7
CLIL in Norway

• 1993 - the first 4 classes, History, Religion,
  Tourism, Cooking theory
• Requirements
• volunteer pupils,
• standard Norwegian curricula
• 30 of instruction minimum
• exams in target language preferred (SUE aims to
  provide English exam papers!)
• included in school diplomas
• Uneven development in the late 90s
• New guidelines needed, old are still in force

8
CLIL/Immersion in Norway

• International Baccalaureate classes
• Eurydice survey - January 2005
• 15 to 20 upper secondary schools (4-5)
• Single subject, sheltered CLIL classes in
  History, Physics, Religion
• Largely the result of initiatives from schools,
  teachers, counties
• Vulnerable to reductions in student numbers,
  difficulties in getting teachers

9
Is CLIL worth it?

• The Acid TestDoes Upper Secondary EFL
  Instruction Effectively Prepare Norwegian
  Students for the Reading of English Textbooks at
  Colleges and Universities?
• I examine the role of upper secondary English as
  a Foreign Language instruction in preparing for
  higher education

10
Method and samples

• 217 senior upper secondary level students from 7
  schools (IELTS test)
• 578 students from the faculties of Education,
  Social Science, and Mathematics and Natural
  Sciences at the University of Oslo
  (self-assessment)
• 53 students from Østfold University College, the
  University of Bergen, the Norwegian University of
  Science and Technology (IELTS and
  self-assessment)

• Exploratory and descriptive study
• Combination of surveys and reading tests
• Self assessment items as indicators of reading
  proficiency
• The International English Language Testing System
  (IELTS)
• Quantitative analysis

11
The upper secondary school sample

• 217 students from 7 upper secondary schools
  (General Studies branch)
• 178 students had EFL instruction only, 25
  Foundation Course, 17 3 or 5 lessons in second
  year, 56 Advanced English Course
• 39 students had a single CLIL subject Modern
  History or Physics taught in English
• Tested with the IELTS Academic Reading Module (24
  out of 38 points required)

12
RESULTS
The EFL sub-sample
Band 6 level
13

• Reading problems persist in higher education -
  35 of students have problems
• Study experience does not correlate with reading
  proficiency
• Grades and interest for English have positive
  correlations
• Extracurricular reading also correlates
  positively- avid readers have an initial
  advantage that keeps growing
• The Advanced English Course - no consistent
  correlation with IELTS scores to be found --gt too
  little reading

14
The CLIL sub-sample
Band 6
15

• CLIL students quickly learn to read for overall
  meaning, to tolerate uncertainty and vagueness
• Better able to adjust reading strategy to reading
  purpose
• Able to guess/deduce word meaning from context--gt
  expanding their vocabulary in the process
• The same is the case for proficient readers in
  higher education, and for extracurricular readers

16
What about Norwegian?

• Norwegian teachers often feel threatened by CLIL
• Canadian and Swedish studies show little or no
  negative impact on L1 proficiency
• Canada - an initial slowdown in L1 development in
  early immersion
• Sweden - a marginal increase in errors in L1
  writing, often interference errors, spelling,
  word division etc.

17
Starting up with CLIL

• ORGANIZING
• Information to parents, pupils, colleagues
• Long preparation time, start early
• Important to find good textbooks, consult schools
  with CLIL programs
• My experience --gt initial skepticism - recruit
  from several classes, later you can use
  survivors for recruiting
• Continuous need for comforting-troubleshooting

18
Teaching

• CLIL is more than just teaching through a foreign
  language
• Language constrains both teachers and pupils
• Necessary to maximize redundancy, in particular
  through good visual aids
• Do not expect them to be able to take notes
  during instruction

19
Bridge the FL proficiency gap

• Student FL proficiency
• generally inadequate
• generally insufficient, BICS not CALP, disguises
  proficiency gap

• Swain and Richardsen 1997

Conceptually new
X
Linguist-ically new
Linguistically familiar
x
Conceptually familiar
20
Teaching

• Go slow to start with
• Standardized lessons, glossaries
• Pre-reading
• Study skills/ reading skills necessary- read for
  meaning
• Group work as follow up
• Tests - let them choose language, encourage use
  of FL but do not insist, particularly in writing
• Prepare/drill for examinations
• my experience with a History examination
• DRAMATIC LANGUAGE LEARNING GAINS and FUN TEACHING!

21
Resources

• Easy Does It Introducing Pupils to Bilingual
  Instruction
• http//zif.spz.tu-darmstadt.de/jg-04-2/beitrag/hel
  lek1.htm
• ALPME- contacts, references, literature
• http//www.upf.es/dtf/alpme/
• www.fremmedspraksenteret.no