Teaching Other Subjects Through English. Sheelagh Deller

and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has attracted great interest in recent years, especially in Europe but increasingly more widely in the world. This is undoubtedly linked to the expansion of subject teaching in English, whether in state pilot experimental schools, universities, or international schools. This in its turn rides on the back of the tendency for parents to want their children to make an earlier start in learning English. Many children are now relatively proficient in general English by the time they reach secondary school age and need something more than a re-hash of what they have already learnt. These trends go hand in hand with the perception of English as the international language of choice for career development, and show no sign of slackening.

      The belief underlying CLIL is that teaching subjects through English provides a better preparation for professional life than teaching English as a subject empty of content. There are, too, clear motivational advantages in teaching English for a well-defined purpose which is perceived as relevant by the students.

      CLIL has recently become something of a cult movement, and there are many articles and even some books which discuss its theoretical foundations. There is, however, a relative dearth of books offering practical, classroom-tested ideas on ways to implement a CLIL approach. This book aims to go some way towards meeting the need for such a practical resource.

      Teachers of CLIL are of two main kinds: subject teachers who find they need to teach their subject in English – with all the attendant difficulties of limited proficiency in English, and limited familiarity with language teaching methodology – and language teachers who are assigned to teach subject matter in English – with problems of unfamiliarity with subject areas. This book will be of special help to the former, but also offers ideas to help the latter.

      Each activity focuses on a particular subject area – mathematics, physics, history, etc. – and shows in detail how it could be applied to teach an aspect of that subject. However, for each activity, there are a number of suggestions on how to apply the activity to other subject areas. In line with the philosophy of this series therefore, teachers are encouraged to pick up the ideas and adapt them to suit their own specific circumstances.

      Given the huge expansion in the provision of subject teaching through English, the relative lack of preparation of some teachers confronted by the need to carry this out, and the shortage of well-tried materials for doing it, this book will prove to be a very welcome resource.

Alan Maley

      Introduction

      Who is this book for?

      • Subject teachers who teach their subject through English to students aged 11–18.

      • Subject teachers who teach their subject through other target languages.

      • English language teachers who use other subjects to teach English to students aged 11–18.

      • Subject teachers who have multi-lingual classes.

      • Teachers who support students aged 11–18 across the curriculum in English.

      • Subject teachers who want to widen their repertoire of classroom activities.

      • Pre-service and in-service teacher trainers who train teachers to teach subject matter through a foreign language.

      • Trainee teachers and those on in-service teacher development courses.

      Background: Content and Language Integrated Learning

      The last five years have seen a massive expansion of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). CLIL is now becoming common practice throughout many countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the Far East. To get a better understanding of the place of CLIL it is helpful to compare different types of foreign language teaching.