Connecting CLIL to the bigger picture

There's a time for input and there's a time for output, as every language learner knows.  Without the former, the latter is impossible, yet if the balance isn't right, learning can get stuck.  Couple this with the knowledge that everything that's worthwhile takes time and is difficult until, with practice, it becomes easier. Then, add it to the knowledge that learning is what remains after the original content has been forgotten and you will soon realise that CLIL has amazing potential.

As an approach, CLIL revolutionises both content and language learning.  Whether we like it or not.  And, as with everything in this life, we can either embrace change and grow beyond what we know to foster greater benefits for all, or we can get stuck, complain and become complacent.

What would you like to change about your current teaching circumstances?  What would you like to maintain?  What are the immediate and longer term ramifications and of what you're doing on a daily basis? What impact are you having on students lives?

I'd like to feel I'm doing a good job.  I'd like to make a real difference.  I'd like to know my students are learning things that take them in the right direction.  I'd like to see my students become progressively more capable, more independent, less dependent.  I'd like to know they're building skills which are helping them progress in learning and in life.  I'd like to see more communication and collaboration among themselves, both within and beyond the classroom walls.  I'd like to evidence more complex thinking, reasoning and decision making.  I'd like to feel I'm influencing positively in their lives and that the time we spend together is also contributing significantly to mine.

During my scaffolded investigation of CLIL I've realised I can do all of this.  Just like any tool, it's as powerful as the person who is using it.  In a world where any content is at the touch of a button on the internet, in a world which is daily more complex and complicated, CLIL opens up more learning possibilities than we could even imagine.  If the teacher is prepared to learn too, to enquire, to explore and to modify their practice depending on the results, we can all move forward.

If we embrace the opportunity.  If we engage.  If we inspire.  If we enable.  If we start from the importance of the human connections, work with people above both language and content, we can train in all these skills and abilities.  If we think.  If we communicate.  If we collaborate.  If we infuse the "what" we're doing, with the "why" to come up with the right "how's".  If we're prepared to take the risk.

There's a time for thinking, and there's a time for doing, as every teacher knows.  Let's use this opportunity to make learning not only visible but to discover what, together, we can achieve.  Let's do  it now.  We reap what we sow.