Considerations when planning a CLIL science lesson

Activating prior knowledge

It is helpful to start a lesson by finding out what learners already know about the science topic. Learners may know many facts about a topic in their L1 (first language) but may have difficulty explaining this knowledge in a second or third language. When brainstorming ideas about a new topic, expect learners to use some L1 and then translate.

Input and output

Teachers need to plan the input, i.e. the information that is being presented in the CLIL class. Will it be delivered orally, in writing, on paper, electronically? Is it for whole class work, group or pair work? Will it include practical demonstrations? Teachers also need to plan for learner output. How are learners going to produce and communicate the content and language of the lesson? Will it be communicated orally, in writing or by using practical skills? What will success for the learners look like?

Wait time

Wait time refers to the time teachers wait between asking questions and learners answering them. When subjects are taught in a non-native language, a longer wait time than usual is needed so that learners can process new subject concepts in a new language. This is especially important at the start of new CLIL courses so that all learners are encouraged to take part in classroom interaction.

Collaborative tasks

Include tasks that involve learners in producing key subject-specific vocabulary and structures in meaningful pair or group work activities. Tasks may be at word level, e.g. a pair work information-gap or labelling activity, or at sentence level, e.g. pairs can ask and answer questions about different body organs, groups can explain how they plan to do an experiment or explain their results after doing an experiment. They can do this either digitally or face-to-face. Activities should support processing of new science content and language.

Cognitive challenge

Learners usually need considerable support to develop their thinking skills in a non-native language. They need to communicate not only the everyday functional language practised in many English classes, but they also need to communicate the cognitive, academic language of school subjects. In CLIL, learners meet cognitively challenging materials from the beginning of their courses.

Teaching Science through English – a CLIL approachProviding scaffolding, i.e. content and language support strategies which are appropriate but temporary, is therefore very important.

Providing effective scaffolding is a challenge to all CLIL teachers because learners vary in the amount of support they need and in the length of time the support is needed. Learners might need more support and for longer in one subject than in another.

Developing thinking skills

Teachers need to ask questions which encourage lower order thinking skills (LOTS), e.g. the what, when, where and which questions. However, they also need to ask questions which demand higher order thinking skills (HOTS). These involve the why and how questions and therefore require the use of more complex language. In CLIL contexts, and especially in science subjects, learners often have to answer higher order thinking questions at an early stage of learning curricular content.