Taking part in the GEP1 course has been a very informative experience to learn how implement theory into practice. However, I have to recognize that at the beginning I was a little worried about the GEP 1, and I found myself intimidated after the first training session when I didn’t know anything about it . The vocabulary and concepts were very new to me, but the online course about CLIL (iniciació en la pràctica CLIL. Professorat de Primària) helped me to better grasp these ideas.
Although it was hard, little by little I started understanding the philosophy of CLIL, whereby children can learn using L2 as a vehicular tongue to acquire new knowledge.
After implementing the tasks, I consider that my students have really enjoyed participating in them and have overcome their initial feelings of unease when confronted with the idea of learning science in English. At the end, they realized their capacity to understand and learn basic concepts and vocabulary in English, as well as the ability to discuss about the new learning in their own language and with a model in L2. The cooperative work has helped them to share their skills and help each other. Doing so has made the learning more significant and built stronger relationships within the class.
Some of the problems I encountered are the student to teacher ratio and the varying language levels of the pupils in L2. I have implemented the task in three classes of two different grades ( 5th and 6th) and have found it necessary to adapt each task and tailor it to the specific group. It’s really unpredictable to allot the amount of time the students will need to reach the aim of the tasks as the interest of each group varies.
In my opinion I could improve the CLIL class if the schedule wasn’t so strict because in so many cases the students are so involved in the task that they need more time. Additionally, another way to improve would be divided the groups in two.