Los chicos pueden aprender lenguaje. En Melbourne High School se hacen 4 preguntas: ¿Por qué? ¿Cómo? ¿Qué? y ¿Con qué resultados?

1. Content and Language Integrated
Learning
Boys Can Learn Languages!

2. Context
• Melbourne High School, Melbourne, Australia
• Select entry boys’ school
• Top 3% of the state
• My role- Head of German and Head of Languages

3. What are some of the problems in
language education?
• Students not challenged
• Language study irrelevant
• Students have no immediate need to improve
in or focus on their language skills
• English is the universal language

4. Questions
Why?
What?
How?
With what results?

5. Second Language Acquisition
• The current research on second language
acquisition tells us that to become competent
in a language it must be presented in a
relevant context and must have a
communicative function (Richard and Rogers,
2001).

6. What is meant by CLIL?
• Content and Language Integrated Learning
(CLIL) is a dual-focused educational approach.
• The additional language (foreign language) is
used for the teaching of both content and
language.
• I teach the history curriculum through the
German language.

7. Why? Teaching boys at MHS?
Why did we trial a CLIL program at Melbourne High
School?
- Boys and language learning
- High achieving students
- Language drop off
- German program was not necessarily relevant to
the students needs and interests
- High order thinking
- Cognitive advantages of bilingualism

8. How do you teach a CLIL program?
• Integrated content-based instruction
–Content and language objectives are
planned concurrently
–Key vocabulary is pre-taught (essential)
–Highly scaffolded
–Routines
–Modeling

9. With what results? Program Review
• Student Survey (start and end of program)
• The students want to learn!
• Changed classroom atmosphere.
• They are creative with the language.
• Don’t rely on translators.
• Create complicated sentences.
• Students sat the year 9 history exam-results
were in-line with the year level results .

10. With what results?
Continued evaluation
• The year 9 CLIL students from 2013 are now
studying German in year 10.
• It will be interesting to see what happens to
the numbers at year 11 in 2015.
• For further information please email me at:
briggs.elizabeth.e@edumail.vic.gov.au