Gina Alioto
What did I learn in the course?
Before starting this mini-course, I saw Content-based Instruction as a powerful tool for language instructors; however, I am now convinced that CLIL and CRLL are the future of language instruction.
More than anything, I’ve learned the importance of engaging my students with interesting content, making them participate and HELPING them to express themselves and to understand via a variety of related tools and methods (which may include using their L1 from time to time). Having lots of patience is also critical.
How has the course impacted my future teaching and ideas? How has it contributed to my development as a teacher?
In the near-term (and as a part-time Masters student), I plan to use what I have learned in this mini-course as a starting point for a final project (TFM) based on Content-based instructional methods as well as incorporate the fundamental ideas into the materials I develop for my didactic sequence. Looking ahead, I hope to further test out some of the materials / activities that we’ve developed in a classroom with more students. Finally, I will actively seek out opportunities to become a part of a project that brings CLIL into the classroom for the first time in the near future.
How have I participated in the course project? What have I learned with the project and how has it made me rethink / reshape my role as a language teacher?
For our project, “We are what we eat!,” I helped the team to research and develop the content for the materials for a CRLL-based lesson about special diets and food restrictions. I also volunteered to teach the class to three different groups of students. Based on this experience, I learned the importance of tailoring the content and objectives based on the levels, interests and abilities of each class. For example, our “Gen-X” students had much less prior knowledge and much more interest in the topic that our “Millennial” students. I also realized that developing CRLL materials takes a great deal of time and that materials must be tested and tweaked for best results. Our beginner students provided feedback that helped us add some additional vocabulary into the materials for future reuse of the lesson. Finally, I learned how it can be difficult to get students to speak at the beginning. This emphasizes how designing some activities that force them to participate is vital to their eventual success in producing language.
