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​European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education

​CLIL COURSES at the Irish Creative Training and Innovative Development Center

Our CLIL courses include one or two modules of teaching practice where participants can try out new ideas in a safe environment. 

To ensure the course runs smoothly and that all participants can take part in the activities, a minimum B1 English level is highly recommended. 
Our CLIL programmes are aimed at secondary and Higher Education teachers, teacher trainers and staff who have to, currently or in the future, deliver content lessons in English.

​The aims of the courses are:

•  to clarify the concept of CLIL;
  
• to focus on specific areas of language development for classroom management and instruction;
  
• to demonstrate teaching techniques which are transferable to a variety of subjects across the curriculum;
  
• to show how published and authentic materials can be adapted for CLIL lessons, keeping in mind the specific educational need of each learners` group.​
  

Samples of a popular ICTIDC CLIL Course

Week 1

• ​Introductions - Get to know learners, teachers, the school, course and area
• Introductions to the CLIL: varieties of CLIL; challenges and opportunities 
  
• Language Development - Improve your command of English
  
• Communication - Practical ideas to encourage communication in the classroom
  
• Materials Design and Supporting Learning - Techniques and resources to ensure ​learning
  
• Language in the CLIL Classroom - addressing different varieties of language required by CLIL
  
• CLIL practical ideas to reinforce learning
  
• Virtual Learning Platforms for CLIL - Online learning tools for educators and students
  
• Activity Planning - Tutor-assisted planning time for communicative activities
  
• Practical Skills Developments - PART I /Teaching practice with self-assessment and group evaluation
  

Week 2

• ​​Correction and Feedback - Ways of conducting feedback while maintaining motivation
• Community - Practical ideas for collaboration in and outside the classroom
  
• Differentiation - Types of learner and its impact on the CLIL classroom
  
• Cognitive Skills - Exploring the importance of thinking skills in CLIL
  
• Language Development - Improve your command of English
  
• CLIL-centered assessment and evaluation, with practical ideas for implementation
  
• Lesson Planning - Assisted planning of a lesson, using the acquired knowledge and skills
  
• Practical Skills Developments - PART II - Teaching practice with self-assessment and group evaluation
  
  

The structure of CLIL is based on a curriculum made up of what has been referred to as „the four „C‟s‟ and the three „A‟s‟ (Coyle, 1999).  These „C‟s‟ stand for:

• Content;
  
• Culture;
  
• Communication and
  
• Cognition,
  

while the A‟s stand for A‟s:

• Analyze (Language of Learning),
  
• Add (Language for Learning), and
  
• Apply (Language through Learning).
  

The Culture forms part of the core between the four main

aspects. In CLIL, culture is included as a means which

allows us to discover the connection between language

and cultural identity. 

Although the link between CLIL and intercultural learning requires further research, there are already some European researchers that had been highlighting the role of CLIL in intercultural learning in Europe.

Julian Sudhoff from the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany pointed out that the field of foreign language education is seen as a fundamental building block in fostering intercultural communicative competence (ICC). The dual focussed nature of CLIL-classrooms, i.e. the merging of a foreign language with content subject matter, seems to provide an ideal environment to initiate intercultural learning: content is never culturally neutral. Analysing, (re)constructing, comparing, contrasting and relativising one’s own cultural perspective and foreign cultural perspectives, sais Sudhoff, are essential elements in the development of intercultural competence. The ability to then shift and mediate between these cultural perspectives is a core objective in the intercultural learning process. Within rich CLIL environments a multitude of impulses may arise, which in turn lead to an exploration of different cultural viewpoints and, subsequently, enable shifts between these. 

In his study "CLIL’s Role in Facilitating Intercultural Learning", Piotr Romanovski from the University of Warsaw concluded that, as culture seems to be one of the five dimensions of CLIL provision, it is essential to discuss and consider the incorporation of an intercultural perspective in CLIL. The integrative nature of CLIL gives an opportunity for a simultaneous combination of foreign language learning, content subject learning and intercultural learning.

Research of Junta de Andaluci­a (Interculturality & Multiculturalism in CLIL, Carmen Millán Salgueiro, 2015) points out that CLIL does not merely teach students about foreign cultures through the CLIL languages, it travels beyond that as to teach civic and social relations on an international level, regardless of their culture.