LIT4CLIL

LITERACY FOR CLIL CONTEXTS

Aims

Develop a literacy-based approach to teaching English as a foreign language literacy, that is suitable for primary CLIL contexts.

Train and promote “literacy mentors” that are able to work with a literacy-based approach to English language teaching.

Contribute to on-going training in literacy-based English language teaching for language teachers across Europe and beyond, both pre-service and in-service.

Develop transnational cooperation and promote life-long learning among pre-service, in-service, university teachers and researchers.

The project objectives are consistent with the priorities of the Erasmus Strategic Partnerships and are relevant to two fields of education, i.e. school education and higher education. The project supports teachers in acquiring teaching skills and key competences for their professions, i.e. developing skills for FL literacy teaching skills in CLIL contexts.

To do so, a course in literacy-based ELT has been designed through a process that starts from a needs analysis via course design and materials development, a piloting stage and the final creation of a MOOC. All these actions and the intellectual outputs have been developed through cooperation among transnational partners with the input of both school and university-based teacher educators. In addition, on the basis of the outputs, new transnational teaching modules for pre-service teachers have been created with the contribution of transnational partners. The project aims to tackle the skills gaps through designing and developing curricula that meet the learning needs of students and are relevant to the labor market and societal needs. For pre-service teachers, the project develops basic skills (i.e. literacy) and transferable skills (the developed skills can be transferred to and from the mother tongue and to other languages, and also across the curriculum to other subjects).

This project meets a real need perceived by both teachers, researchers and teacher trainers, i.e. how to develop primary pupils’ literacy skills in CLIL contexts. It is also innovative in focusing on literacy development as the key to foreign language teaching in CLIL contexts, an approach that has so far mainly been used in the context of university foreign language teaching in the USA, and in teaching second language learners in Australia.

Literacy teaching has not been used as the focus for teaching the FL in the CLIL context so far, despite the fact that students in this kind of programs clearly need to develop their literacy skills to be able to use the foreign language for learning. So far, European projects have mostly focused on literacy development as a tool for intercultural learning (e.g. Janua Linguarum, Koinos), or generally highlighted the importance of literacy development (e.g. European Literacy Network or the report by the EU High Level Group on Literacy and its spin-off ELINET). The other area where innovation has been focused is the development of literacy skills across school curricula (e.g. the work done by Beacco et al. on the languages of schooling commissioned by The Language Policy Unit of the Council of Europe, or the Pluriliteraces Project carried out at the European Centre of Modern Languages, Graz). However, as mentioned before, none of these projects address literacy development in foreign language lessons as part of a CLIL project.

While focused on the teaching of English as a foreign language, the results of this project are easily transferable to other foreign languages, as well as MT teaching.

A final innovative aspect of this project is the collaboration between universities and schools as partners in the project, a collaboration that contributes to bridging the gaps existing between school and academia. By integrating schools and school associations as partners we are able to guarantee the applicability and relevance of the approach developed for literacy teaching, as well as the pedagogical tools created.

Target Groups

The target groups, addressed in the project, are in-service, pre-service teachers and teacher educators / researchers. Ultimately, the target group affected by the project has been primary school learners. The project aims to enhance the professional development and strengthen the professional profile of FL teachers as well as reinforce cooperation between schools and higher education institutions.

Transnational Collaboration

The project needs to be carried out transnationally, because each country can contribute to the success of the project in its own way. Spain has had a long tradition of CLIL primary education and can contribute in guiding teachers in effective FL instruction for CLIL. Slovenia has been a part of an international literacy project during which it has developed some materials for initial FL literacy and Poland has developed a comprehensive bilingual teacher education program with a strong focus on literacy teaching. As all partners are involved in language and bilingual teacher education, they have a strong base to build a partnership to develop continuous teacher development focusing on the area of literacy-based foreign language teaching for primary CLIL contexts. With the increased popularity of CLIL education at primary levels across Europe, this project plays an important role for all school and university partners involved.

The selected school partners were chosen because of their involvement in CLIL programmes and because they expressed a desire to improve their pupils’ FL literacy skills. Some of their teachers are already trying out a variety of techniques and methods to enhance their pupils’ literacy skills in a systematic way. All the selected schools strive for innovative approaches.

Partners

University of Warsaw

founded in 1816, a public research-oriented HEI, Poland’s largest & finest university. From its beginning, it has played a major role in the intellectual, political and cultural life of Poland, and is recognized worldwide as a leading academic centre in Central Europe. 21 faculties, 30 independent teaching & research units; 47,600 students (incl. 3,200 PhD), 3,400 post-diploma learners; 7,200 staff incl. 3,500 researchers/teachers; over 100 study fields in Humanities, Earth, Social, Natural Sciences at first/second/third cycles (Bachelor/Master /Doctoral levels), 5-year Master studies in Law, Psychology; 25 degree programmes in English; 29 Joint Master Programmes; over 2000 courses in foreign languages, vocational training, e-learning, summer education. The Faculty of Education of the University of Warsaw has a long tradition of teacher education both in Early Primary Education and in Early Language Education at undergraduate and graduate levels. In 2014, the Faculty opened a new graduate level course (M.A level course) focusing on bilingual education at the primary level Graduate Programme of Teaching English to Young Learners (GPTE). It was created in cooperation with partner universities from Slovenia, Sweden and Finland and is offered in English. GPTE became the basis for both research and teacher development in the area of bilingual education. It also has strong support in the community and close collaboration with many schools.

Lit4CLIL at the University of Warsaw is headed by Katarzyna Brzosko-Barratt.

University of Ljubljana

the oldest and largest higher education and scientific research institution in Slovenia. It has more than 40.000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and employs approximately 5.600 higher education teachers, researchers, assistants and administrative staff in 23 faculties and three arts academies. The University of Ljubljana is listed amongst the top 500 universities in the world according to the ARWU Shanghai, Times THES-QS and WEBOMETRICS rankings. The University of Ljubljana is the central and largest educational institution in Slovenia with 30 percent of all registered researchers .Its staff members manage various national and international research programmes and projects. Research programmes, foundation and applicative projects are also undertaken in cooperation with other research organisations. Its researchers frequently participate in international projects and collaborate with recognised associations. The number of research projects increases from year to year, as does the number of the research ﬁndings published in Slovenian and foreign periodicals. The department of Primary Education has been involved in in-service and pre-service teacher training, with a special programme for students, who want to specialise in teaching foreign languages in the first 5 years of primary education. The Faculty has been a partner in the Dystelf project (Dyslexia for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) and other projects dealing with teacher education.

Lit4CLIL at the University of Ljubljana is headed by Mateja Dagarin Fojkar.

The University of Alcalá

Tradition and innovation are combined in a university whose origins date back to 1499, the year of its foundation by the Regent of Spain, Cardinal Cisneros, as a very novel educational project. Moved to Madrid in the mid-nineteenth century, the democratic transition made it possible for the University of Alcalá to reopen its classrooms in 1977. The UAH is one of the few universities in the world declared a “World Heritage Site” by UNESCO, with old buildings that have been rebuilt and used as Faculties. It receives more than 6000 international students per year, which places Alcalá in the first place among Spanish universities in the internationalization ranking.The UAH offers a total of 38 bachelor’s degrees, 46 master’s degrees and 25 doctorates in five branches of knowledge: Arts and Humanities, Law and Social Sciences, Sciences, Health Sciences, Engineering and Architecture. The UAH participates and has participated in a wide variety of projects funded by the EU. The Department of Modern Languages and the Centro Universitario Cardenal Cisneros have a long experience in teacher training, both pre-service and in-service. They also have great experience in participation in international projects with European partners and beyond.

Lit4CLIL at the University of Alcalá is headed by Ana Halbach, with the support of Raquel Fernández-Fernández.

All-Poland Association of Bilingualism BILINGUIS

a nationwide, non-governmental body that unites teachers, scholars and other enthusiasts of bilingual education in Poland. The main principles of Bilinguis are to promote bilingual education in Poland, to liaise with the Ministry of Education on aspects regarding bilingualism, to organise and participate in various conferences, to help implement bilingual education in all stages of education (including primary schools), to consolidate the network of bilingual schools, and to support bilingual teachers in any issues concerning their work. The members of Bilinguis are very often practitioners working in all school types in the field of bilingual education. The Association is involved in promoting bilingual education at all stages of education.

Lit4CLIL at All-Poland Association of Bilingualism BILINGUIS is headed by Artur Stępniak with the support of Edyta Wernicka, Kinga Jędrusiak, Dorota Świerzyńska.

Dwujęzyczna Szkoła Podstawowa Smart School

The School was founded in 2015 as a bilingual primary school and has been providing bilingual education classes at all primary levels for the last 4 years. There are 35 teachers and 111 students. It has created an innovative curriculum focused on the needs of young learners utilizing the CLIL approach. The guiding principle is based on the premise that immersing a child into a foreign language and multicultural education should happen on a daily basis for extended time. This will help students to become proficient in a foreign language, and also provide them with other learning opportunities, such as bilingual subject knowledge, multicultural basis of global education. The school’s experiences confirm that a good foreign English language literacy approach is crucial in bilingual education especially in the early stages of education. The teachers have been cooperating with the University of Warsaw, University of Salamanca (Spain) sharing experiences of teaching in the CLIL system for the last 2 years.

Lit4CLIL at Smart School Przedszkola i Szkoły Dwujęzyczne is headed by Monika Kozłowska and Marta Słowikowska.

Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar

a Catholic Charter School in Madrid, which holds over 2000 students aged from 3 to 18 years old. Since 2004, the school has a programme to reinforce the learning of languages and now it is in the stage of improving the quality of it. The hours of teaching English and French are being constantly increased. All the teachers involved in the programme need to have their C1 level certified in the language they teach. The school uses CLIL methodology in several subjects, such as Arts and Crafts, Physical Education, Music, Natural and Social Science, Technology, Biology. About two thirds of the students on the Secondary level do Advanced English, which differs from the standard English in the emphasis on Literacy. The school has adopted the literacy approach in teaching foreign languages including English and French in a coordinated manner.

Lit4CLIL at Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar is headed by Marta Gómez De Agüero Rodero and Irene Pérez Collado.

Zurbarán School

located in a small town (around 50.000 inhabitants) in the north of Madrid. It was built in 1981, and it is one of the two charter schools in the town. It has been a bilingual school since 2012. Infant education is not part of the project yet although there are one-two English lessons every day. There are 48 teachers at the moment and 591 students. The school has introduced the literacy approach in all foreign language classes after participation in the Lit4CLIL project.

Lit4CLIL at Zurbarán School is headed by Eva Jechimer and Marta Pellico-Martinez.

Osnovna šola Preserje pri Radomljah

a nine-year primary school with approximately 700 pupils from the age of six to fourteen are being educated by 62 teachers. The concept of the primary school Preserje pri Radomljah can be recognised as transformative. It has been in compliance with the Choice Theory by William Glasser for ten years. It encourages children’s inner motivation by giving meaning to their work and by imparting useful knowledge. It fosters good relationships as part of a safe school environment where mistakes are allowed and much can be learnt from them. Relationships among participants in education (especially between teachers and students) are built on the following habits and values: respect, stimulation, encouragement, trust, kindness, tolerance, acceptance, negotiations, listening and support. Wambach’s convergent pedagogy is another important factor at primary school Preserje pri Radomljah, especially regarding the literacy teaching strategies with the emphasis on its basic element body motion with music. The school is known for introducing the formative assessment of students. It is successively confirmed as an eco-school, a cultural school and as Unesco’s Associated school. Permanent improvement of educational quality is besides fostering good relationships one of the main principles of the primary school Preserje pri Radomljah. The primary school Preserje pri Radomljah has taken part in or organized and successfully run a number of educational, national and international projects, one of them being also Erasmus+ project. The school introduced early foreign language teaching (starting in the Year One with six-year olds) more than 10 years ago. Wambach’s convergent pedagogy has been the core of teaching English in the first five years of children’s schooling at primary school Preserje pri Radomljah.

Lit4CLIL at Osnovna šola Preserje pri Radomljah is headed by Nataša Puhner and Manca Mihelčič.

Osnovna šola Ivana Tavčarja Gorenja vas

is a primary school in Slovenia. It is a public body and non-profit organization. It consists of the main school, which is located in Gorenja vas, and two branch schools: branch school Lučine and branch school Sovodenj. Altogether it has got around 600 pupils. Pupils attend primary school subjects, such as mathematics, Slovene language, English language, social and natural sciences, artistic subjects (music, art) and physical education. In the main school all the classes are single-grade and include children of the same age. In both branch schools there are also multi-grade classes that combine pupils of different ages. The primary school provides a compulsory and extended curriculum. The compulsory curriculum consists of compulsory subjects, electives and activity days (culture, science, sports, technology). The extended school curriculum includes educational assistance for children with special needs, remedial classes, additional classes, after-school care and other forms of care for pupils, interest activities and out-of-school classes. In after-school programs pupils study, complete their homework and participate in cultural or artistic activities and sports. The vision of the school is to raise young people as independent individuals that respect the values of the community. The school takes part in different projects, such as healthy school, eco school, cultural school, school fruit and vegetables scheme and The International Award for Young People. There are 55 teachers and 16 technical administrative staff.

Lit4CLIL at Osnovna šola Ivana Tavčarja Gorenja vas is headed by Mojca Jurkovič and Jelka Čadež.

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