Description
In schools dealing with high migration emergencies, teachers often face several serious challenges.
Not only do they lack linguistic resources to integrate foreign students into the learning activities of their usual classroom, but they also lack effective strategies to engage individuals, who have experienced trauma or come from entirely different cultures.
This course proposes to merge reflection on CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and translanguaging to help schoolteachers respond to these challenges.
While CLIL is an extremely popular methodology to create engaging classroom activities, translanguaging is less renowned. It challenges the traditional view of languages as separate entities and approaches language use and instruction recognizing the full linguistic repertoire of multilingual individuals.
In translanguaging, languages are seen as complementary and interconnected resources that can be strategically used to support learning, understanding, and communication. Thus, translanguaging encourages individuals to fluidly and flexibly draw upon their different languages, dialects, and registers to communicate and make meaning.
During the course, participants will engage in a variety of activities designed to facilitate their understanding and application of CLIL and translanguaging.
They will learn how to incorporate CLIL principles into their lesson planning, considering both hard and soft CLIL approaches, productive and receptive skills, and the use of authentic materials.
They will also learn to do the same with translanguaging, practicing a series of activities that exploit multilingual contexts to enhance comprehension, express ideas, and deepen learning.
Moreover, participants will explore a variety of strategies specifically designed for mixed-ability classrooms: they will experiment with Task-Based Learning (TBL), Project-Based Learning (PBL), and Place-Based Learning, practice effective warm-ups within the framework of Democratic Cultures to help students create relations and try out scaffolding techniques for language and content integration.
Finally, participants will be encouraged to create, share, and discuss an individual lesson plan based on what they learned during the course. This will be a nice activity to end the course and go back home with some fresh ready material!
By the end of the course, participants will be able to design and implement effective lesson plans that integrate CLIL and Translanguaging, promoting language development, content comprehension, and cooperation among students.
They will feel more confident in tackling the challenges posed by diverse classrooms and create engaging and inclusive learning experiences to help migrant learners connect to their peers and promote academic and personal growth.
Learning outcomes
The course will help the participants to:
- Understand the principles and concepts of CLIL and translanguaging;
- Realize how CLIL and translanguaging can help address the challenges faced in schools with high migration emergencies;
- Apply translanguaging strategies to enhance comprehension, expression, and learning in multilingual contexts;
- Promote engagement and language development with Task-Based Learning (TBL), Project-Based Learning (PBL), and Visible Thinking Routines;
- Create a democratic classroom environment that fosters cooperation, motivation, and engagement among students;
- Design and develop effective lesson plans that integrate CLIL and translanguaging principles.
Tentative schedule
Day 1 – Course introduction
- Introduction to the course, the school, and the external week activities;
- Icebreaker activities;
- Presentations of the participants’ schools.
Introduction: CLIL, Translanguaging, or both?
- What is CLIL?
- What is Translanguaging?
- CLIL, Bilingualism, Multilingualism, and Translanguaging;
- How can translanguaging support the learning process?
- Sensitive issues when adopting translanguaging in the classroom.
Day 2 – Incorporating CLIL into your lesson Plan
- Hard and Soft CLIL;
- Productive and receptive skills;
- Topic-Centered approach;
- Effective Learning Strategies: TBL, PBL, and Visible thinking routines;
- Scaffolding strategies, Authentic Materials, and Realia;
- Evaluation Strategies;
- Cases.
Day 3 – Dealing with Refugees and Asylum Seekers
- Creating a Democratic Classroom to Potentialize Students’ cooperation in a mixed-ability context;
- Strategies and tips in a mixed-ability classroom;
- Place-Based Learning to approach students with trauma;
- Motivation as a tool to boost cooperation among students;
- Developing skills in Democratic Culture through Warm-up Activities.
Day 4 – Design a lesson plan based on CLIL and translanguaging
- How to design an effective lesson plan;
- Planning your Lesson Plan;
- Questions and Answers.
Day 5 – Lesson plan presentation
- Concluding your Lesson Plan;
- Presentations;
- Debriefing and Feedback.
Day 6 – Course closure and cultural activities
- Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussion.
- Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance.
- Excursion and other external cultural activities.