CLIL for VET: Teaching Vocational Subjects in Another Language

Description

Many teachers in vocational education are now delivering specialist subjects through languages other than the students’ first language, yet many feel uncertain about how to apply CLIL principles effectively in content-rich lessons which are typical of VET.

Teachers working in areas such as Business, Law, Marketing, Engineering, Health Care, Tourism, Finance, ICT or Entrepreneurship may need to teach demanding concepts through a language that is not their students’ first language.

This can make lessons challenging, as students must understand the subject, use technical language, and take part in professional tasks.

Therefore, teachers need to develop practical techniques to support learners’ understanding and communication without reducing valuable subject learning time.

This course introduces participants to practical CLIL approaches designed specifically for Vocational Education.

It’s designed to help educators support language development without reducing valuable subject learning time or turning their lessons into language classes.

During the course, participants will be guided in exploring how CLIL can work in content-rich VET classrooms, where language is used as a tool for learning, communication and professional practice.

The focus is on realistic strategies: identifying the language students need, making complex input more accessible, supporting speaking and interaction, and helping learners communicate more confidently in their vocational field.

Throughout the week, participants will work on their own teaching materials and lesson ideas, exploring the core principles of CLIL through vocational contexts and discovering practical ways to integrate content, communication and thinking skills within everyday lessons.

Through demonstrations, collaborative workshops and lesson design activities, they will practice scaffolding techniques, design simple content and language goals, adapt tasks for mixed language levels, and explore how AI and digital tools can support lesson preparation, vocabulary work and classroom interaction.

For all these reasons, this course introduces the idea of “micro-CLIL”: small, purposeful CLIL interventions that can be integrated into existing lessons without redesigning an entire programme.

By the end of the course, participants will have adapted one of their own lessons or teaching units and gained practical strategies to make vocational subject learning more interactive, language-aware and accessible.

Concept by Gillian Cooke

Learning outcomes

The course will help participants to:

• Understand the key principles of CLIL and how they apply to vocational education;
• Distinguish between CLIL, bilingual education and content-based teaching in practical classroom terms;
• Identify the subject-specific language students need to understand and use in VET lessons;
• Design content and language goals that support both professional knowledge and communication;
• Adapt vocational teaching materials to make complex input more accessible;
• Use visual, linguistic and task-based scaffolding to support learners’ understanding and production;
• Increase student interaction, speaking and professional communication in content-rich lessons;
• Design realistic micro-CLIL activities that fit naturally into existing VET lessons;
• Use AI and digital tools to support lesson planning, vocabulary work and material adaptation;
• Adapt one of their own lessons or teaching units using practical CLIL strategies.

Tentative schedule

Day 1 – Introduction to the course

• Introduction to the course and the Academy;
• Introduction to the host city and the week’s cultural activities;
• Icebreaker activities;
• Presentations of the participants’ schools and institutions.

Getting started with CLIL in VET

• CLIL, bilingual education and content-based teaching: key differences;
• Sharing participants’ experiences with CLIL or teaching through another language;
• Getting started: identifying challenges in vocational classrooms – content, language, time and learner confidence.

Day 2 – CLIL principles for content-rich vocational lessons

• Introduction to the key principles of CLIL;
• The role of content, communication, cognition and culture in VET contexts;
• What makes CLIL different in vocational education?;
• Supporting specialist subjects without losing subject depth;
• Challenges for subject teachers and language teachers;
• Workshop: identifying language demands in participants’ own vocational lessons.

Day 3 – Language support for professional communication

• Identifying the language students need for vocational tasks and professional situations;
• Technical vocabulary, functional language and classroom communication;
• Practical Activities and tasks to incorporate into the delivery of lesson content to support language;
• Considering the language required for working with the rich content subjects and developing techniques for raising learners’ awareness of and ways to cope with the language;
• Workshop: adapting a classroom task to support both content and language.

Day 4 – Scaffolding, materials and digital support

• Scaffolding input: making complex texts, explanations and instructions more accessible;
• Scaffolding output: helping students speak, write and present professional content;
• Using visuals, models, sentence starters, glossaries and task frames;
• Incorporating more CLIL into existing lessons in realistic ways;
• How AI and digital tools can support lesson design, vocabulary work and material adaptation;
• Workshop: redesigning part of a lesson with practical scaffolding strategies.

Day 5 – Micro-CLIL and lesson redesign

• What micro-CLIL means and why it works well in VET contexts;
• Designing small CLIL interventions for existing lessons;
• Finalizing participants’ adapted lessons or teaching units;
• Presentation of participants’ lesson adaptations;
• Reflection on acquired competences and classroom transfer;
• Course evaluation: round-up of acquired competencies, feedback, and discussions;
• Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance.

Day 6 – Structured cultural activities

• Structured cultural activity(ies) according to the hosting location;
• Learning journal: individual written reflection on the course experience;
• Course reflection: self-reflection and review of course materials and resources.

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