Phil Ball
Phil Ball is based in San Sebastián in Spain. He is the author of the book ‘Putting CLIL into Practice’ (OUP 2016) and his CLIL textbook series for the Basque curriculum was nominated for the ELTONS Innovation Award in London. He is module leader on the MA CLIL degree for Chichester University in England and his work has included consultancy projects in Slovakia, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Austria, Japan and Qatar.
He has been involved in several European-based CLIL projects, and has written a wide variety of CLIL-based textbooks for the Basque and Spanish social science and English language programmes. He designed the ‘CLIL Essentials’ online course for the British Council and works at the University of the Basque Country (UPV) training lecturers to deliver their subjects through English. He also works with vocational teachers at the University of Vienna and on the OTA masterclasses at Oxford University.
He has authored various CLIL-based articles and is currently working on digital language materials for the French and English CLIL programmes in the Basque Country.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), often described as a ‘new approach’ to education, is actually celebrating its 30th birthday this year. It has transformed the educational systems of several countries whilst in others it has had a smaller but positive influence. Originally ‘invented’ as an approach to support students who were learning subject content in a foreign language (L2), it now interests language teachers too. The two core features of CLIL are:
- supporting language awareness in content classes
- supporting content awareness in language classes
CLIL prioritises the conceptual content, and language ‘comes along for the ride’. It also helps us to remember that language, in its social and academic usage, extends right across the curriculum. Students spend the school day using different subject-based discourse (Geography, Maths, History etc) in their native language. This is not necessarily easy. So why do we neglect ‘content’ in our language classes? CLIL helps students to talk and write about real issues, issues which also impact on their other school subjects. Research suggests that they not only prefer this type of approach but that they also benefit from it both linguistically and cognitively. It is also a useful approach for teachers who wish to further their own professional development.
This talk will demonstrate why CLIL is a good choice to help develop a competence-based curriculum for the 21st century.