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Conference report: LINC Conference on Learning, Innovation & Creativity in CLIL

Author: Aleksandra Zaparucha

Type: reference material

Aleksandra Zaparucha, Poland gives an excellent overview of the LINC conference in Turku, Finland 24-26 September 2009

In late September this year I joined the participants of the LINC Conference on Learning, Innovation & Creativity in CLIL. Held by the University of Turku, Finland, the event marked the ending of the 3-year project called LICI, which stands for Language in Content Instruction.

Lack of methodology

As the organizers indicated, although examples of CLIL implementation are numerous, there is no proper methodology relating to the use and assessment of the language in such a mode of instruction. Thus, the LICI project, headed by Heini-Marja Järvinen (Finland) and supported by her colleagues from Finland itself, as well as Austria, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy and Lithuania, aimed at producing models for language teaching and learning in CLIL.

Project outcomes

As a result, the LICI project's outcomes include a set of teaching materials on a CD-ROM for social sciences and science at primary level, e.g. A1-A2 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, or CEFR, secondary level (B1-B2), as well as the tertiary level in sociology, science and marketing (B1-C1). Moreover, the project has produced a handbook for teachers and teacher trainers, which includes valuable hints on how to deal with the language in content instruction. Last but not least, there is a website used for dissemination and discussion both during the project and once it has been finished. The target languages are German, English and French, but some materials are also available in Finnish, Hungarian, Italian and Lithuanian.

Keynote

The key note was delivered by Professor Emeritus Sauli Takala, the President of the European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA). Professor Takala pointed out that content instruction in a foreign language, although different from other modes of teaching, has plenty of similarities with conventional instruction. This also refers to assessment and testing, which should be based on the same general principles as anywhere else. Summarising his presentation, Professor Takala stressed the need of a counterbalance approach to CLIL - the contents counts, but the language is of an equal importance. Only when such an approach is accepted and introduced the CLIL instruction will be successful. This is an important note, as in numerous cases CLIL teachers are content teachers with limited knowledge on foreign language acquisition and instruction as in many countries there is no formal requirement of gaining such expertise.

Presentations

Presentations delivered during the conference were clearly targeted to the audience thanks to information included in the programme which educational level a given presentation referred to - primary, secondary or tertiary. First of all, however, the LICI team presented the results of their project. Heini-Marja Järvinen, the LICI project leader, presented the framework selected for developing their model. In general, it consists of three overlapping circles of language, content and strategies. The area where all these three areas overlap is in the centre of LICI project's research. Heini-Marja Järvinen also made an interesting comment to the process of foreign language learning comparing it to a hurricane. Both can be described as implicit rather than explicit, complex rather than simple, non-linear rather than linear, as well as dynamic, chaotic and messy. Knowing this, the issue of teaching a foreign language becomes a real challenge.

The following sessions tackled three out of four language skills in CLIL instruction researched by the LICI team (Reading in CLIL classroom by Áine Furlong from Ireland was missing). Speaking in CLIL classroom was delivered by Martine Corsain from France, Developing Listening Skills in CLIL by Liubiniene Vilmante from Lithuania, and Developing Writing Skills in CLIL by Doris Sygmund from Austria. All these presentations included rationale for each skill being practised in CLIL instruction as well as a number of suggested exercises and tasks to support language learning through content.

Diversity of input

The other presentations were very diverse, and referred to the topics from Finnish dental students' perception of good English-Medium Instruction (EMI) (Anna Haukioja, Finland), to Experimenting with teachers: CLIL and corpus linguistics as integrated approaches to language teaching (Adriana Teresa Damascelli, Italy) to The CLIL Virtual Tour: A Process Oriented Project (Fabrizio Maggi, Italy). From my personal perspective, one of the most interesting presentations was delivered by Lauretta D'Angelo and Enrique Garcia Pascual, Spain, on their study on The profile of the CLIL subject teacher. They pointed out that as CLIL teachers should concentrate on combing both the contents and the language, they need to be familiar with specific strategies in order to reach this dual goal. Thus, the study conducted on CLIL teachers in Spain and Italy, aims to investigate which competencies CLIL teachers actually have, or perceive to have, as well as how they have acquired them.

The other interesting presentation dealt with the PhD topic of Francesca Costa, Italy, on CLIL at the Tertiary Level - State-of-the-Art and Need for Further Research. As I am more and more often involved in delivering courses through English at the university level, I have found this topic very useful. The author reported on her theoretical research and presented the forthcoming qualitative study which will be conducted at universities in Italy, and which will include a survey into strategies of lecturers of scientific faculties teaching through English.

Closing speeches

The closing speeches were delivered by special guests to the LINC Conference, Gisella Langé and David Marsh, who spoke on Creativity & CLIL: Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards. First, David Marsh form the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, presented the findings of the Study on the Contribution of Multilingualism to Creativity, carried out by the European Commission. He gave a vivid presentation on the latest research in neuroscience which indicates multilingualism gives more than just the ability to communicate with others, although this remains the key argument for those who are studying languages. Besides this obvious outcome, foreign language learning means your mind becomesmore flexible ('The Flexible Mind'), which enables you to look at various issues from a diverse perspective. Other abilities are better skills at problem solving ('The Problem Solving Mind'), including filtering out irrelevant information, handling cognitively-demanding thinking and multitasking, and metalinguistic skills ('The Metalinguistic Mind'), which also means achieving goals through communication on various levels. Moreover, short-term working memory develops ('The Learning Mind') due to constant practise in memorising words, phrases or longer chunks of text, and interpersonal skills grow ('The Interpersonal Mind'). Last but not least, language leaning may reduce dementia ('The Ageing Mind'). Considering all this, David Marsh stated neuroscience gives us proof multilingualism has an added value and in those terms CLIL is the mode of education adequate for modern times.

Gisella Langé, Italy, an expert for the European Commission and the Council of Europe for language programmes, spoke about the European Year of Creativity and Innovation (2009), the key message of which is that 'creativity and innovation contribute to economic prosperity as well as to social and individual wellbeing'. Among eight key competencies recommended for life long learning by the European Parliament and the Council of Europe, communication in foreign languagestakes an important position, as besides the main skill of communication in the mother tongue, it adds to mediation skills and intercultural understanding. An important point here is that the foreign language proficiency depends on various factors, including the capacity for listening, speaking, reading and writing, and this can be extednded through CLIL instruction.

Well organized

The event in Turku was a well organized conference, where Finland and Italy had most representatives, 19 and 14 respectively. Other countries represented at the event included 3 people from France, 2 from Spain, and one from Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland each. A relatively small number of participants enabled everyone to interact on personal grounds and created a very friendly atmosphere. This also meant there were just a few cases where two presentations were parallel. Thanks to this I had no big difficulty in selecting what was more interesting to me. Also the fee of 50 euros was relatively low, especially as originally it was to be over four times higher! The only drawback for me was the fact that some presentations were delivered in French. Although they were accompanied by slides in English and sometimes the presenters switched between those two languages, total comprehension was impossible. Multilingualism is a must!