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The TESOL Italy Val d’Adige-Etschtal Local Group
cordially invites you to the online event

The Sixth Symposium on CLIL in the Adige Valley 

“From International to Local”

co-organized and hosted by the 

Department of Lettere e Filosofia, University of Trento

on Friday 14th May 2021 from 14:00 - 16:00 (CET) via Zoom

           Keynote 

           Shaping the Future with iCLIL

        David Marsh PhD FRSA (Finland)


                                             Parallel presentations                     
      Primary                                                                                   Secondary

   Issues with
   primary school
   CLIL: what
   CLIL teachers
   think 

Professor Carmel Mary Coonan
(Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy)

  

Are we ready   
fo
r CLIL?   



Professor Federica Ricci Garotti (University of Trento, Italy)

Introduction by David Marsh (podcast): https://anchor.fm/tesol-italy-val-dadige
Welcome and Introduction: Jennifer Hill (TESOL Italy) and Fabiana Rosi (University of Trento)
Q&A Moderators: Graham Burton, Ph.D., Rosemarie de Monte Frick, Michael Ennis, Ph.D

Steering committee: Fabiana Rosi (University of Trento), Graham Burton (Free University of Bolzano), Michael Ennis (Free University of Bolzano), Rosemarie de Monte Frick (Free University of Bolzano/ German Education Department, South Tyrol), Laura Tagnin, (National University of Ireland, Galway), Jennifer Hill (TESOL Italy)

Please REGISTER for the event by Friday 7th May 2021 using the following link: https://forms.gle/kiwc1tUiW5AEvpHM7. Instructions on how to join the event will be sent to participants by email several hours prior to the event.

For FURTHER INFORMATION, please contact Jennifer Hill, Local Group Coordinator, at tesol.valdadige.etschtal@gmail.com.

This event is open to TESOL Italy members. For non-members, a free, one-time provisional membership is available. The conditions are explained on the sign-up form. Certificates of attendance are available upon request and after the completion of an online feedback survey.*

*TESOL Italy (con i suoi gruppi locali) è riconosciuta come ente qualificato alla formazione e all’aggiornamento per insegnanti di lingua inglese nelle scuole di ogni ordine e grado-Autorizzazione MIUR, Direttiva 90/2003.

Abstracts and speaker biographies
 
Shaping the Future with iCLIL
David Marsh (Finland)


The scientific evidence-base on languages, mind and brain has expanded in the last decade. New research is of importance for English language teaching and CLIL.  This presentation describes how this research continues to strengthen the position of CLIL as a signature pedagogy, and how future trends are focusing on creative forms of integrating language and content.

The research reveals that people who use more than one language have enhanced cognitive functioning when compared to monolinguals. It reveals six significant advantage clusters for people who can think, to a greater or lesser extent, in more than one language. It indicates why successful language learning depends on educational practices that combine opportunities to learn language as a subject, and to learn content through the language. It also further strengthens the argument that learning a language solely as an object of study can no longer be justified in mainstream education. 

Benefits are reported even when a learner starts to use an additional language for thinking and learning. These benefits may be physiological, neurological, and psychological. They are significant in understanding the relationship between fluid and crystallized intelligence, and systems thinking which is an essential capacity for developing global competences.  

The implications for arguing that bilingual education, even small-scale, is superior to monolingual education are strong, persuasive, and increasingly supported by science. Opportunities for realizing advantages are now surfacing in leading edge schools through curricular integration such as the combination of Phenomenon-based Learning & CLIL and learning through purpose-designed multimedia CLIL AR/VR resources.  

David Marsh PhD FRSA has contributed to Finnish educational innovation over three decades.  He has experience of tasks in in 50+ countries, contributed to 175 publications, and received 5 degrees from the United Kingdom, Finland and Spain. He co-launched Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) under the auspices of the European Commission in the early 1990s.  In 2020 he co-produced The Bilingual Advantage: The Impact of Language Learning on Mind and Brain. During 2021 he is developing competence-based English language learning resources that combine CLIL with transversals across the curriculum. These are being used to raise English language learning standards in historically low-attainment contexts. His current work-in-progress is The Children of Cyberspace: Towards a New Understanding, due for publication in 2022.

https://davidmarsh.education

 
Issues with primary school CLIL: what CLIL teachers think 
Professor Carmel Mary Coonan (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy)


Discussions in Italy on how best to teach a foreign language in the primary school have been underway ever since the law in 1985 (D.P.R. n. 104) that introduced foreign languages as part of the primary school curriculum. Since then, many aspects, e.g., the integration of the foreign language into the school curriculum, methodological proposals suitable for the age range/type of school, have been the subject of much reflection ad investigation. One development - recently encouraged by the so called ‘Buona scuola’ law (Law 107, 2017) – can be found in the choice to use the foreign language as a medium of instruction (alongside the other language of instruction, Italian) in the belief that this instructional role will enable a better learning of the foreign language by the pupils. 

The debate around foreign language medium instruction today is focused on the concept ‘content and language integrated learning (CLIL)’. The concept highlights an important realization, namely that it is not enough to use the (foreign) language as medium of instruction. Care must be taken to ensure that the (foreign) language is learnt as well, alongside the content that is being taught. This awareness calls for changes in the way the foreign language is broached, as well as the way the subject-matter is taught through it.

The talk will explore some of the many issues that experiences in Primary school CLIL have evidenced. Although these issues have been identified within a publicly funded (FSE) research project in primary schools in the Trentino region, it is possible that such issues characterize other areas where Primary CLIL is or will be practiced. Such issues concern the language dimension: focus on language, language alternation; presumed content simplification and consequent reduced learning outcomes (a negative connotation associated with CLIL); methodological innovation and methodological clash. Voice will be given to the teachers involved in the project via quotes from interviews conducted in the research.

Prof. Carmel Mary Coonan is full professor of Educational linguistics at the Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia. Her field of specialization is foreign/second language teaching and learning with particular reference to emerging teaching methodologies (e.g., foreign /second language medium instruction) and new target groups (e.g., infant/primary school children), theories of language education, methodology of research in language education, psychological aspects of foreign/second language learning, instructional design for plurilingual education and issues in foreign language teacher training. She has conducted and participated in several research projects both nationally and internationally (Europe), especially in the field of foreign language medium instruction (FLMI). 
 
 
Are we ready for CLIL? 
Professor Federica Ricci Garotti (University of Trento, Italy)


The Piano Trentino Trilingue was officially introduced in Trentino in 2014, which meant, among other initiatives, also a massive increase in subject teaching in English and in German throughout Trentino schools, from primary to secondary levels. This significant change to the traditional school curriculum has brought to light both the advantages and disadvantages of CLIL at the didactic level.

Most of the challenges associated with CLIL in the transformation of education in the province of Trentino have not been exclusively related to the linguistic competences of learners, but rather to the wider didactic-pedagogical guidelines provided to teachers for its implementation. In fact, learners, teachers and families are generally very interested in the development of multilingual competences, but the didactic innovation necessary for CLIL often arouse skepticism, if not outright rejection.
In this paper, I wish to focus on how the implementation of the Trentino CLIL policy has shed light on some aspects of the international scientific CLIL debate. Thanks to the analysis of five case studies at the local secondary school I will try to answer to following questions: 
Which are the most difficult aspects that CLIL teachers must deal with in the classes? Which disciplinary aims can be realistically achieved by a majority of learners if CLIL is an obligatory activity for every school? What are the methodologic principles that can be drawn from the local CLIL experience of the Piano Trentino Trilingue?

Professor Federica Ricci Garotti is a Professor of German Language and Linguistics in the Department of Lettere e Filosofia at the University of Trento. She is responsible for teacher training in humanities and is scientific supervisor for the master program on CLIL methodology. Her research interests lie in CLIL, language acquisition, language teaching and learning, and pragmatic analysis.
 
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