What do you see as potential difficulties and challenges of a CLIL approach? by EUN Partnership aisbl

HASAN TURGAY ÖZÇELİK-TURKEY

mavimavi2316 — 2018-10-08 11:54:33 UTC

This technique, of course, will facilitate the teacher's work. However, it is important to choose a second foreign language in the class. English as the most commonly used language can be ranked first in the choice. Sometimes it is a fact that some children do not speak languages other than mother tongue. I think the solution to this problem is again in English. The courses can be integrated with the language classes.

Ilaria, Italy

2018-10-08 13:22:06 UTC

I think that a downside is the approach that the students can have to this activities. My students already study two languages (french and english) with the language teachers and they like or dislike it as they do with the other subjects. So, sometimes, there are some of them that are resisting this methodology. I think we have to make them understand that not only it is important for their future to properly learn a language but also that they can improve it and maybe become good at it if they are motivated to learn new contents using it..

Moreno, Rieti (Italy)

2018-10-08 13:25:29 UTC

About teacher, the big problem is the knoweldge of the foreign language, and if one considers the technical difficulties about teaching a certain matter in a foreign language, this approach becames more complex. In my case, I'm a physics teachers, so first at all a techer has to know so many, english for instance, terms to make a discussion good. About students, they must have a good knowledge of the physics and of the english, and then they can start considering the CLIL lesson. But I hava alsoto say that the CLIL methodology approach based on certain new kind of activities , gaming, cooperative learning, brainstormin etc, are very helpful for the inverse process, be more confident in english and in physics taught in the native language.

FRANCESCA

2018-10-08 13:29:05 UTC

CLIL makes the lesson or any activity more interesting as pupils are spontaneously stumulated to speak English and also collaborate to accomplish any task.

Lena, Germany

2018-10-08 13:33:13 UTC

I think that some students are not really motivated when they are forced to learn a subject in a foreign language that they maybe do not like at all. I think in some cases language barriers might even hinder subject learning while in other cases the foreign language enhances subject learning. In the ideal case, students should be able to choose the language they want to learn the subject in and also have the opportunity to switch between languages while learning the subject so that they do net feel forced to use the foreign language all the time. But that would mean a lot more work for a single teacher that maybe cannot be handled with the workload each of us has to cope with...

Daniela Galea, Malta

daniela_galea10 — 2018-10-08 13:43:42 UTC

In our schools we do not find any problems with the students learning things in English because they already start speaking English at home before they start Kindergarten. The only problem we have is when we have foreign students who do not understand English. In that case, we created some classrooms in which they can learn English before joining the mainstream classes.

Pirjo, Finland

2018-10-08 13:43:54 UTC

I have no experience in Clil, yet. One thing that comes to mind is that for example, in physics lesson you can't study the case so deeply, while pupils are in so different levels in their second languagecommand.

Violeta, Romania

violeta_crst — 2018-10-08 14:12:35 UTC

As a said before, i dindt worked with CLIL before. So its possible, at the begining, not knowing how to use CLIL for the benefits of students but, in time, im sure this kind of teaching new things become interesting and stimulating for me as teacher and for my students.

Nicoletta

2018-10-08 14:28:13 UTC

My doubt is this: when students learn a new discipline they also learn the new terminology related to it. This usually occurs in the mother tongue. If the discipline is teach with the CLIL methodology and therefore in a foreign Language, what are the possibilities for the student to learn the contents in the mother tongue? It's a question I ask because I know that in CLIL a discipline does not teach in parallel in mother tongue and in foreign language. Is it true?

Rosy (Italy)

2018-10-08 14:33:51 UTC

As I said before, I don't have experience with CLIL but I think that when you use another language you are motivated to well done. People are learning new knowledge through the medium of another language and it is very exciting for them. Students are spontaneously motivated to collaborate each other and to improve their knowledge

İSHAK KURT - TURKEY

kurtishak16 — 2018-10-08 14:38:32 UTC

First of all the teacher should know the language he / she will use very well. He must also absorb the subject very well. Only digital and audio materials should be used with visual materials. Group activities and physical activities should also be integrated into the course. I believe that it may be useful to use more than one language during teaching. Students sometimes learn different languages at the same time and learn more easily. Especially immigrant students are more skilled in this regard.

Lucia, Italy

2018-10-08 14:40:29 UTC

I haven't real experience with CLIL activities. I think that the challenge of a CLIL approach is the real difficulty of the teacher and the students in speaking and understanding a new language.

İMRAN ARSLAN TÜRKİYE

zeynepsina — 2018-10-08 14:43:54 UTC

I haven't real experience with CLIL activities. I think that the challenge of a CLIL approach is the real difficulty of the teacher and the students in speaking and understanding a new language. My doubt is this: when students learn a new discipline they also learn the new terminology related to it. This usually occurs in the mother tongue.

Carmela/Italy

carmela_alberghina — 2018-10-08 14:45:48 UTC

Even if CLIL in Italian Lower secondary school isn't integrated as an official proogramm I sometimes during my lesson use it. For example when my students have to learn body parts we go to the gym I give the instructions in English and they do exercices . It si a funny and motivating method

Paola T., Palestrina (Italy)

torniai_paola — 2018-10-08 14:51:47 UTC

CLIL activities usually have positive effects on students'learning; their motivation increases as they approach the CLIL focus, but we'd need more time

Anna De Donno, Italy

annadedonno — 2018-10-08 15:16:18 UTC

- A difficulty getting the right balance between content &

language

- High intellectual involvement

during CLIL classes

- Time needed for acquisition of key vocabulary

- Extra work load and challenges for students

- Limited range of resources and

difficulty in selecting suitable content

- Unsatisfactory language level of

subject teachers

- Unsatisfactory level of content

knowledge of language teachers

- Assessing content and language at the same time

- Learners can be inaccurate when

communicating content in the L2

- No extra support for CLIL teachers

- Time-consuming

Konstantina, Greece

2018-10-08 15:26:41 UTC

I think that the main problem is the reluctance of students to participate when they think that something is very difficult for them r unkown. One other is that when you give them more space in the classroom they tend to make noise so it is also difficult for the teacher to handle them and continue the lesson.

Mary (Italy)

2018-10-08 15:26:57 UTC

I think that CLIL brings many challenges and many benefits such as the development of linguistic competences, critical thinking and comunicative skills like the teacher said in the video, But the important point is that in CLIL language emerges from the subject content so the students learning appropriate language through the context in which they come acroos.
One disadvantage could be the difficulty with the foreign language. For this reason teacher will need to adapt some different approaches.

Stefania from Crema

2018-10-08 15:38:01 UTC

In the classroom, the Clil method definitely has its advantages. I believe that potential difficulties may depend on speaking and understanding new terms. We must always find something that stimulates the pupils and not bother them

MARY

2018-10-08 15:39:02 UTC

I think that the students approach in speaking and understand a language.

Eda,Turkey

2018-10-08 15:44:03 UTC

CLIL is amazing but honestly my classes are too crowded to practice it.In this way it is really difficult.Maybe I can work with a small group in the beginning.Then the rests can continue.

Sabrina, Italy

sabrina_poli — 2018-10-08 15:53:43 UTC

potential difficulties maybe could be the real students' language competence. To learn a new discipline in a foreign language is not simple.

Mariateresa De Mattia - Foggia - Italy

2018-10-08 15:54:02 UTC

CLIL allows students to learn a language without explicitly teaching teachers, the
which creates a more motivating and meaningful lesson. This is certainly an advantage, but it could give initial difficulties for students and teachers who do not have an adequate level of English proficiency.
However, a CLIL approach focuses not only on language skills and subject delivery but can also help improve the development of transversal skills such as creativity, critical thinking or communication skills.

Marina, Italy

maricos001 — 2018-10-08 16:00:44 UTC

Linguistic difficulties of students reduce the level of contents and competencies that are promoted through CLIL.

Diana, Italy

2018-10-08 16:04:11 UTC

I think CLIL approach is very good for children who already have a good linguistic and understanding level. Children with BES could be confused by this approach. It's right that they could work in group and they could be helped by those who are more competent, but this could have a negative influence on their self consciousness and affective sphere. The gap between the more and the less competent ones could become very deep. This problem could be in part resolved if teachers plan very meticulosally CLIL activities and help students individually.

Cristian - R

cristian_cris — 2018-10-08 16:11:34 UTC

CLIL has the great potential to turn something into something else as there is no fixed scheme to teach....especially in a foreign language. A language is a living and manifold body. In multilingual classes English might be chosen to reduce distance among learners. As a negative side there might be the role of Subject teachers who are still not well informed on CLIL

Rosa, Italy

rosamonfreda2015 — 2018-10-08 16:24:58 UTC

In my opinion, potential difficulties and challenges of a CLIL approach are connected with the creation of a stress-free atmosphere and with the quantity of contents. Students shouldn't be expected to have full lessons in the L2 from the first day, but this will be done gradually. I think the quantity of contents acquiring using a CLIL approch is often less than of that acquired using mother languages, but, in my opinion, what is important is their quality!

Floriana, Italy

2018-10-08 16:33:23 UTC

CLIL approach encourages pupils' involvement in educational activities and improves the quality of learning. However, CLIL methodology may have some negative aspects for pupils and teachers. Both may be afraid of being inadequate or may have difficulties working in a group. I think that many training courses for teachers should be organized.

FILOMENA BIANCO, ITALY

2018-10-08 16:37:47 UTC

I think one of the greatest challenges is to find teachers with the required competence in a foreign language available to take the risk and try a new experience. Training courses and workshops are necessary and also peer-to-peer learning. Another challenge for me is how to help students with speech disorder may find even more difficult to study a subject in a foreign language.

Daisy, Italy

daisydegio — 2018-10-08 16:41:58 UTC

CLIL lessons can really improve the way subjects are taught in the school of the XXI century, thanks to a greater motivation and engagement of both students and teachers. Unfortunately there are still a lot of difficulties in finding the required linguistic competence in teachers and sometimes students are not motivated enough.

Joanna,Poland.

2018-10-08 16:49:59 UTC

The benefits are unquestionable .However,in my country teachers capable of teaching their subject contents in other languages are scarce. Besides, our curricula are so packed with contents that I can't think how an average teacher would manage to teach all that in another language .
I'm sure most students would enjoy that .

magdalena uleia

2018-10-08 16:51:24 UTC

when the students use the CLIL strategies all around are in mouvement! They must think and speak other language and , in the same time , to follow the subject .

Bondar Gladiola, Borca - Romania

bondargladiola — 2018-10-08 16:51:57 UTC

I believe that these activities are a challenge for teachers and students. Some children are shy, they do not have the courage to communicate, afraid to pronounce new words in another language. The teacher must have pedagogical tact.

Zorica, Serbia

prof_zoricasubotic — 2018-10-08 16:59:30 UTC

As a potentially challenging CLIL, I see students who are not motivated enough to break the language barrier and adopt a new lesson. Some children are shy and they have the courage.

Maria Rosaria Tafuro, Italy

tafymar — 2018-10-08 17:07:53 UTC

I think that one of the most difficult obstacle is to encourage pupils who usually are not interested in the subject to take part to the discussion in an other language, or to encourage shy pupils to talk , or to motivate lazy pupils to tackle a new topic in foreign language

Ana Martins

2018-10-08 17:17:49 UTC

Portugal
I m working with first years with Clil, so at the moment I think everything is an advantage for students, teachers and family. Everything is new for them, most of content are taught in English only few words in Portuguese. What I think is a difficulty is the preparation of classes , since I must simplify everything and choose thoroughly the words, the language, turning every content into games, songs, activities which takes us a long time to do so. I teach 3 classes first year and 3 classes 5th year.....so.... a lot of different work. When we teach CLIL in older ages / stages the difficulty becomes the technical vocabulary related to contents that can not be our main subject.

Rita L.

2018-10-08 17:25:05 UTC

Vanessa-ita

2018-10-08 18:04:22 UTC

Vanessa-Italy

2018-10-08 18:04:24 UTC

Clil is an educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching process.

Vanessa-i

2018-10-08 18:04:25 UTC

Clil is an educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching process.
We have learned how language diversity is a key dimension not only for foreign language teachers but also for teachers of any other subject who has bilingual or multilingual students in the classroom .

Brigida Calise, Italy

2018-10-08 18:09:06 UTC

Potential difficulties might concern the foreign language competence of the teacher, the language alternation and maybe also the ‘weight’ and role of the foreign language teacher in the CLIL lesson in team teaching situation.

Stefania

2018-10-08 18:24:10 UTC

A potential difficulty could be the vocabulary because a teacher should be quite confident with the vocabulary in order to teach a subject using a foreign language . Probably, when you teach using CLIL activities you need to know specific words and a technical language so you have all the time to learn the needed words. At the same time, I think that CLIL could be also exciting and useful for the teacher because in this way he/she discovers new methods to teach his or her subject using innovative tools.

Another problem could be the students’ competence in the subject

I think that the best way to address these downsides is training courses which help to face the problems and to understand how to make the lessons more interesting and useful.

Nuno, PT

profnpms — 2018-10-08 18:31:12 UTC

A major problem is connected to the degree of complexity of the content to be taught through CLIL. In more advanced levels, that might be a very serious problem.

EZEL TUNA-BURSA /TURKEY

ezeltuna — 2018-10-08 18:37:00 UTC

The teacher should know the language very well. The visual and audible digital materials should be used in the activities of the students.
I think it would be useful to use multiple languages in education. Kindergarten children learn different languages faster.

2018-10-08 19:20:58 UTC

Ela, Poland
Intercultural perspective of CLIL is very interesting for me. It can be challenge of a CLIL approach. For example I have traveled a lot and gathered some foreign cultural materials for languague teaching. I used it during lessons. It improves i.e. a linguistic level of understanding text.
Lack of motivation and learning difficulties are the main problems of teaching CLIL, in my opinion. Teachers should prepare very exciting lesson`s plan for students.

Sara, Portugal

2018-10-08 19:24:01 UTC

Well, besides CLIL be a good investement, you need to make sure that all the kids understand what you are teaching or doing, the otherwise can be a serius problem. So you, as a teacher, need to make your class available for all the learnings.
Is important that you use a diversity of tools to motivate the kids.
I also think that CLIL it´s good for both because you adquire new knowledge while using languages and improve anoher linguistic and social skills.

FRANCESCA FROM BORMIO ITALY

2018-10-08 19:28:00 UTC

I think that CLIL methodology is very exciting for my students; many are the challenges, but many are the strenghts of this kind of learning: the improvement of linguistic level and in the meanwhile the knowledge of a subject with contenat and new terminology; It's important to program the lesson with many time of interaction and cooperative learning; indeed the students have to interact each other without any kind of anxiety if the words are not compeltely correct.

Josefina, Spain

fefimg — 2018-10-08 19:54:22 UTC

Althoug generally students benefit, the different levels of a foreign language of certain students prevent teachers from putting into practice certain oral activities. This is an initial problem, not knowing if there may be someone left behind during lessons. Of course teachers mus develop strategies to cater for this downside.

CLIL is new methodologyc approach with many benefits in lessons: great motivating and meaningful and development of transversal skills in everyone student. I don' t know downsides at the moment.

2018-10-08 19:54:49 UTC

Ana, Lisbon PT

anamadalenaf_1972 — 2018-10-08 20:20:22 UTC

I think that one of the dificulties can be the teacher's knowledge of the language. I have some knowledge of english but I'm an art teacher, so I imagine I could have some level of difficulties while teaching a subject. Another potencial challenge would be, and thinking of some of my pupils, the refuse to learn in a different language, and the fear of being moked by others that know better the language.

Irene S., Italy

2018-10-08 20:22:08 UTC

I think that one difficulty can be to find materials or to adapt materials found on the web for the different students' level

Serenella,Italy

2018-10-08 21:26:11 UTC

I think that as long as vocabulary is limited and structures are simple,even students who are not confident with L2 can do well, while with more complex contents if the Students’s language level is not high enough, “scaffolding” is fundamental. A critical point is the reading and writng difficulties for students with special educational needs.

Cristina C.,Bergamo, Italy

2018-10-08 21:55:44 UTC

As I wrote in the previous message, the more potential difficulty of a CLIL approach, in my opinion, is maintaining the correct level of contents and of critical thinking about them that are necessary in the latest year of the curriculum ( and also before). Not using your mother tongue, you as a teacher can't be so effective in communicating and your discourse won't be so deep as it should be. On the other hand, CLIL methodology that includes a range of various activities and makes students more partecipative during lessons could be a mean for motivating them.

Andrea Mangiagalli, Italy

mangiagalli — 2018-10-08 21:59:21 UTC

Referring to Dr. Coyle contribution, I think that if CLIL is a leveller, at least for our school situaion, this means that we'll be unable to work with CLIL. I think, otherwise, that rising a little our teaching level could force our students to put themselves to the test.

Petra Kokeza, Croatia

2018-10-09 06:21:15 UTC

I think not using our mother tongue, me as teacher can't be so effective in communication with my students. Also I think that CLIL is good for motivation and development transversal skills, us teachers and our students.

David Navas, Spain

2018-10-09 07:19:59 UTC

I think that if you use CLIL activities several times, pupils will be tired about using the same methodology. I would use CLIL from time to time in order to maintain the attention of the pupils.

Lia Molini from Italy

lia_molini — 2018-10-09 07:35:19 UTC

I think that potential challenges and difficulties can be the same. Team teaching, materials, and assessment are sometimes hard for teacher approaching the CLIL methodology. But it can represent also the starting point to change the teaching way.

Giuseppina V., Italy (Rome)

2018-10-09 07:52:37 UTC

I see as potential difficult of a CLIL approach the fact that pupils are not used to communicate in a foreign language because in my country there isn’t a culture on multilingualism or bilingualism yet. So, the challenge faced by me as a CLIL teacher might be the same that my fellow collegues could run into while teaching as English teachers or French or Spanish or Deutch ones. I mean motivating pupils to multilingual communication, not just to the formal learning of the topics.

mangiagalli — 2018-10-09 08:03:51 UTC

What

Vasiliki Psaridou/Greece

2018-10-09 08:06:45 UTC

What I find difficult in my first grade class is the fact that most of the times children of that age refuse or find it easier to use only their first language and they don't try to use both languages.

Hello I am Paula from Italy

mucramu — 2018-10-09 08:09:53 UTC

I disagree with the assumption. I trust that it is not difficult for our student but for us to change perspective in teaching and believe in new resources that we will embrace. We must be more sure and change our point of view! Results will come.

Angelamaria Galderisi, Italy 🇮🇹

soleemare_a — 2018-10-09 08:29:06 UTC

I think that CLIL in the classroom can really have many benefits, because students can acquire linguistic competences in a foreign language while learning any subject. However there a big difficulty linked to teachers’ training in using a foreign language as a medium of instruction and learning. One possible solution to the problem could be a good training for any teacher of any subject and a greater involvement of foreign language teachers

Renata, Lithuania

2018-10-09 08:40:25 UTC

I think, that every new method in class or with studens have many dificulties and many chalenges, but also have a big benefits for both sides. Dificulties can be: no time, sometimes no place, or students noise or ignore to do somthing new.

Sofia Kotsou Greece

ksofia2008 — 2018-10-09 09:21:17 UTC

The potential difficulty will be the adjustment of the two langueages of the children, the maternal and the greek language (the second).

Gottfried, Germany

2018-10-09 09:51:17 UTC

The greatest difficulty (to my opinion) is many times the lack of language skills of the TEACHERS who try to use CLIL in their subject lessons :-(

Roberto, Italia

2018-10-09 10:14:09 UTC

In my opinion, the difficulties that can be found in CLIL activities can be that of finding materials or adapting materials found on the web for the level of the different students.

Maddalena Farruggia (Italy)

2018-10-09 10:30:56 UTC

I think that the main difficulty for the teacher is to find suitable material for the level of the pupils and for the students not to understand how these new tools can help them in learning.

Rovena Trivanović

2018-10-09 10:48:58 UTC

Croatia
I agree with my colleagues who say that one obstacle might be lack of knowledge of the target language with teachers or vice versa students. It's important to set a clear goal behind the idea of creating a CLIL lesson. I would recommend explaining our students that we want them to express themselves in a foreign language discussing the topic they are interested in and offering them help when needed. If we always emphasize that our classroom is a sheme-resilient classroom,then problems like mocking won't occur.

Lara from Italy

2018-10-09 11:44:14 UTC

I think that the difficulty for teacher in Italy is the fact that language teachers can' t teach clil because you need a speicic degree

Alessandra, Italy

2018-10-09 12:46:08 UTC

II think that the most difficult aspect is to work with pupils with special needs, because rhey can't concentrate on foreign languages andò they costantly nerd to ne encouraged. Anyway CLIL is a great opportunità forma all children to develop an argument andò tale parte to a collaborative learning. For teachers CLIL ca n become more and more important if School organize courses to improve this kind of methodology.

Francesco, Italy

francescoaverna — 2018-10-09 13:03:05 UTC

I teach history, geography, literature and grammar in the italian middle school (11-14 years old). I think that the most difficulty of a CLIL approach is the lack of scolastic resource: for example, the textbook of history is still monolingual (only in italian language).

Krisnel, Italy

krisneln — 2018-10-09 14:39:01 UTC

Clearly the greatest difficulties I find in material resources, teaching technical subjects it is difficult to find textbooks in English. In Great Britain, I bought physics and engineering books, but the level is much lower than Italian textbooks, so I have to create all the material.

Of course, creating the materials and being myself to use them is sometimes difficult to be critical, have a clear idea of their effectiveness.

I would like to be able to compare myself with other colleagues, because a mutual exchange of ideas and criticism would be much more constructive.

Kirsten - Scotland

mynameiskirst — 2018-10-09 14:56:49 UTC

A big challenge could be "forcing" children to use the target language. I find that unsettling and would prefer to allow the learners to choose the language they want to use.
Solution? Think about what is best for the learners in front of you. Is it better that they use their home language to complete the tasks and hear the instructions in the target language. Or is it better for the child to not talk at all?

Another issue is the teacher having the level of language needed to teach.

Martine, France

2018-10-09 15:49:58 UTC

What is needed and not easily set is the collaboration between a Language teacher and a CLIL teacher to get the best from our students. We have to agree on a final task of some kind of mediation or communication and to find our expertise not overlapping each other's field.

Violeta Korkucyte- the UK, London

violeta7519 — 2018-10-09 15:58:49 UTC

I think that first of all teachers need more training to be confident to teach CLIL lessons. The teachers need to be able to adapt materials and resources making sure that all pupils can access them. Teachers have to be aware that pupils' proficiency in the language is different. Also teachers themselves should have a good level of the language in order to be able to teach the subject using that language.

Alessandra Amide

2018-10-09 16:02:36 UTC

ITALY

The benefits and advantages of CLIL are manifold. These methodologies stimulate student learning, but I believe there are obstacles to be faced by teachers. I believe that you need to master the second language very well, not in a scholastic way. I also believe that collaboration between teachers
 is essential for good teamwork.

Sandra Leite - Azores - PORTUGAL

2018-10-09 16:57:24 UTC

The CLIL approach brings positive effects to the students, both in
terms of motivation and in terms of language development and the students in the CLIL setting are more motivated than the control group. We have another points to the possibility of other factors, such as for example socio-cultural background and gender. English is used for teaching other subjects over a longer period of
time and when is a collaborative work.
I think “while students learning with both traditional ELT and
CLIL show generally positive attitudes to the learning of English, CLIL learners were
more satisfied with and confident about their English
Special Needs teachers interact in English with students, adapting the conversation to fit both the linguistic levels of a student, and his current knowledge of the science subject. By creating situations where both teacher and
student are active participants in the conversation, both linguistic and curriculum
knowledge develop. Here a lot of focus is on finding the zone of proximal developmentover the two dimensions.
One issue with CLIL is that assessment needs to be carried out on both subject area
knowledge and on language proficiency. Within this framework it is important to create assessment situations that will guide the student to display his or her knowledge within both disciplines, and to adapt the assessment situations with sufficient support to allow students to display their subject area knowledge even if there are language difficulties.

Vicky Archondi, Greece

almyros_teachers4europe — 2018-10-09 17:43:35 UTC

The CLIL approach ,as all approaches, has numerous advantages but as far as I'm concerned one basic drawback. It demands that the CLIL teacher have a very good knowledge of the language used as a means of instruction as well as high collaborative skills. If not, the whole attempt might be proven meaningless.

I think that one of the downsides a teacher could face is that students use their first language rather than the foreign language to communicate with their peers.

2018-10-09 17:50:01 UTC

Ioana,Romania

ioana6333 — 2018-10-09 18:12:48 UTC

CLIL teachers need to balance cognitive and language requirements so that both language and content learning is effective. Students must be cognitively and linguistically challenged, and for this we will use a framework to support the learning process.

Raul C. Spain

2018-10-09 18:24:03 UTC

In Spsin have a big problem with clil and bilingual school because is a segregate way thsegregate in differet schools. Bilingual and no bilingual schools.

Gülay,Turkey

gulay_yazman — 2018-10-09 19:39:25 UTC

number of students who are in the class sholud be 15-20 students whereas we have minimum 34 students which is difficult to adapt CLIL to the class and teachers need to get training for himself or herself

Maria Rosaria

2018-10-09 20:15:40 UTC

The difficulty for the teacher is to find a balance between language skills for study purposes accompanied by strategies and study skills with high cognitive demand and textual characteristics of the teaching materials on which the paths are built for this the teacher must plan well each action.
On the part of the students, the clil seems to favor the development of some competences, such as the lexical one and that of the oral comprehension, while the syntax and the writing do not benefit in the same way, creating an inevitable imbalance that can be particularly dangerous in the evaluation of learning.

Erika, Italy

szazie — 2018-10-09 20:34:37 UTC

From my perspective, taking the linguistic proficiency into account, some potential difficulties of a CLIL approach might concern the different levels that characterize all the different students of a single classroom.

Implementing all his/her CLIL activities, a teacher decides what kind of material he/she intends to create/to find and to provide, what kind of vocabulary and specific sentences intends to present. Doing that, she/he has a specific level of linguistic proficiency in mind. This level might be the level of some pupils, but not of all the pupils. Furthermore the expressions or the structures a teacher usually adopts must be functional (communicative strategy) and can be completely new, in other words, not related to the structures or expressions previously taught. For this reason they might not be immediately understandable/easy to memorize for all the students.
I know that someone might object that the best ways a student has to overcome his/her own difficulties (in a language or in a subject) remain cooperation, involvement, motivation and dialogue and that these elements are certainly promoted by CLIL activities (all of them have a crucial role).
Anyway, I think it’s really important to be sure that all the resources given to our students can be effectively accessible.
Sometimes I become aware of the fact that an activity that I thought to be adaptable for all of my students turns out to be extremely difficult for some of them; these students can work with others very well, but they find a lot of difficulties when they are asked to reflect and to focus on their task individually.
Finally, it's vital to develop activities that take into consideration all the aspects implied by the linguistic competence (writing, speaking, listening and reading), giving to them the same importance.

Marzia Italy

marzia_tollari — 2018-10-09 20:55:51 UTC

I Do agree with the colleague that says that cooperation among colleagues of different subjects is very important for a good and effective CLIL experience for students.
Teachers must share interest and motivation to work with CLIL otherwise it's going to be hard to do it !!!

Manuela, Portugal

2018-10-09 21:17:32 UTC

In my point of view, one of the biggest challenges is making pupils learn a specific content using a language they may not be very comfortable with which means they will need more time to accomplish any task.

Michela, Italy

2018-10-09 21:48:20 UTC

In my personal experience spending too much time looking for materials and designing the CLIL activity is an obstacle. It´s not an easy task but by having subject and language teachers developing materials together for each specific context the difficulty can be overcome.

Gabriela Turea

2018-10-10 03:58:44 UTC

Romania
I think that using CLIL during the classes, the children will be more involved in the activities, they will learn the vocabulary in an easy and pleasant way, they will be eager to discover and learn new things. But one of the downsides is that CLIL doesn't cover all the skills and I will need more training courses.

Pardeep kaur india

pardeepkaur9aug1994 — 2018-10-10 04:55:21 UTC

I think by using CLIL in the classes, it makes pupils to learn more vocabulary in an convenient way

PALma from Spain

palmagarciahn — 2018-10-10 04:59:11 UTC

The main difficulty is that the materials are very. visual and you have to prepare a lot of material and think about activities that are motivating for the students

Gianni Lottino

giannilottino — 2018-10-10 05:44:04 UTC

The really difficulty is student's motivation starting a CLIL cycle, especially in the contest I teach. They don't appreciate all the dynamic of this method! Initially they appear strange and sometimes annoyed! Then, coming in the structure of the lesson, pupils change your opinion and appreciate the kind of lessons I do. Visual approach in general support attention. For example geography subjects explained by videos or traditional foods and cooking!

Varvara, Latvia

2018-10-10 06:57:07 UTC

The potential difficulty is to look through the material and design the lesson, so that students could have a decent grip on the subject.

Odarka, Latvia

2018-10-10 09:15:09 UTC

The main difficulty is that students should be more motivated and interested in it and of course sometimes it is a lack of time, it takes a long time to get ready and find really great sources.

Lila, Greece

lilazrb — 2018-10-10 11:02:26 UTC

By definition, CLIL demands the use of a second language. This can happen in classrooms where is being taught a foreign language. I can't see how I could use it in Kingergarten where kids don't learn a second language but only the school language.

Ankita, India

2018-10-10 13:20:18 UTC

According to me, the main difficulty is not being aware of CLIL activities. I also got to know about it from this course. The other difficulty can be that me as a teacher also do not know any foreign language.

Concetta, Sicily

concetta_grasso — 2018-10-10 13:26:49 UTC

One important reason for the introduction of CLIL is to help the education sector to prepare today’s students for the world of work of today, and of tomorrow as well.

In simple terms, CLIL integrates both Content Learning and Language Learning. Using

CLIL, students learn one or more of their school subjects in a targeted language, often

English, but sometimes in another second language.
With CLIL, learning the content and learning the language are equally important. Both are important curriculum subjects for the students.

CLIL, then, is designed to prepare young people for the future. It provides the first step to learning and understanding independently.

Stathis, Greece

2018-10-10 13:39:21 UTC

The main downside on CLIL approach is that students have learned to work and communicate in their native language and seems difficult for them to accept a different way of teaching. However, if the CLIL teacher have a very good knowledge of the foreign language, I believe that students will see the new way of teaching with another point of view, more positive and the expected results will come.

M. A. Leone, Ital

mariaantoniettaleone12 — 2018-10-10 14:18:26 UTC

I agree with Stathis...there are two downsideson Clil approach:
1) the students with their native language
2) the teachers performance with forein languages

Salvador. SPAIN

salprosm1 — 2018-10-10 14:52:58 UTC

The main downside on CLIL approach is the performance of the teacher. Especially the way of teaching different languages and the way of organizing activities and the different levels of learning in the group of students in order to encourage the communication among them

Margherita Carta - Ital

margherita_carta — 2018-10-10 14:54:37 UTC

I fully agree with Concetta: with CLIL, learning the content and learning the language are equally important. Obviuosly, the effectiveness of a CLIL program depends both on the linguistic skills and on cognitive proficiency of the teacher and the students.
And cooperation between the teachers is essential.

Clara, Portugal

acjesus — 2018-10-10 15:37:04 UTC

CLIL is all about teaching a new content using a second/different language. It´s not about teaching a new language. But we may say that both content and language are equally important. But, as I said before, CLIL implementation is related with the students and teacher skills in English. It´s really difficult when we have a heterogeneous class (regarding competences in English) with many students (20 or more), and so it´s really difficult to teach the content in English to the class. It would be easier with small groups or with a second teacher (preferably an English teacher), helping the class to succeed.

Giuseppe, Italy

profgiuseppevullo — 2018-10-10 15:43:05 UTC

In my opinion, the main challenge is the planning of the teaching units, as to provide the right support and challenges for the different learners, and to design the tasks so that natural collaboration will occur. I think that a key factor for introducing CLIL in a classroom, is to inform students of the reasons for the teaching methods change, and to allow time for adaption, taking small steps, without forcing.

İsmail Erdoğan, Çanakkale, Turkey

2018-10-10 17:44:22 UTC

If the topic does not tane attention by students, then it is very complicated. But any else teachers should make it fun

Mariagrazia Magni Italy

2018-10-10 18:29:05 UTC

/I think Clil really is a leveller as Do says . In fact if you want to make yourself clear

a to the students you have to simplify, adapt, rephrase,repeat....So you can really reach all the students even those with special needs.
Of corse there are drawbacks in Clil metodology: the first one I met after a few weeks Of teaching for the first time science clil as I realised that the specific vocabulary of the subject had to be known learnt not only in English but in italian also . In fact if 7 years old pupils learn science words that that don't know in italian it is a problem for the school curriculum and for parents as well . So I am trying to solve the problem using code swiching ( That is I both use italian and English ) .
Another downside could be the fact that using clil you have to simplify also the content and not only the language....some say it is too simple . But , on the whole, I am sure the advantages are more important than the possible drawbacks.

Maria Covino

2018-10-10 19:30:15 UTC

When I do A CLIL lesson I see that my students are very interested and more motivated than in a normal English lesson. They know that they are studying another subject and they realize that they can do it through the use of another language. All that makes them enthusiastic . Also students with special needs are more stimulated and motivated to learn.

Federica P., Milan

2018-10-10 19:38:07 UTC

In my experience, the main difficulty in implementing CLIL in Italian schools is to overcome the opposition of conservative teachers, headteachers and regional school managers who want to defend traditional teaching. Why do they do so? I hope someone in Europe will try to understand that...

Aija, Latvia

2018-10-10 19:48:17 UTC

I suppose the main drawback is the time-consuming preparation for the teacher to deliver the lesson successfully: all the visual aids, games etc.
Also, there might always be someoe who is "a party crasher" and just opposed to both the conent and the foreign language.

Roberto, Forlì, Italy

2018-10-10 19:51:02 UTC

I think that CLIL in secondary vocational schools is very challenging, because you have to master the subject and also the second language to prepare effective CLIL lessons. I do not know English language so well to prepare autonomously CLIL lessons. On the other hand English teachers do not master the vocational subject so well to prepare effective CLIL lessons. So myself and my English colleague work together to prepare a good CLIL lessons. However, it is not always possible to do the lessons together. So when I do the lesson the students can understand pretty well the vocational subject, but the language and the pronunciation are sometimes wrong. On the other end, when there is only the English teacher, students can understand very well the language, but not the content. So it is difficult to have vocational secondary school teachers who are so skilled to do effective CLIL lessons.

Angela, Ital

mariangela_gallo68 — 2018-10-10 20:20:21 UTC

I am fully convinced that Clil approach has enormous benefits. One of the difficulties I see is planning the lesson well so that the teaching and learning process is really effective.

Rita, Italy

2018-10-10 20:43:31 UTC

I think that the greatest difficulty in Italian schools is that curricular teachers have to master both their subject and the second language to prepare a CLIL lesson. This isn’t easy. It would be easier and more effective, in my opinion, if there was the possibility of collaborating with a mother tongue colleague.

Sophia, Italy

sophia_danesino — 2018-10-10 21:08:06 UTC

In my experience the greatest difficulty in CLIL lessons is that they are actually time consuming. You need time to make your students do their tasks and in Italy you have a very strict schedule!
The other difficulty is the cooperation between the language teacher and the content teacher. They should work together in order to get the best benefit from CLIL.

Paola, Florence-Italy

paola_riello — 2018-10-10 21:51:45 UTC

Planning a CLIL module takes a lot of time. It's challenging. Often the language teacher and the subject teacher have to work together in a team, they have to share aims, procedures, ways of assessment. Unfortunately, the work behind a CLIL module is huge even because of the materials/tools/activities teachers have to plan/search to motivate their students

Sharon, Australia

2018-10-10 23:00:09 UTC

time can be a challenge (there never seems to be enough to thoroughly develop and implement something worthwhile) another challenge i feel is also teachers' perceptions and insecurities towards new and different approaches. What could be some solutions?
well having a leadership team that factors in more time for teachers to collaborate and plan effectively and developing training and workshops on 'how to' teach language and content in an integrated approach

Federica (Australia)

2018-10-11 01:10:38 UTC

I had the honour to work with Sharon (Australia) and professionally grow as a ‘ keen CLIL teacher’ under her leadership.

I definitely agree with Sharon that the time factor plays a crucial role: In a CLIL program there needs to be recognition that teachers require regular extended time slots to plan together and – I would like to add – to create targeted and appealing bilingual/plurilingual resources.

Moreover, in bilingual programs teachers’ timetables should be developed with co-teaching sessions in mind, so as to provide students with a real CLIL experience with both teachers’ expertise; i.e. the L1 teacher, possibly more confident with content delivery, and the L2 teacher, who focuses more extensively on introducing the specialised language of the subject matter.

Natalia, Italy

nbv777 — 2018-10-11 07:30:25 UTC

From my point of view, the greatest difficulty is that you have to master the subject and also the second language to prepare CLIL lessons. I teach English language but I don’t master all the subjects to prepare CLIL lessons. This means that I have to work with my colleagues to prepare a good CLIL lesson and, unfortunately it is not always simple to do lessons together. So when I do the lesson, students can understand the language, but not the content and also for me it is difficult to explain specific doubts and viceversa.

Laura,Sicily

2018-10-11 08:24:51 UTC

In order to use this new approach you have to know a new language and to prepare new activity because clil method isn't a frontal lesson but a mix of practical activity that you have to invent.I hope to learn new ideas in this course to perform well with my student.

María J., from Spain

majegsm — 2018-10-11 09:17:00 UTC

I think that not the potential, but the actual difficulty, at least here in Spain, is that CLIL started in the wrong way: the main worry was the students studied in English and teachers were not trained properly. You might be proficient in ESL but you are not so in Maths, Histroy and so forth. On the other hand, it was wrongly advertised to parents as if their children were going to be bilingual at the end of their CLIL studies, and that is obviously not going to happen, so the result of it all was that neither children were bilingual nor were they learning the contents and facts properly.
Fortunately, it has improved little by little, now teachers are asked higher level of English to teach CLIL than at the begining of the project around here, and most of them have self-trained in CLIL methodology, since at the start, stakeholders also forgot about the methodology, which was in my humble opinion, also a key mistake.

Maria, Vinchiaturo (CB), Italy

mariaminicucci — 2018-10-11 10:19:31 UTC

I’m afraid that students don’t have the right linguistic skills and competences to learn contents and facts properly (in a language that’s not the school one). I’m afraid that they will be discouraged by the initial difficulties, due to the comprehension of L2.

Subject teacher and language teacher have to work together and have to prepare carefully each CLIL unit (materials, tools, activities), and that needs a lot of extra time.

Silvia,Italy

2018-10-11 14:24:56 UTC

I think that a difficulty of a Clil lesson could be the undertanding of the subject in another language, thatr requires strong basis of the language in wich is made the clil lessons, at the same time I think that clil is a great opportunity to enrich student's literacy anche to enlight the interest for the study of the subjects!

Mariagle, Italy

2018-10-11 15:34:07 UTC

I think that CLIL gives the opportunity to improve foreign languages but for teachers it's a lot of work. As many collegues said in this paddlet the English/French teachers have to know well the subject of the CLIL and it isn't always easy!

Rosanna

2018-10-11 16:54:10 UTC

In Italian secondary school it is difficult because English teachers and subject teachers don't have the lesson in the same hour. In my opinion the solution could be having teachers with English certication, so they could organise CLIL activities when they want.

Giuseppina Tumino - Italy

2018-10-11 17:50:15 UTC

I think that a CLIL approach in the classroom can many benefits as:

pupils can acquire linguistic competence in a foreign language while learning some subject;

pupils can acquire new knowledge while using language;

CLIL approach encourages pupils‘ involvement in educational activities and improves the quality of learning.

Potential difficulties are:

Preparation of lesson, which takes a lot of time for who don’t know the second language very well.
Time needed for acquisition of key vocabulary.
The material to be used in the CLIL path can be a problem, because there are specific materials yet.

Agata Brescia, Italy

tatiagata_brescia — 2018-10-11 18:03:52 UTC

I think that the greatest difficulty of a CLIL approach is the collaboration between colleagues: there should be a community of intent and ideas between the teacher of any school subject and the foreign language teacher, especially in secondary school, like mine , where students study different foreign languages. Another problem is the organizational one: having the co-presence of the foreign language teacher and the math teacher, for example, in the same class. An approach to overcome these difficulties is to involve the teachers of the same school or the same class in a CLIL methodology course. (this is what my colleague and I have been doing with TEACHER ACADEMY for two years!)

Pantaleo

2018-10-11 18:07:48 UTC

Clil is a challenging approach of teaching and learning. You can have impressive results. The difficulties could be rapresented by the skill of the teacher in managing at the same time content knowledges, language knowledges,
pedagogical skills in inventing activities and practice them, general communication abilities.

Vincenza Rinaldi - Salerno Italy

2018-10-11 18:29:26 UTC

I think that the CLIL approach is a real challenge but it is a really motivating one as well. On the other hand there are many difficulties and downsides because you spend a lot of time preparing lessons and activities. Moreover, sometimes language teachers haven't deep basis in the subject and viceversa some subjet teacher are not good at speking a foreign language.

Mocriș Melissa,Romania

2018-10-11 18:53:44 UTC

I strongly believe that a potential challenge when it comes to CLIL approach is addressed to the students that are less competent and feel patronized when they are facing with the situation of making pairs with the ones that know more. The more competent ones would got the feeling that it is too easy so they will get bored and will not feel they are learning something or making progresses.

Maria Rosa (Sicily)

maryroseprof — 2018-10-11 19:25:26 UTC

Adopting CLIL in our classroom is a big challenge which requires great effort and determination. Every teacher will be ready to face up difficulties, not only linguistic but also in the approach with the students. I like the idea of teaching the subject in a more intercultural perspective and students have to be motivated to accept the new way of learning. First of alI I think that CLIL method requires meticulously planning of activities.

never give up!

2018-10-11 19:32:26 UTC

Hallo colleagues, I'm maestra Emma. In my reality the most difficult aspects are related:

1-the lack of availability of ICT (sometimes not even the connection, a single IW, inadequate spaces);

2- the need of time to choose the materials, work on them for example, modifying or choosing texts, preparing deliveries and activities, finding the right materials and tools;

3-develop effective networks of effective collaboration between adults (inside and outside school);

4- in case there are effective solutions for all the points listed, with a further extension of the working time not recognized on any professional level, redefine the time of teaching and make the methodology also understood to those parents who associate teaching done to number of filled pages.

On points 1 and 2 I found strategies on points 3 and 4 I'm looking for effective and less costly ways in terms of time and effectiveness: work in progress :-)

Carmen from Spain

biologiamencia — 2018-10-11 19:58:41 UTC

It is essential a time during our school schedule dedicated to coordinate the application of the CLIL methodology. Some years ago, they included them in our offical schedule, after a few years it dissapeared. It is important to recover them.
The creation of professional networs for having a reference in the terms of teachers formation. The access to this type of methodology is not supervised methodologically. It is necessary a specific linguistic level (B2 at least) but our regulations dont say anything about the formation on CLIL issues.

We would need a new regional regulation for improving the quality of CLIL teachers

Tiziana Panaro, Italy

tizianapanaro — 2018-10-11 20:00:57 UTC

The potential downsides I can find in relation to Clil approach are surely fewer than its enormous benefits. One of the negative aspects is that in Italy good willed teachers have to build their competence alone, i.e. attending a mooc like this and working in a DIY manner
There are no hours to be shared with a Maths teacher and the two teachers Maths and English have to work separately. Therefore it is a little harder to achieve the desired objectives unless an accurate and specific planning of all the activities is carried out by the two teachers during frequent teachers' meetings.

Rosa, Portugal

carinaribeiro18 — 2018-10-11 21:01:51 UTC

I Think that CLIL is a good challenge!
The bigger difficulty i see is the negation of the students who maybe would be afraid not understand the subject in a foreign language.

Raffaella from Genova

raffaturbi1 — 2018-10-11 22:59:42 UTC

I think the main downside of using CLIL methodologies is that lessons need a lot of time to be prepared and carried out. So we can study less topics than by the traditional way. However CLIL is a pleasant way of learning that motivate students and make them learning easier.

We can address such difficulties by mixing CLIL and traditional activities during the year

2018-10-12 06:30:34 UTC

Malvina, Italy n my opinion clil is important because it improves language skills and oral communication skills, diversifies classroom methods and practices with interesting and stimulating activities, increases pupils' motivation and confidence in both languages and non-linguistic subjects learned

Giuseppe, Acate

2018-10-12 07:28:47 UTC

I think that challenges and difficulties are linked to a good knowledge of the foreign language and the way to adapt and introduce materials to the students according to their needs and level. Another challenge could be the ability of a teacher to motivate his pupils.

Melissa Leyshon,

2018-10-12 09:02:56 UTC

Malta
The biggest obstacle I encounter is trying to convince parents that traditional teaching methods are not the only way in which a subject may be taught. It takes some time and I do still revert to traditional ways of teaching Grammar, let's say. However eventually the result is in the enthusiasm of the children.

Sarah

2018-10-12 09:03:46 UTC

Combining subject knowledge with linguistic ability is a major challenge.

Sílvia, Spain

2018-10-12 11:24:31 UTC

At first, students and parents are a little scared because Maths is traditionally a difficult subject and if you add English to the equation the thing becomes really intriguing. However, as the weeks go by, students see that English is no longer a problem and moreover, Maths is now fun and motivating for them. At least, this is my experience. I'm a convinced CLIL teacher. After many years as a Maths teacher, I needed to find another way to present my subject to my pupils and I've found in CLIL the way I was missing. I'm more motivated as a teacher now and I think that's why my students are too.
If you want to know a little how I've done it you can take a look at:

Francesca from Italy

2018-10-12 12:28:29 UTC

The major difficulty I can see for the students is to focus theis attention on two paths: le linguistic one and the subject's content .

Inta Reinholde, Latvia

2018-10-12 14:02:23 UTC

The main challenge - time management. Planning, finding, preparing texts, materials, tools etc. to deliver the lesson successfully is really challenging...

Chiara Sabatini - Italy

chisab72 — 2018-10-12 14:30:30 UTC

Language knowledge is the most difficult challenge in the school I teach in at the moment. Subject teachers are not confident with other languages and it is always a bit of a problem. But sometimes some teachers know more than what they think and if we plan the activities carefully together we can overcome this problem at least a little bit

Helen, Spain

helen119 — 2018-10-12 15:21:39 UTC

As I wrote on the previous padlet, the CLIL/Bilingual ed. approach has been criticized quite a bit lately in Spain, especially from other teachers. I found Do Coyle's comments fascinating because they are the exact opposite of what bilingual education detractors claim here! I find this to be the greatest challenge to CLIL education for now.

Tiziana Diso

napoligiusy1959 — 2018-10-12 15:25:21 UTC

Italy
Students and parents are a bit scared about CLIL at first. They fear one cannot learn contents in another language or, at least, they fear one cannot succeed in learning as before. Teacher should overcome the problem of lacking of confidence by a well organized lesson, ste by step, in order to urge students to be more confidente and relaxed, ready to join the new learning adventure

tea sisko, croatia

tejasisko01 — 2018-10-12 16:19:52 UTC

In my experience difficulties and challenges of a CLIL approach in Croatia are the curriculum, principals and colleagues who do not understand the CLIL concept and believe "we are not doing anything important, only playing" because "real and serious" teaching is done by copying and individual work. I often invite my colleagues to come and see my class and am willing to explain the process in order to tech them but they seldom come and are not willing to step out of their comfort zone.

Cristina, Romania

2018-10-12 16:39:15 UTC

The biggest CILL ennemy is curricula. I am forced to teach an impressive number of notions. Our traditional school is difficult and contains a lot of information. I steal from other lessons, easier, tp implement cill notions

Tiziana Varone, Italy

2018-10-12 17:40:43 UTC

In my opinion, the main downside is the low competence italian students have in foreign languages.
Often, Vocational subjects concern very hard concepts, that aren't simple to understand even if thaught in mothertongue. So, the challenge of a CLIL approach is to use the foreign language as a mean to compell the teacher to say the same things in the simplest and shortest way. On the other hand, the students should focus on developing the learned concepts with their own words. The news of this flipped lesson could engage a renewed interest in the subject

Nadia, Italy

nadia_massariellotibello — 2018-10-12 18:16:41 UTC

According to me, CLIL is a natural and simple way of learning a foreing language, because students learn the language through the content. During CLIL lesson students make more cognitive efforts. If the content is interessing, students may be motivated. Of course not all students can be motivate to learn another language; so teacher need to use new metodologica approaches with them.

Silvana, Italy

silvana_povolo — 2018-10-12 18:28:54 UTC

I think the strengths of CLIL methodology are the increased exposure to the language, the opportunities for challenging all learners, the increase in learner’s confidence in the language and autonomy. CLIL also increases learner’s cognitive, social and communicative skills. On the other hand, the weaknesses of this methodology are the difficulties to start with students of a low language level and to deal with different language levels in the same class. Language is not always graded and high level of content cannot be transferred. This can happen with students with low language level or with learning disabilities.

CLIL gives a lot of opportunities to learners. Students can be more motivated to learn and activate more thinking skills and scaffolded information can provide better structured materials for low-level students or learners with some learning disabilities. On the contrary, the threats in CLIL methodology are the lack of teachers training and the lack of foreign language competence of subject teacher.

To resolve some of the downsides of this methodology (in particular in Italy) teachers should be trained and CLIL should start to be used at all school levels.

Agata, Italy

scanselli — 2018-10-12 18:57:52 UTC

No doubt, CLIL is for students an opportunity to access contents in a different way and to feel language learning more meaningful. Anyway, CLIL poses many theoretical, linguistic and organisational problems. In Italy, with the Gelmini Reform (2010), CLIL was institutionalized and therefore made curricular. It means that subject-matter teachers are now required to teach their subject in a foreign language with a certain language-proficiency level, which is rarely achieved. This implies that subject teachers are not always capable of explaining or giving in-depth information on the topic. A close cooperation between the subject-matter and language teachers could be a solution, but the way school is organised in Italy makes cooperation and exchange among teachers difficult to arrange, as teachers can hardly share the same classes.
As for the students, their language-competence level must be good enough to allow them to follow the CLIL lessons, which is not easy as no class today is actually linguistically "homogeneous". I think flexibility and constant monitoring/evaluation of the process could be the main solution to this problem.

Fabrizio, Italia

2018-10-12 20:06:11 UTC

Students may have difficulty studying subjects in a language other than their mother tongue.
Despite this, the clil method helps to reflect on one's own method of learning and fosters the development of the lexicon.

Anabela Vieira, Port

2018-10-12 20:32:31 UTC

CLIL increases learner's cognitive, social and communicate skill. It's a challenge for the students and for the teacher and the motivation to learn is much bigger because the way we teach is more attractive. Probbably the bigger problem appears when students have difficulties in understanding the foreign language, the language used most be simple and according to the level of student proficiency.

Ivana, Macedonia

ivannast16 — 2018-10-12 21:12:40 UTC

Perhaps, the time management can be the biggest enemy of this approach. It is difficult to prepare well a lesson that is not related to your subject plus it takes more energy. However, I believe that students will be happy having such classes

Michele Galati, Pinerolo (Italy)

2018-10-13 05:08:27 UTC

I think that in Italian school the real challenge is to motivate students and teachers to learn a foreigne language, English or others. There's too distrust or suspicion toward other languages and new kinds of teaching and learning so students are not really motivated to learn subjects and improve skills that are not only related with school programs. CLIL, instead, can give great opportunies not only to students but also to teachers: to make own teaching richer and fuller that traditional ways; to make own learning more aware and more open to news and to world changes.

Stefano, Australia

2018-10-13 05:31:28 UTC

I think the major downsides could be the teachers' fluncy and language knowledge of the language they use while using CLIL.

Cinzia, Bergamo ITaly

cinzfior — 2018-10-13 07:05:49 UTC

I agree with Dr Coyle when she says we have to simplify language and contents in our CLIL lesson. It's a good opportunity for students and teachers find a different way to teach and to learn a subject through a foreign language using techonology. Learning is more motivating and we improve our specific language through new information. It's a good way even for weak students because we have to choose a simple language.

Antonella P.

avenusitita — 2018-10-13 07:56:12 UTC

I think that CLIL should be intended not only as a method to teach technical vocabulary to the students or to ask them to describe any procedure in L2 but it should be done through PBL approach.

This implies a strict collaboration between the technical teachers and the language teachers as often technical teachers don't have the linguistic competence and the L2 teachers don't have any technical knowledge. This collaboration often implies management problems as changes in the school timetable, buying tools and materials and so on.

This means that it could be difficult to organise CLIL PBL projects in those schools in which CLIL is not planned in the school organisation.

Nadina Nicolici, Romania

n_nadina — 2018-10-13 08:21:02 UTC

Though CLIL has many advantages, one of the downsides may be the fact that students are exposed mainly to technical subjects, and culture (literature, lifestyle, etc) may be left out.

Albert from Catalonia

apanade4 — 2018-10-13 10:47:12 UTC

CLIL has a lot of advantages, but on the contrary as a teacher you have to make sure that even learning contents in a second language, the students achieve completely the contents. In VET schools, the level of the second languague is different between students.

Giedre, Lithuania

2018-10-13 12:04:46 UTC

CLIL lessons give opportunity to assess content in a different way and to learn language more easily.These lessons not only motivate students but also make students use creativity and flexibility. But as I mentioned in previous activity the problem is different language levels.

Nica, Italy

2018-10-13 13:59:59 UTC

In my opinion, the main difficulty of a CLIL approach is represented by different levels of English knowledge between students, so teachers have to simplify language and contents. Technical subjects have difficult concepts to explain with a very simple language.

Anja; Norway

2018-10-13 14:36:12 UTC

As I earlier wrote, CLIL has a lot of potential, among other things because it prepares learners for dealing with several languages in their future workplace. Unfortunately it is hard to achieve in Norwegian schools because the different subjects do not have many points of contact, and then there is the big question: How do we assess what our pupils have learned?

Aleksandra Cvetanovska, Skopje, Macedonia

anecvetanovska — 2018-10-13 16:10:44 UTC

In my opinion potential difficulties can be found in both teachers and pupils. Pupils who have problems in learning languages can be confused about what is the focus: new vocabulary or content. Teachers can feel insecure in their classroom if they do not speak well English. Language support is the most important point to start with.

Hande Türker, Turkey

hande_28_hy — 2018-10-13 16:20:59 UTC

To me, for the teachers it may not be very easy to create a CLIL lesson using the content and language at one time. I mean finding the most effective tools and applications or creating them might be a little difficult for the teachers. And for the students it may be taugh to keep up with the new learnin environment with new words and new subject

G.Keserci

2018-10-13 20:00:05 UTC

at first students may be a bit scared because of the language

Catello de Sinno - ITALY

2018-10-13 20:04:27 UTC

Poor language proficiency could inhibit communication and therefore learning to some pupils. But careful ongoing monitoring and evaluatin could limit this problem. Then teachers in Italy do not always have adequate competence to develop a CLIL. I think that CLIL should be planne and developed by foreign language teachers.

Cinzia, Sicily

2018-10-13 20:23:37 UTC

As Professor Coile says in the video, Clil is a very valid methodology because it allows to level the pupils through the simplification of the content, the simple language and the help between peers that pupils can implement working in groups. The lesson thus becomes much more captivating. The real problem is to win the mistrust of a foreign language, both from the teachers ' part and from the pupils

Daniela from Parma

2018-10-13 20:32:23 UTC

In Italy we are introducing CLIL but things are not clearly planned. Sometimes the subject teacher does not have a good level of English to face a lesson. Sometimes the English teacher does not know much about the subject. It is necessary to plan very well, otherwise students can't learn in a good way

Güneş

2018-10-13 21:17:06 UTC

Yes, as stated, planing is the crucial stage of CLIL activities.

Ioanna

2018-10-13 21:41:50 UTC

When choosing to use a CLIL approach it is important to know the needs and interests of our students. The selection of topic and the right level of language are crucial because they can help motivate and engage learners in a meaningful way.

Dulcinea-portugal

2018-10-13 22:05:28 UTC

The main difficulty of a CLIL approach is represented by differents levels of English knowledge between teachers working together to explain differents subjects ; and between de studens in a class.

Anis Amouri

amourianis — 2018-10-13 23:23:57 UTC

Adopting CLIL in our classroom is a big challenge which requires great effort and determination.I believe that the challenge is addressed to the students that are less competent and feel patronized when they are facing with the situation of making pairs with the ones that know more.

viki dogani

2018-10-14 04:24:48 UTC

making pares, doing activities, activate, emphasize, learn

Omisha, India

omishachhabra100 — 2018-10-14 05:35:12 UTC

The difficulties in CLIL approach is that the students don't have clear preferences for any particular subject and moreover not all workmates and parents see a need to foster CLIL methodo

Rachel, Uk

2018-10-14 05:58:35 UTC

One of the problems may be that the teacher does not feel confident enough in their own foreign language ability to be able to teach their main content subject in it. It could also make it harder for parents to support their child's learning if they do not understand the language which is being used.

Dimitra P., Greece

2018-10-14 08:10:02 UTC

Once introduced to the school curriculla, CLIL may mean that a lot of preparation is needed from the teacher, before entering the classroom. In case CLIL is not included as a recognised method of instruction by the school system, this may mean that both teachers and pupils have to give up some of their breaktime to reach to a goal. All other obstacles like different levels in language competence, or in communicational skills can in my oppinion be overcome by working in groups in a collaborative environment.

Christos, Greece

christos_chachoudis — 2018-10-14 09:05:28 UTC

This project needs very good sense of the language we are going to use, furtermore we teacher need more time to prepare our lesson. Anyway is a new way of teaching and educating our students, I think that it's very potential and we 'll have to make it happen.

Sylwia, Poland

2018-10-14 09:45:41 UTC

that's true the teacher has to be prepared and needs time to prepare activities.

Francesco, Italy

2018-10-14 12:49:29 UTC

I listened very carefully to Dr Coyle's . In my opinion, adopting CLIL in the classroom is not an easy choice. I mean that you must be an open minded teacher who knows very well what you are going to do. First of all I know my students and when I plan my CLIL lesson I usually note down which downsides could occur during the learning process and this is a sort of challenge for me cause I have to try to study the right strategies if any problems happen. For example, since I speak English all the time during my CLIL lesson, maybe lots of students cannot understand and so they could get bored.In this case I must stop and draw attention by involving them in a game, connected to the contents I'm talking about. Sometimes they complain saying: " Teacher, I don't understand anything". I pretend not to understand and I use some pieces of paper on which I write some words down and I ask my student: " Do you know the meaning of this word?" if yes, I'm lucky and I can take him/her to the aim i fixed previously; if not I have to find out new stategies as for example...Drama.

Nicoleta, Romania

2018-10-14 13:16:42 UTC

I think that a difficulty is the level of English. It”s true that they all learn more or less but it”s hard to focus on linguistic and on content

Matanat Ahadova/ Azerbaijan

ahadovamatanat2 — 2018-10-14 13:52:58 UTC

I also think that the difficulty is in the level of English for both the teacher ( if she is a subject teacher ) and the students as they should know not only the language but also the terminology of the subject the CLIL integrated.

Mariella, Italy

mariella_brunaz — 2018-10-14 14:23:35 UTC

I am a CLIL enthusiast and I think it’s an approach that can really make a difference but I’m conscious there are some downsides. Planning a module and preparing materials for it takes time, even though there are now resources that can be found on the Net they must be adopted to the context since each class has its peculiarities, That’s why subject teachers don’t want to be involved in it though they have the required language level, and that’s a pity. As for students, sometimes they don’t want to be actively participate. They prefer listening to the teacher speaking and taking notes because this is less demanding. I’m currently merging CLIL with project-based learning, flipped classroom and recently museum learning as well. I don’t work alone, as I have already specified, but with a group of colleagues, and working with like-minded colleagues is of great help to plan and implement. I also think that if more teachers left their comfort zone and started adopting student-centred approaches, pupils would get used to them and they would be more willing to get involved.

Rita Xuereb, Malta

rita_xuereb — 2018-10-14 17:06:46 UTC

The main difficulties I find in my classroom is that very often a child will have no exposure or prior knowledge of English and will be still very much inclined in using their L1. This is not surprising as my students are of the tender age of 3.

The main challenge is to present them with an abundance of visual aids and use lots of repetition for them to learn and communicate. This means extra preparation on my part.

Maria Paola Italia

2018-10-14 17:11:47 UTC

I think that the clil methodology brings many advantages in acquiring new linguistic knowledge but at the same time presents some difficulties in the preparation of lessons especially in schools where there are not many resources clil

Jordi, Catalonia

2018-10-14 17:29:52 UTC

As I said in the previous activity, a potential difficulty is the different language levels you have in the classroom.
Maybe the challenge is to equalize them.

Amanpreet, India

2018-10-14 18:06:27 UTC

According to me the main difficulty of CLIL approach is that the teacher has to do a lot of homework for teaching the next session. As in my case, I am getting training and is teaching primary students and for them to teach each and every part there we need to have a presentation or some videos or any other activity by which students may find it easier to learn the lessons.

Cinzia Marrone Italy

stella130307 — 2018-10-14 18:35:05 UTC

I think the only misadvantage in clil lessons are difficulties of the teacher to plan all the lessons activities in each detail, but for learners it is a good experience to learn in a motivating way without lazy

Rosamaria Teodorani

rossyteo — 2018-10-14 19:28:53 UTC

Rome, Italy
What It's difficult for me about CLIL is the amount of planning work to carry out, another one is that not many teachers in my country, expecially in primary school, use this methodologies and it is difficult when you don't have colleagues with whom sharing or comparing your lessons and results, so assessment is also difficult.

CLIL is a challenge for teachers and students. For teachers: it takes a lot of time to plan the lessons and to choose the materials and to arrange the exercises. If you are no "mother tongue" you also have to make a great effort if you want to be clear without simplify the contents. The ICT are useful but you have to be able to use them. Students sometimes don't want to engage in another language, because they have to do a double effort: they must study new contents and organise their learning in an another language. For these reasons sometimes you don't reach the goals

2018-10-14 20:09:14 UTC

Hanife, Turkey

2018-10-14 20:41:08 UTC

To me, the difficulty is the level of English and also it takes a lot of time to plan the lessons. Teacher must prepare everything in detail. Apart from that teachers must collaborate with each other while planning the lesson as sometimes one teacher may not be good at with the language another teacher may have difficulty in technical matters. This is another difficulty.

continuita1 — 2018-10-14 21:07:59 UTC

I agree with Dr Coyle on the fact that a CLIL approach has a lot of benefits. What may be challenging is the teacher's linguistic competence, or the language teacher's competence in Science, Physics, Geography, etc. Moreover, planning stops being individual matter and becomes team work. Teachers might find some difficulties in planning collegially, but this is a great chance for them.

Gioia, Italy

Stefania Carolina, Italy

2018-10-14 22:42:19 UTC

CLIL needs an attentive planning and...a lot of work! Maybe, these are the only negatives of this fantastic methodology. Besides, planning a well content and language balanced activity is not so easy.

Elisa C., Italy

2018-10-15 04:27:12 UTC

In Italian school many English language teachers worry about using CLIL materials because they feel they don’t have the background knowledge of the subject.
CLIL teachers cannot only be subject teachers because the most of them haven't got language competence to teach using a foreign language. In my opinion it is important to consider that the material is only a vehicle for the language because you’re not teaching a foreign language, you’re teaching a concept. The teacher in CLIL is not the person who transmits only some contents but he is the one who guides pupils through their learning, he's a learning facilitator.
Learning content and language at the same time undoubtedly represents a cognitive challenge for students indeed they make more cognitive effort. For the subject content, learners need to develop specific operating skills such as solving problems, classifying and matching and analysing, interpreting and applying in a language which is not their own. This represents some difficulties as it may cause demotivation and anxiety because of fear of failure. To overcome this it's necessary students
participate in activities developing collaborative study skills. On the basis of my experience to date, pair- and group-work become essential in most steps of the CLIL class, from vocabulary learning to content analysis and processing.

Manlio A., Italy

2018-10-15 08:10:04 UTC

Some difficulties in teaching with CLIL methodology may be related to the time needed for the proper preparation of the lessons, but also the diversity in the levels of preparation of the students. However, for those who are not yet very experienced, there are various resources on the web that can be used in their lessons. It is also advantageous to propose group work to exploit the contribution of peer support.

Shukufa Najafova

shukufa_n — 2018-10-15 10:48:33 UTC

Ismailli, Azerbaijan

Hi dear colleagues, I read your posts and must say that agree with you. As Ana said, one of the difficulties can be the teacher's knowledge of the language. Another potential challenge would be our pupils; sometimes they refuse to learn in a different language. Sometimes they were shy for the tasks.

Angela Modena

2018-10-15 11:48:03 UTC

One of the downsides is that a teacher have to prepare carefully the topic and every detail of the lesson. We can't "play by ear "
The second downside is that dyslexic children have to face a new problem. It's hard for them, but if we encourage and help, making our lesson active and practical we will overcome the probl

Zeynep, Turkey

zeyneptas0 — 2018-10-15 13:12:50 UTC

I think one the difficult ies is that teachers have to prepare a lesson in detail, every step should be taken into consideration by the teacher and alsoif they are language teachers, they are supposed to know about other subjects well enough to be able to adopt a CLIL teaching approach.

Pina, Italy

2018-10-15 14:38:52 UTC

Teachers sometimes do not know what it is expected from them, especially when CLIL means putting together content and foreign language. Teachers believe that they need a more proficient command of English and they fear that the lack of language knowlwdge can affect CLIL success. Another concern is how to organise education programmes with CLIL settings. In order to provide future teachers with useful academic and practical tools and to develop practical skills in teaching CLIL, it could be useful to organise courses, seminars and lectures at the university. The challenge is that teachers themselves need to be qualified to teach CLIL at higher education level.

Anna S.

scriminacianna — 2018-10-15 16:55:46 UTC

it is clear that a lesson in clil implies however a good knowledge of the language or anyway a certain familiarity in the use. It could be a problem in classes where there are children with special needs who have language difficulties. In that case it should be more challenging for the teacher to find those expressive channels that best suit the boy in difficulty with the language

Gabriella

user_1412192056 — 2018-10-15 19:07:54 UTC

My doubt with small children is if it's right to teach specific vocabulary in a new language when children are still building their L1 work bank. For this reason I prefer to use CLIL with "no narrative" subjects, like maths and music and leave apart subjects like science and history for instance.

T. Marilena Sammarco, Italy

marilenasammarco — 2018-10-15 20:17:16 UTC

I think that one downside is that oral production could fail while interactive skills are reinforced but this seems to me a great upside.

Margaret, Poland

2018-10-15 20:23:59 UTC

I agree with some of you that the only downfall is with small children who have limited vocabulary and grammar. It would be quite a challenge to have a CLIL lesson with them,

Iveta Leinberga from Latvia

2018-10-15 20:30:44 UTC

As a potential difficulty I see different levels of English language knowledge.

Majlinda,Albania

kmajlinda — 2018-10-15 21:26:59 UTC

I think that one downside may be the lack of the right vocabulary,grammar,
So their level of knowledge of English language.

IRENE AMADO, GUARDA - PORTUGAL I think that the main challenge of a CLIL approach may be the fact that we eventually don’t know all the languages in the classroom.As a matter of fact, if we have just a few students with a different foreign language, we may be lucky, and have students that speak English or French. But if we have Chinese, Japanese, Somali students it will be more difficult.In my case, I know nothing about Somalia, I don’t understand absolutely nothing of the language… and that’s hard, because I feel like I can’t use the mother tongue my student has in my classes. Anyway, I can certainly use his culture and his knowledge by approaching cultural themes and subjects.It will certainly be difficult, but rewarding.

2018-10-15 21:42:01 UTC

Alex_PT

teacheralex_dua — 2018-10-15 22:02:21 UTC

CLIL is an incredible methodology but also very challenging as it involves team and collaborative work and lots of preparation. There has to be flexibility in our school schedules as well as updated working places, in this case well equipped classrooms. All these issues are challenges we have to overcome or otherwise they will always be difficulties, macro (governmental) and micro factors (school and human) that may have a deep impact in our methodologies.
As for the sts, it will also be a very rewarding and memorable learning experience if they are willing to learn and take advantage of this approach.

Gabriela, Romania

gabi_petrichei — 2018-10-16 05:17:51 UTC

In my opinion, the benefits exceed the difficulties, so it is worth using a CLIL approach. As for challenges, there is the amount of time and work the teacher needs to prepare the lesson, the lack of properly equipped classrooms and some students' shyness in working in another language.

Feruze/ TURKEY

feruzeerol — 2018-10-16 07:35:19 UTC

The students' English levels may be different and it may cause some difficulties.

Veronica, Italy

2018-10-16 08:32:54 UTC

Potential difficulties can be the language’s level of both teacher and students, or the participation of also other subjects’ teachers.

Kelly, Denmark

2018-10-16 09:33:20 UTC

The downsides are that vocabulary for individual subjects (whatever they are), is already quite specialised and must be explicitly taught to native speakers. Having an unfamiliar subject in this context means students might never learn the technical terms for that subject in their own language which makes them semi-competent in the subject if they cannot discuss what they know at the next step of their schooling.

Raúl C, Spain

2018-10-16 10:21:03 UTC

Although the video explains that this type of learning is a leveler. Actually it does not seem like that. It may be for methodological reasons, but in Spain many students with difficulties leave bilingual schools that work in clile to go to non-bilingual schools.
Surely the idea is to establish more resources and train teachers.

Claudia Mazzone from Naples - Ital

claudia_mazzone1972 — 2018-10-16 10:25:39 UTC

I think that the principal difficulty of a CLIL approach consists in linguistic skills of both teachers and students.
But I sincerely believe that apart from this, a CLIL approach in the classroom is fundamental for a language aware teacher.

Nicolina G., Italy

2018-10-16 10:28:42 UTC

As Professor Do Coyle says in the video, CLIL is a very valid methodology because it allows to level the pupils through the simplification of the content, the simple language and the cooperation between peers. It represents good opportunity both for students and teachers to find a different way to teach and learn a subject through a foreign language using technology. Learning is more motivating. But I am completely aware that adopting CLIL in the classroom is not an easy choice because It requires great effort and determination. One of the main downside of using CLIL methodology is that lessons need a lot of time to be prepared and carried out. All that must not scare us if we believe that CLIL methodology is really valid.

Bilingual school

2018-10-16 13:04:08 UTC

I think the challenge is stretching those who are higher ability in regards to language and the subject. There are children who are struggling with vocabulary and basic concepts but you have children with the grasp of the second language already who may become disengaged as they understand the vocabulary already.

Victoria

2018-10-16 14:12:02 UTC

The difficulties may be the time you need to prepare and the flexibility . That is a challenge too for teachers and the studens. You have to know where you can reach and how you can n success it .

Angela N, Chieri

2018-10-16 14:40:15 UTC

Difficulties: language competence in students and teachers, time needed to prepare the classes. Hovever, these drawbacks can be overcome.

Roberta, Venice

roberta_folli — 2018-10-16 14:55:18 UTC

One of the challenges is that CLIL for technical subjects requires a depth in the explanation of technical topics that sometimes is difficult to achieve in a foreign language, both for the subject teacher and for the students. There should be more cooperation between teachers and the creation of lesson plans which could be improved every year . But sometimes the lack of time and organization increases the difficulty.

Lucia

2018-10-16 15:25:14 UTC

I think that a difficulty is represented by the different linguistic levels among the students.

Laura Brescia

laura_badalini — 2018-10-16 16:24:06 UTC

I am a clil teacher in a secondary school, I teach my subject in English . This is a great challenge for me , I have to explain a content in a foreign language and to do this I had to change my methodological approach and adapt original materials and resources to make them accessible for my students

Elena, Italy

elenalzano — 2018-10-16 17:12:03 UTC

My concern is about trivializing the content. My students, in fact, are more advanced with my topic than with the foreign language. TO Address such downsides I could make them look for information in language, but let them give further observations using their moter tonghe.

Nurcan Değerli, Turkey

ndegerli — 2018-10-16 19:48:39 UTC

The most difficult thing is to have a class with different language levels.

ELISABETTA, ROMA

2018-10-16 19:50:08 UTC

At the beginning students, which do not have reach suitable linguistic competences or don't have the appropriate disciplinary prerequisites in learning specific contents through a foreign language can see CLIL like a hindrance not easy to be overcome. However, if the scaffolding is appropriate they experiment how easy is to acquire new knowledge using this approach. Their motivation increase exponentially with the positive experiences they do and the good results they inevitably achieved.

Lorina, Romania

2018-10-16 19:53:09 UTC

Using CLIL activities is easier at low levels where the vocabulary needed is not too varied and there is already enough information of this kind in the coursebooks. The higher the level is the more difficult it becomes as the vocabulary becomes more specialized and it could be more difficult for the teachers than for the students if they do not spend enough time to prepare for the lessons.

Trini, Spain

2018-10-16 22:10:51 UTC

The main problem I think we face when we teach a CLIL season is the time we need to prepare the classes. Whe have around 5 to 7 groups and we need to prepare a lot of resources every day. Mainly, digital resources are difficult to design or to find, so it can be strenuous for us.

Odete Teixeira, Arouca, Aveiro, Portugal

odete_teixeira — 2018-10-17 00:04:03 UTC

I think that a CLIL approach is very challenging and demanding for teachers because we need to find strategies, digital tools, visual literacies to access the curriculum. If done well, it can offer students enormous benefits and the curriculum can become more motivating.

Paula Italy

2018-10-17 06:46:05 UTC

From my point of view the main difficulty is time. I need more time to prepare materials and also in class.
I have a program to respect in my mother tongue and I cannot have the time I need to implement as I need some topics in L2.

Patrizia , Italia

2018-10-17 10:57:48 UTC

Last school year I experimented CLIL in a fifth class , Primary School. It was a fantastic experience as my students were very motivated by the topic I chose ."Our Solar System " interested them completely becouse they learned about the planets, stars, comets, asteroids, satellites and all the objects that it includes. They had fun doing all the activities that I submitted them. Some difficulties were overcome working on pair, on small groups as each of them was involved in a functional way . Time is often a problem but the quality of learning is very high.

Emanuela, Ita

2018-10-17 10:58:19 UTC

CLIL helps students to develop competences, skills, critical thinking. the main difficult is the time you need to prepare the activities.

2018-10-17 12:26:19 UTC

Emanuela, Ita Emanuela, Ita CLIL helps students to develop competences, skills, critical thinking. the main difficult is the time you need to prepare the activities. Il tuo avatar Aggiungi commento Patrizia , Italia Patrizia , Italia Last school year I experimented CLIL in a fifth class , Primary School. It was a fantastic experience as my students were very motivated by the topic I chose ."Our Solar System " interested them completely becouse they learned about the planets, stars, comets, asteroids, satellites and all the objects that it includes. They had fun doing all the activities that I submitted them. Some difficulties were overcome working on pair, on small groups as each of them was involved in a functional way . Time is often a problem but the quality of learning is very high. Il tuo avatar Aggiungi commento Paula Italy Paula Italy From my point of view the main difficulty is time. I need more time to prepare materials and also in class. I have a program to respect in my mother tongue and I cannot have the time I need to implement as I need some topics in L2. Il tuo avatar Aggiungi commento Odete Teixeira, Arouca, Aveiro, Portugal Odete Teixeira, Arouca, Aveiro, Portugal I think that a CLIL approach is very challenging and demanding for teachers because we need to find strategies, digital tools, visual literacies to access the curriculum. If done well, it can offer students enormous benefits and the curriculum can become more motivating. Il tuo avatar Aggiungi commento Trini, Spain Trini, Spain The main problem I think we face when we teach a CLIL

Elena F., Italy

2018-10-17 14:42:31 UTC

CLIL is very motivating. But it takes more time to carry on such practical activities.

Maria Antonella Melfi- Foggia- Italy

2018-10-17 16:27:34 UTC

Maria Antonella Melfi- Foggia- Italy

2018-10-17 16:31:53 UTC

TheCLIL approache, in addition to addressing language skills, improves the development of trasversal skills such as :creativity, critical thinking or comunication skills.This is very important. Implicit teaching of clil is very effective even if there are linguistic difficulties

Francesca Barile

francesca_barile50 — 2018-10-17 16:41:27 UTC

In my opinion, the difficulty is in involving other teachers in clil activities. They aren't always good enough at english, expecially in italian schools. I think CLIL is a large resourse in our hands if we want our students to be creative, competent and not only students full on contents.

Miriam Madrid

2018-10-17 16:48:31 UTC

The main difficult of CLIl is that the children learn a specific language and this is not known in the mother language. In the same time they lost the possibility to improve skill communication.
But I never taught CLIL

Antonietta, Italy

miaaba — 2018-10-17 16:56:43 UTC

I think the main difficulties in CLIL activities is timing.

Emilia, Poland

2018-10-17 18:25:30 UTC

In CLIL teacher must be very well prepared. The subject and language should be precisely chosen to be proper for the students.

Laura, Italy

luchelau11 — 2018-10-17 20:38:03 UTC

Last year I did CLIL history in the third class on dinosaurs. It was a success: all the students were happy to deepen their knowledge on this subject, at the same time they learned new words in English. They learned while having fun and have always shown themselves to be interested. This year they will study the Egyptians and this will be our next History CLIL.

Konstantina, Greece

konstantinakokmotou — 2018-10-17 21:04:45 UTC

Maybe a difficulty could be the time needed by teachers to prepare the materials needed. Also all students may not have the same level at the language used a media for others to learn.

yasemin uysal-Muğla Turkey

YaseminUysal — 2018-10-17 21:57:11 UTC

differences between students can sometimes be problem.In this way the teacher have to prepare the content properly

RACHNA,INDIA

2018-10-18 06:03:21 UTC

the difficulty that teachers can face will be the time according to me. taking and teaching whole class together needs a little extra time for their activities too.

laura brazzabeni - italy

laura_brazzabeni1 — 2018-10-18 08:34:35 UTC

it can be motivating but considering the level levels of english in italy it could be very difficut do a subject different from english in -english. I am in a vocational school and there we do something about hairstyle or beauty in english.

Pablo, Spain

2018-10-18 10:30:02 UTC

Pablo, Spain

2018-10-18 10:30:03 UTC

The time we have to spend at the time to teach specific vocabulary. It happened to me just yesterday when I was dealing with the "topic" different building material, but at the same time is really grateful how motivated pupils are when they use F2 to learn new contents instead of learn just the grammar rules or a list of vocabulary.

Erasmo, Italy

2018-10-18 16:25:16 UTC

I believe that a potential downside or difficulty in applying CLIL is related to the different starting knowledge level of foreign language of students which can reduce their commitment in the activity.

José María, Spain

2018-10-18 16:52:34 UTC

It is strange that in our school, increasing levels of bilingualism have been implemented and our administrations do not foresee that we need reference books in another languages. Our teachers should look for their own work materials to replace the mother tongue books.

2018-10-18 20:02:33 UTC

Unfortunally the subject teachers are not very familiar with the language of a specific suject. We need more training.

Lucia Ital

luciabucc — 2018-10-19 08:49:52 UTC

As I read from my other collegues I agree with them about the possibile negative interference of using a language that represebts for us difficuties. So in pupils can appear problems of pronunciation or other kind of mistake. I ask myswlf: "Which kind of language my pupils will speak?

Marianna, Italy

2018-10-19 08:56:32 UTC

I see low language knowledge both in teachers and children as first potential difficulty of a CLIL approach, but there are so many tools online that I think that a good teacher, also with not mastering perfectly the language can select the right activities / videos. It's not needed to do the whole lesson in another language, it's enough to do a couple of activities in another language to start attracting students' interest if the language level is very low. Teachers are also facing other problems: lack of time and economic resources and many time they have to buy materials by themselves and use lot of not paid extra time to prepare everything. In this case I suggest to cooperate more among teachers at school or online, there is a lot online and teacher can find ready-to-use and cheap ideas.

Sien

2018-10-19 11:53:28 UTC

When teachers first start working with CLIL, it requires a lot of effort and time from them to prepare materials or adapt existing material to their national/school learning objectives. Also, CLIL may slow down the learning process at first, which may cause doubts about its effectiveness as a teaching approach. It's important that teachers and pupils are aware of the downsides, and of the fact that, in the long run, benefits compensate for the disadvantages.

Fernanda, Portugal

soares_fernanda — 2018-10-19 18:11:03 UTC

As am I an English Teacher working at Primary Schools, for me one potential difficulty would be to find colleagues who would not cooperate and would undermine this work. I believe some Teachers would run away from CLIL if they could. I feel we (Teachers) need more training and skeptical Teachers need to be deeply involved in CLIL to feel its advantages.
Another downside in the schools I work at is the lack of resources and technology. It's difficult for students to make research suing computers and the Internet. Therefore, the government must make an effort to provide schools, students and Teachers with better conditions.

Anna, Italy

anna_carolina_loddo — 2018-10-19 18:54:29 UTC

When I firstly got in touch with a Clil approach I only saw difficulties but I decided to deepen my knowledge. I looked for materials, examples, lessons prepared by experts. When I used this approach at school I realized that it was amazing for me and for my students. I am trying to involve many colleagues and this is a really hard work, but I can be persuasive.

Niyazi ALKAN

niyazialkan1549 — 2018-10-19 19:01:13 UTC

A CLIL 'approach' is not far removed from humanistic, communicative and lexical approaches in ELT, and aims to guide language
processing and supports language production in the same way that an ELT course would by teaching techniques for exploiting reading or listening texts and structures for supporting spoken or written language.

Andrei, Romania

2018-10-19 20:51:29 UTC

A potential difficulty would be lack o time as we need to cover a wide range of language topics and grammarunits.

d&c

2018-10-19 21:26:56 UTC

potential difficulties of a CLIL approach
COLLABORATE WITH THE COLLEGES OF OTHER MATERIALS
LONG TIME OF PREPARATION OF LESSONS
NEED TO HAVE OTHERS AT THE TECHNOLOGICAL DISPOSAL

challenges of a CLIL approach
IMPROVEMENT OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STUDENTS AND COLLEGES
PUT IN PLAY AS PROFESSIONAL
SHOW THE STUDENTS WHO ALSO A TEACHER CAN IMPROVE

Natalie, Malta

natcal126 — 2018-10-19 21:32:49 UTC

Potential difficulties and challenges might be the foreign language itself. If the educator is not so confident in the language, the might be a risk that the full outcomes of the lesson are not reached plus classroom control might be lost as well. Some of the students might lose interest or just decide to wonder off.

Martin

basilicociao — 2018-10-19 22:02:00 UTC

If the students are not sufficiently familiar with the foreign language it can be difficult for them to work on more complex content

Eduarda, PT

2018-10-20 09:05:00 UTC

I believe the most difficult and challenge issue is the time. Basically the lack of time to work with peers and cope up with teachers´daily tasks

Konica, India

konicakumar97 — 2018-10-20 13:17:24 UTC

I thik the main diffuclty will be faced by the students because the language maybe new for them it may happen that sometime they dont understand the concept because it is easier to understand the concept in the language which we already know, to avoid this a teacher and students should have a good hold on the new language

Konica , I

konicakumar97 — 2018-10-20 13:18:22 UTC

Miryam. Italy

miriamscafatihpg23 — 2018-10-20 14:30:04 UTC

I think the main difficult is the not sufficiently familiar language for little students

Maria Calà , Italy

2018-10-20 14:58:43 UTC

I think the greatest difficulty lies in not speaking fluently the native language. The advantages are almost infinite and they bring teamwork, social skills, critical thinking into the field ...

roberta

2018-10-20 15:34:31 UTC

the difficulties could be of a logistical nature, as in my opinion suitable spaces should be available

Eleni Tychola

2018-10-20 16:08:51 UTC

A main presupposition for a CLIL teaching situation is that the teacher should devote lots of hours to prepare materials well. They have to browse for relevant videos or photos, make vocabulary flashcards, organize activities. Secondly, the teacher should be able to use any necessary equipment for the practical part of the lesson along with the students and organize teaching time well in order to reach to an outcome. Assessment is also an issue, regarding the progress of each learner.

Irene from Rom

2018-10-20 18:42:35 UTC

I think that difficulties may be the classrooms without a good technological supports as white board and pc. Another difficulty may be a no fluently speaking in a foreign language or a no good knowledge of primary language for pupils. Same difficulty for teachers, who need know a foreign language very well. In my opinion a no collaborative teaching way between teachers could have negative affects. But the benefits are more respect the difficulties, especially for children because a clil lesson offers them an approach motivating and more meaningful during the learning process.

Emilia, Romania

teacherro — 2018-10-20 19:38:05 UTC

There are difficulties for both groups: not all the teachers can speak a foreign language in a way to be able to use it to teach his/her subject; students need also a good understanding of that foreign language.So it's a challenge I think .Maybe foreign language teachers could use CLIL approach but they also have to study maybe independently the content/subject he/she intends to teach.I liked the videos presented here and of course there are useful CLIL benefits for those who apply it in their classroom .

Elisa from Belluno

elisa_miatello_3 — 2018-10-20 21:59:55 UTC

I agree with Emilia (Romania) and Irene (Rome) in thinking that teachers's and students' competence in a foreign language is the main potential difficulty when using CLIL. For exemple, I'd feel confident in teaching in English, but not in any other of the modern languages I know a bit of; and my students are not really fluent enough in English to sustain a whole lesson teached in it on new subject material.

Luz, USA

2018-10-21 00:54:44 UTC

The risk of teachers to think that only English is the medium to teach, for example in cases like Spain where Spanish is the national language. A big challenge for teachers is how time-consuming would be preparing a class not presented only in English, but in the national language of the school

Natalia ,Italy

2018-10-21 09:09:31 UTC

The difficulties of this method are many: first of all we must know well the objectives , schematizing the topics of study ,the second is to agree with colleagues is possible to work together in the classroom because they do not have all the perfect knowledge of both English and the subject

Upasana Tripathi, INDIA

upasana181069_cce — 2018-10-21 09:36:29 UTC

CLIL in the classroom has many benefits also has potential dificulties. According to me, the only way to handle these difficulties are to take time to our students to understand the topic.

rachna pahal,INDIA

2018-10-21 18:10:44 UTC

CLIL activities are beneficial to students and makes them progressive but the downsides are there like time requirement.

Liana - Italy

2018-10-21 18:23:46 UTC

In my opinion, a CLIL approach can contribute to make the lesson / classroom activity more dynamic. Difficulties are related to the students' Language competences.

Rosa A., Italy

rosaagneta — 2018-10-22 09:03:49 UTC

Personally I think that CLIL activities offer a great opportunity to improve communication skills while student are learn a specific subject. In this way lessons could become more interactive and motivating.

Laura Patregnani, in Italy

2018-10-22 19:24:49 UTC

Probably the biggest difficulty of a CLIL approach is the foreign second language used as the main one.

VALENTINA, ITALY

2018-10-22 20:31:47 UTC

I think that CLIL should be intended through PBL approach.

DESHWINDER KAUR,INDIA

2018-10-23 08:53:08 UTC

I think CLIL activities are beneficial to students ,but to implement this in our classroom , A teacher have to do extra homework .we need to cover a wide range of language topics and grammar units. and it required a lot of time.

Elisabetta, Italy

porceddaelisabetta — 2018-10-23 09:52:17 UTC

I think that starting to implement CLIL is a big difficulty in our schools, depending on the low level of awareness and of multilingualism of teachers; the scarcity of available ICTs at school and consequently the low use of them, connected also to the low knowledge of their resources and their use for new and transversal teaching strategies. So it is really a challange, for which we are calling to contribute

Livia, Romania

catincaoanalivia — 2018-10-23 10:45:08 UTC

I've read something about this and I think that there are difficulties in any new thing we apply in our classroom but we must be update all the time

Mandeep

2018-10-23 15:11:48 UTC

I totally agree that CLIL programme is much
Difficult but it should be introduce.so students
Should aware about clil

Claudya, Romania

claudia_neacsa — 2018-10-23 16:30:08 UTC

A real difficulty is for team and for teacher that one of pupils is not motivated to work and take only the results.

yes most of my friends are right it is very difficult to encourage the students to join clil

2018-10-23 16:53:03 UTC

AANCHAL,INDIA

2018-10-23 16:57:35 UTC

As far as i came to know this technique is not difficult as we get to know the capabilities of our students and get a chance to work on their communication skills

Annamaria, Italy

annamariamazzacuva — 2018-10-23 17:03:10 UTC

I believe that the greatest criticality is to be seen in the linguistic awareness of both students and teachers. I believe at the same that it could be overcome by increasing the diffusion of the Clil methodology

2018-10-23 17:20:30 UTC

I think that using ICT could be helpful but, how many hours are needed to prepare 1 hour lesson? Since I'm a beginner I took about 10 hours to search for viedeos, exercises, preparing new activities and so on... :(

BHAVIKA, INDIA

2018-10-23 17:48:35 UTC

According to my opinion, CLIL approach is not difficult, its just that e need to focus on our students ability and capability as well to learn.

BHAVIKA, INDIS

2018-10-23 17:48:38 UTC

Minka, Bg

sminamin — 2018-10-23 18:26:46 UTC

CLIL lessons give opportunity to learn language more easily and to assess lesson content in a different way. CLIL lessons not only motivate students but also make them be creative. The biggest problem for my students is their language level.

Mihaela

2018-10-23 19:06:11 UTC

Rom

We consider the age of children, the family environment, etc.

ania

Teresa Wisniewska

teresap651 — 2018-10-24 05:43:59 UTC

Language teachers have to study other subjects while the rest of their colleagues have to study languages. It is challenging and beneficial. And lessons become twice as interesting as they could be.

Selvaggia

2018-10-24 08:08:56 UTC

Among the advantages, surely there is the opportunity to develop intercultural communication skills, to study disciplinary languages and to discuss iussues from different perspectives.

Furthermore, the classroom activity will be more varied and it will be possible to develop more motivating strategies and learning styles.

Among the disadvantages certainly there is the organizational complexity that could be a possible gap for BES students and perhaps could be problems about the written expression.

Cinzia, Italy

2018-10-24 09:48:04 UTC

I have never experienced CLIL activity in my class. I think it's a good practice to teach first in their language. I would like to teach geography, history with CLIL activities.

Candida Peters, India

2018-10-24 10:04:32 UTC

The Potential challenge of a CLIL approach could be not being able to follow an integrated method of language and subject learning together. If the teacher doesn't pay attention or loses focus the class might either completely change to a subject class or the language class the teacher is trying to integrate. therefore, the main challenge can be maintaining a balance between the two.

Clil

2018-10-24 10:50:19 UTC

Acc to my opinion CLIL approach is not difficult it's just that need to focus on our students abilities.

2018-10-24 11:21:37 UTC

Every thing should have its merit or it's demerits so when we do not introduce CLIL IN OUR Classroom how they come to know there is suchtype of method to knowc

Kalima,Franc

kalima_bassey — 2018-10-24 12:55:32 UTC

CLIL is motivational and often used in languages, especially in primary schools. It must be used for some activities to remain cross-curricular.

Ka

kalima_bassey — 2018-10-24 12:55:35 UTC

Ekta

2018-10-24 13:47:07 UTC

Not difficult. Just need to focus on student ability.

Manpreet Kaur India

2018-10-24 14:03:53 UTC

I think CLIL approach is not so difficult it's just need to focus on the students ability and capability.

Sana

2018-10-24 15:24:41 UTC

CLIL can have merit and demerit but introducing CLIL in the classroom will develop global communication of students

Dhairya Bajaj, INDIA

2018-10-24 15:45:32 UTC

CLIL approach is not really difficult if the right method is followed.

sh

2018-10-24 15:46:28 UTC

Shifali grover, India.

2018-10-24 15:46:28 UTC

. I think it's a good practice to teach first in their language.

Sonali , INDIA

2018-10-24 15:46:45 UTC

As coyle mam said that sometimes its difficult to handle CLIL in classroom but I can say we just need focus and it would be easy.

MANSI UPPAL, INDIA.

2018-10-24 16:30:01 UTC

it can be easy if the person is able to follow the right method.

Charles

2018-10-24 16:56:18 UTC

Teachers sometimes do not know what it is expected from them.

Charanpreet Kaur Walia from

2018-10-24 17:33:21 UTC

Charanpreet Kaur Walia, India

2018-10-24 17:33:21 UTC

Using multiple languages in a class would be difficult if proper format is not followed. Before applying it in a class, the teacher should know it completely.

Giota, Greece

2018-10-24 18:20:16 UTC

sometimes is very difficult to create all this material, it needs time to organise it in the limited time of lessons

Alina L, Romania

2018-10-24 18:28:20 UTC

Using a foreign language in lessons develops more competencies for our students, one of them being that they can gain more trust in them, learn and discover new intercultural information.

ANJALI KOHLI

2018-10-24 18:31:41 UTC

CLIL approach could be very time consuming and confusing but also interesting if the righ method is followed.

Rania, Greece

ranialampou — 2018-10-24 18:34:21 UTC

The challenges that CLIL poses:
- foreign language competence of teacher
- language alternation (L1/LS)
- focus on language as code in the CLIL lesson

Marina Stanojlović Mirčić

2018-10-24 20:23:57 UTC

These challenges can be overcome through research, creativity and innovation.

Iriny, Ukraine

iryna_danyliuk — 2018-10-24 20:53:22 UTC

Wel organised lesson with a CLIL approach like a good seed will give great result

sandra

sandra_evangelio — 2018-10-25 15:22:01 UTC

Clil approach is really useful but it needs a lot of time to be organized

Oana

2018-10-25 20:53:39 UTC

Probably it will be time consuming.
Otherwise, CLIL is a creative method when you work with language diversity.

Jeane de Fatima, Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

2018-10-26 15:44:40 UTC

The great difficulty can be introspection, when the child is very shy and presents difficulties of socialization.
When there is an interacting, participatory class where the teacher can reconcile and fit in the class

Caterina ITALY

caterina_vitali75 — 2018-10-26 21:09:19 UTC

CLIL makes lesson more interesting

CARLA GUIDO - CLIL TEACHER ITALY

2018-10-27 21:37:54 UTC

I am a CLIL teacher, I've been training and following specific course in Italy and abroad. CLIL is not a simple methodology, it requires study, new ideas, planning, training and a hi ghlevel of teaching and language skills.

It's not something that you can extemporize.

Vincenzo M. Italy

2018-10-28 08:16:41 UTC

CLIL makes the lesson more exciting

Aurelia

2018-10-28 09:04:13 UTC

In my opinion CLIL will be very used in the future. It is very interesting and useful, but it needs a lot of time to be organized.

Dina, Verona, Italy

2018-10-28 14:59:15 UTC

In the video we noticed how the lesson was organized in detail and this requires an important effort of design and implementation. We could also have resistance from those students who are not very familiar with another language. It is important to start with small steps and get students used (especially in primary school) to this new way of doing lessons. Attention must also be paid to dyslexic and DSA students in general because they have specific difficulties in the second language. Important to use the right measures for them.

Veronica, Italy

vb_keohane — 2018-10-28 18:44:34 UTC

The most immediate challenge I see is the level of language competence that the teacher has in order to make the knowledge accessible to all the students in the class. Appropriate training courses in CLIL methodology and language could help overcome this problem. Many teachers avoid CLIL because they do not feel comfortable enough using a foreign language.

2018-10-29 13:56:25 UTC

it needs to time to prepare lessons

Teachers have to be willing to leave their comfort area, since sometimes the teacher is the master of the subject in question and doesn't feel comfortable with their language skills. I'm bilingual (Finnish & English) and thus its easy for me to swap from one language to another (makes incredibly easy when I need to clarify something) but I do understand my colleagues who not so willing to teach CLIL. They find it extremely difficult and time consuming.

2018-10-29 18:49:29 UTC

Jolana, CZ

2018-10-29 20:35:00 UTC

First of all, after two -month experience I believe in the method. What is quite difficult at the beginning is tiem management as the content is important, so some beginners might find the method time consuming.
The method is challenge in many aspects: which part ot the lesson should be taught in English, to make it easy to understand and feedback .....

Tamar, Georgia

2018-10-30 13:32:52 UTC

very good example of Dr. Coyle about developing various skills when we use CLIL in the classroom.

Marina A., Croatia

marina_antolkovic — 2018-10-30 21:57:59 UTC

CLIL can, obviously, bring benefits to students and teachers alike. This is, I think, the future of education, because subject and language are taught together. Language is finally recognized as crucial in teaching every skill and every competence our students will need. One of the difficulties would probably be the lack of literature. Courses like this one is one way to overcome this downside. Also,preparing CLIL for the classroom would definitely be time consuming for the teacher, but experience would encourage us.

Angel

sindarkness — 2018-11-05 14:46:33 UTC

Angela Panzarella, ITALY

sindarkness — 2018-11-05 14:48:01 UTC

I am an ESL/EFL teacher and a CLIL teacher and CLIL teacher trainer and I know how CLIL is fantastic. I teach in a 100% CLIL school and I can confirm how students react well and how ready they are to interact and how natural is their learning. Of course teachers must be prepared and must have a full CLIL methodology, with different approaches.

Salih Türkiye

2018-11-12 22:36:17 UTC

Timing and preparation can be interesting and exciting if done well.

Gülay, Turkey

PUFUM — 2018-11-27 17:21:01 UTC

It's a future education. All teachestogether

Azra, BiH

2018-11-30 20:11:10 UTC

It brings many good things but also it needs good preparation

Adela Gabriela Muresan

muresan_gabriela_adela — 2018-12-05 18:21:11 UTC

It brings many good things but also it needs good preparation...

Luisa

2019-10-04 17:18:39 UTC

A challanges is a tolerance eachother. Potential difficulties is the level of English language studied by pupils.

2020-10-12 03:24:44 UTC

2020-11-19 11:06:50 UTC

Students and parents are a bit scared about CLIL at first. They fear one cannot learn contents in another language or, at least, they fear one cannot succeed in learning as before. Teacher should overcome the problem of lacking of confidence by a well organized lesson, ste by step, in order to urge students to be more confidente and relaxed, ready to join the new learning adventure

2021-06-25 14:04:13 UTC

Teresa Wisniewska

amorenoa1 — 2021-11-03 23:50:57 UTC

Language teachers have to study other subjects while the rest of their colleagues have to study languages. It is challenging and beneficial. And lessons become twice as interesting as they could be.