Materials selection and adaptation

Learning Outcomes:KNOWLEDGE: to know how CLIL materials are selected.SKILLS: to be able to adapt subject- specific materials.

How to choose and adapt materials for CLIL

• CLIL materials need to show curriculum subjects presented in a non-native language very clearly.

• CLIL materials are usually different from materials found in ELT coursebooks.

• Language courses have materials which are often selected because of the subject content, for example maths, arts or history.

• Materials can be translated from L1 curriculum taken from native speaker coursebooks, downloaded from the Internet or made by teachers.

What should we ask about CLIL materials?

Are the materials: Appropriate for the age of learners and the stage of learning? Fit for purpose? Do they match the learning outcomes? Do they consider content, communication, cognition,

culture? Supportive? Do they have banks, language frames and

visuals? Varied in skills, tasks, interaction? Collaborative, challenging and achievable? Motivating and complete?

Key concepts and the CLIL classroom:

• We need to select and adapt materials carefully. There are many ways of doing this at different levels:

• At text level we can include visuals, diagrams,animation (moving imageson a screen) and visual organisers. We can make sure the page layout(design of the page) is clear.

• At sentence level we can include definitions and short explanations.

• At word level we can use labels or high lightkey content vocabularyby underlining using capital letters or using bold fond. We can also add glossaries.

Look at the example of a page from a science book.

Look how the content is presented to support learning.