Pippa Jacobs from Hagbourne School,
Oxfordshire, reports on a Content Language
Integrated Learning (CLIL) research project, looking at
teaching history through French.
Motivations for Research
Following a very stimulating workshop at
Nottingham University on Content Language
Integrated Learning (CLIL) with Prof. Do Coyle and Dr Philip
Hood, we made plans at Hagbourne Primary School to try devising a
10 week unit of work teaching in parallel with a Year 4 Tudor
project.
The unit was to combine teaching the children
about the meeting of Henry Vlll and François 1er of France in the
historic “Field of the Cloth of Gold” (Le Camp du Drap d’Or) with
the Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages
learning objectives for Year 4. Since the event happened in France
and was about the meeting of the English and French kings, we felt
we had every reason - both culturally and linguistically - to
try it.
Research questions
Our questions were:
- Is it possible to teach both the history
content and the language to a sufficiently high standard when
combining them in this way?
- Is it feasible to ask children of this age
with only 2 year’s experience of learning a foreign language to
tackle a unit of work like this – how will the children with
learning difficulties cope? Will it challenge the more able
children?
Participants
The class was a typical mixed ability group
with a majority of boys and 4 children on the SEN register. The
class was taught by two teachers who job-share and a language
specialist who wrote and delivered most of the unit.
Method
With help from the HEI and Local
Authority consultants, we devised a series of PowerPoint
presentations which told the story of the two kings, comparing
their appearance and pastimes. Then we looked at their family tree,
their preparation and journey and finally the grand feast when they
met.
Using gesture and mime, we introduced the new
language and built it into sentences – il est petit et
rondelet, il aime le combat et la musique. A great
deal of the language was rehearsed aurally using pictures and
labels as prompts.
Other cross-curricular
links
There were links with other areas of the
curriculum that came out of this work, such as learning a Tudor
dance, with the instructions in French. One of the class teachers
who is a non-specialist was willing to try this. Some art work was
done, also taught by the class teacher, when we looked at heraldic
coats of arms.
The final outcome was a play performed by the
whole class in French, using the language learned throughout the
unit, and telling the story of “Le Camp du Drap d’Or”.
Outcomes
The challenge we had set ourselves to teach
both language and content to a high standard was very important to
us – it is not enough to use a flimsy ‘cross-curricular link’ and
call it integrating languages.
With this project we saw real progression both
in language and in historical understanding.
We noticed that the children concentrated more
because a large part of the lesson was in the target language.
Framework objectives
The standard of language learning was by no
means lower with an historical context – on the contrary, the
children were “listening with care” for words and phrases (Oracy
4.2), and using physical response.
They were speaking with confidence about the
two kings and enjoying the chance to build sentences using the
adjectives they had learned. (Oracy 4.1)
They had also tackled simple written sentences
in line with the literacy objectives (Literacy 4.1 and Literacy
4.2).
There was a clear Intercultural Understanding strand running
through the project, with one child declaring at the end:
“I didn’t know there was a French king and now
we know the whole family.”
A real conceptual leap!
History objectives
From a history perspective, the Tudor period
teaching was enriched by this added component, and the class
teachers noticed on several occasions that the children brought
their knowledge of Henry VIII, his appearance and pastimes in to
their other history work.
Conclusions to research
questions
Our findings led us to conclude that it is
certainly possible to keep linguistic learning levels high and also
keep cognitive levels high in history too. In fact, the children
loved the challenge:
“We normally learn colours and numbers and
things, but this was more exciting. It was a whole thing,” said one
of the children.
The class teachers had watched from the
sidelines to begin with, but became more involved and more
confident to try it themselves, said that they were surprised to
see how engaged the children were and how well they had coped with
“history in French”.
“The more able children had the chance to
explore and extend the language, and the children on the SEN
register performed with confidence. They learned to engineer the
language – to cope.”
The teachers noticed other benefits too:
“Before this project it was a class of
individuals, but they pulled together and supported one another in
this new challenge.”
We observed that the children had grown a lot
in confidence to speak the target language and were proud of the
chance to show others. They had responded to the challenge far and
above what we had anticipated.
Advice for starting your own
project
There is so much scope for this kind of
integration in primary schools – links spring out of our history,
geography, science and RE topics and no one is better placed than a
primary class teacher to see them. The key is to try something
small; a maths starter, a recipe or instructions for making
something are all good starting points.
Plan the language round the content you want
to teach and use gesture, pictures and visual aids to help explain
things. Use the target language as you feel confident, the point is
not quantity, but clear and simple language. Everyone involved in
our project found the level that was right for them.
Sources of support