In CLIL education, language is more than just a means. It is part of content. In this sense, links with culture and context play a key role, as in any other subject. Language, in this connections, must be a bit more than a mere instrument. Globalization has made of English a lingua franca for many people and some attention to correctness has dimmed. There are some characteristics of English used as a lingua franca that shouldn’t be avoided in CLIL classroom, such as non-use of the –s in the third person simple present, excessive use of general verbs like to, have, make, etc. (Harmer, 2007). We must find a balance between two poles: use of English as a lingua franca, tolerating its mistakes, and pretending to be working with proficient speakers. Saying that language is part of content and not just a means refers us to the 4C’s of CLIL (Bentley, 2010) (Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, 2008) (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010): content, communication, cognition and culture. These are called the four components of CLIL. They are all connected. The first C needs no comment; in this project, content will be Religion, some of its objectives for third cycle in particular. Communication –second C – is a reminder that subject and language skill must be produced simultaneously and this involves children production of language, oral and written. For this to happen, teacher talking time must be reduced in favor of children talking time. Learning is a cognitive process –hence the third C – and skill associated such as reasoning, creative thinking or evaluation should be fostered. A crucial part in promoting children cognition will be giving them useful language tools. Finally, the last C stands for culture. Cultural diversity, other perspectives to judge our own social environment help children value their traditions as well as others. The 4C’s can be mapped as follows:
Figure 2-2 The 4C’s framework, from Coyle, Hood, & Marsh (2010, page 41)
Finally, we cannot finish this chapter without mentioning two more key concepts in CLIL: BICS (Basic Interpersonal Commutative Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) (Bentley, 2010). They are a blending of what we have said above but for reasons of popularity among theorists of CLIL some mention is expected. BICS, necessary for the everyday life in a 2L environment, are achieve sooner than CALP, requested only in academic contexts. To summarize CLIL approach in a few key points: - CLIL is a content-led teaching. 10
