Conclusion

CONCLUSION.

We come to an end with this paper and it is time for revising if our objectives have been fulfilled. It’s been clarified what a BEP consists in and the new perspective introduced by CLIL methodology. From both points of view, we have been able to show that RE taught in English is a powerful resource for improving children skills in content and language, while helping in the aims of any BEP in a higher degree than other subjects. We have also shown that the chain of Catholic schools is the context in which this initiative makes sense and the last years of the Primary stage as the most appropriate moment to begin. Then, we have clarified the learning outcomes to be pursued when RE is taught this way and a specific proposal of materials together with a set of activities for classroom has been outlined.

We would have liked to end up this project with quantitative results confirming that RE taught in English from a CLIL approach is highly efficient for English learning as well as for RE objectives. Nonetheless, we knew from the outset that this could not be done. We would need years to implement the project and a few groups with homogeneous students for comparison. This has not been possible so far but could be in the coming years.

Our humble intention was to justify the pretension of teaching RE in English from different points of view. It does make sense in the context of bilingualism, which is spreading all over Spain. We have also probed that parables and short stories from the Gospels do have a correspondence with RE and the English learning objectives for BEP schools in Madrid. Finally, we have proposed a list of parables and short stories, as well as a set of activities for the classroom. We cannot offer the experience and evaluation of them as this project is due to begin in September 2014.

This will be a pioneering innovation in schools following the Spanish education system. If extended to other schools, feedback, benchmarking, sharing of material and specific courses will arise and the initiative will consolidate. Understanding from administrators, teachers volunteering to take a step in this direction and specific training could be combined to produce a new impulse in promoting RE and English in our schools. Only benefits would follow. This project has emerge as a humble step in this renewal:

See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

(Isaiah 43, 19)