Multilinguismo, CLIL e innovazione didattica - Libera Università di ...

Responsibilities and competences of the CLIL teacher
language training needs to be supported by an accurate analysis and research
of what method/s and/or approach/es to tackle in order to meet learners’
needs, since there does not seem to be a commonly shared CLIL methodology.
A content-oriented language and meaning approach, which both physics
teachers adopted in their CLIL lessons, focusing on learning tasks, developing
classroom management techniques, and using authentic materials seemed to
have given fruitful results and has provided solid ground to achieve an
excellent CLIL teaching/learning process.
1. The research
Conscious of the difficulties the teacher may encounter when dealing with
her/his subject in the FL, and aware of how worried and anxious learners may
feel when they are asked to respond meaningfully and produce either oral or
written language in a context, I felt a questioning interest in examining what
teaching and learning strategic tools are chosen and used to foster effective
meaning-focussed speaking opportunities and build a proficient CLIL environment,
thus implementing both cognitive and linguistic skills.
Having taken part in a CLIL project in 2007-08 and taught philosophy in
English in a fifth-year class of a liceo linguistico in Trieste (see Leonzini, 2012),
I had tasted the difficulties a language teacher faces when teaching a subject in
FL, I wanted to explore and unveil the problematic and puzzling dilemmas
content teachers are supposed to face owing to succeed in leading learners to
practice and perform learning by using language tasks promoted by Marsh and
Langé (2000).
2. The research questions
It is widely acknowledged that knowledge and competence represent the
indispensable pillars to achieve proficient learning goals. Solid knowledge
lays the foundations to foster competence, but is just part of what is requested
to build the teaching and learning process in order to mould successful CLIL
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