Maths in English (CLIL)

How can we teach a subject without using children's L1? The answer is: CLIL - Content and Language Integrated Learning.

According to Marsh,

"CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught through a foreign language with dual-focussed aims, namely the learning of content, and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language." (Marsh, 1994) 

"This approach involves learning subjects such as history, geography or others, through an additional language. It can be very successful in enhancing the learning of languages and other subjects, and developing in the youngsters a positive ‘can do’ attitude towards themselves as language learners." (Marsh, 2000)

In conclusion, it means teaching a subject or a part of it in a foreign language and in doing so enhancing children's confidence and learning of a language.

Today I am going to talk about how can we teach maths through CLIL and I am going to give examples of several activities.

First of all, how can we start a math class? Easy, with a song! Here's an example:

Playing the same song during some days at the beginning of the class will help them to learn it and be able to sing it by themselves. This one is a good song to learn the numbers and how to count in English.

We can start by having in account that number 10 is the basic number and we can work many numbers from there. There are infinite ways to work over this number, but one way could be create a 10 squares grid like that:

This kind of tool can give us many opportunities to work with numbers from 1 to 10. Let's say we want children to count to number 5. We can have images of balloons, ones that we can hook and unhook, using for instance blu-tack. We can hook one by while they count, just using the top line of squares of the grid. When we have the 5 images hooked you can ask them questions, playing with additions and subtractions:

• How many balloons are left if we take two out?
• 3 ballons
• And now, how many balloons  will be if we hook one more again?
• 4 ballons

Start with numbers from 1 to 5 and then add 5 more. You can even use the grade as if it was a dice, as in the example:

Another possibility could be given little grids to children and some stickers. Then you do a dictation, for instance "3 + 1" and they have to stick 4 stickers on their grids. Depending on their level the dictation can be using subtraction or additions, or both.

Another activity we could do for them to learn how to count in English could be asking them to make a cyrcle and then start counting "1, 2, 3, 4" and every time a "5" appears, they have to say another word, for instance "fish". So, it would be something like: 1, 2, 3, 4, fish, 6, 7, 8, 9, fish, 11, 12... If someone makes a mistake it gets eliminated. You can even try to count backwards. Try to always keep their attention on while doing this kind of activities, ask them questions like "Who's turn is it?".

Let's move on to another activity. Use the blackboard to write sets of numbers, for example 325 and 305. Then you can ask them "Which is the highest number?". Then erase that number and ask it again. Try with the smallest as well. Don't use a big gap between the numbers you choose, so it will be a bit more tricky. 

Another possibility with this kind of activity could be write just one number and ask which number comes before or after.

More, write some numbers on the blackboard:

• 409
• 309
• 399
• 499
• 369

then you can ask to children what they have alike, coming to conclusions like if you add 1 they change (499 -> 500) and they all have a "9".

What else can we do? Ask them to tell you a number between 23 and 50. It is up to you if you decide to give a bigger or smaller gap between the numbers.

Why you don't ask them to round numbers. "Round number 42 to the nearest tenth". So they have to say "number 40". If it is a middle number like 35, we always go up, so it would be to 40. If we get a number from 1 to 9, the nearest tenth will be number 10.

Now, let's move to Mental Arithmetic. There are four kinds of mathematical operations: additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions. Give a 10 gaps grid to each student, explain they will have to write ONLY the resoult of the mathematical operation you ask them on each gap, not the operation itself, just the resoult. For them to be easier, you can start by saying "the first five operations are going to be subtractions". Make sure everybody understood you and if they don't, make them speak English by saying "can you repeat it, please?" or "I don't understand you". It is so important to have in account that not everybody have the same level, that's why we can allow some of the students to write down the operations before the result.

When correcting, ask them "Who wants to say the first answer? Rise your hand.". Then tell them to write a tick if they got it right or a cross if they got it wrong, and then write the right answer beside or below it. Repeat those instructions as many times as necessary. When they finish correcting, make them count how many ticks they got and write the resoult. To finish with, ask them why they got it wrong. To make sure they answer in English, you can write these kind of sentences in labels so they can read them if they don't know how to say it.

The last activity I am going to talk about are the mathematical problems. Using the same dynamic as we do on "Mental Arithmetic", we ask them questions through an oral dictation, but this time they don't have to just answer a number, but a number and a word. Depending on the level, you can give them already that word writed down on the paper, or make them write everything by themselves. When doing that kind of activity, you have to repeat the questions as many times as necessary, making sure they understood what you said. Encourage them to ask you questions like "How do you write "books"?".

When correcting, ask who wants to say the resoult of the problem, but first read the question to remind them what was it about. Then you can ask to whoever answers "how did you get to that result?". Always try to encourage them to talk in English, help them with the vocabulary if necessary. Use the same "ticks and cross" method and at the end make them count how many ticks they got, ask which ones they got wrong and why. Answers can be something like that:

• "Because I didn't hear you well"
• "Because I didn't count well"
• "Because I didn't have time to answer"

English lessons are good for children, they learn vocabulary, grammar, etc. But I truly believe that with CLIL they go further than with just the simple English lessons. You give the oportunity to children to learn another language while learning a common subject, used to teach in their own L1. In this post we have seen some activities we can use when teaching Maths through that method. Maths can be a good subject to start with, as the numbers are something that they learn fast and from there you can build sentences and introduce more vocabulary.

CLIL is a great possibility for children to extend their language skills. They learn new vocabulary and they practice every day. The best way to learn a new language is practicing it, so CLIL gives the oportunity to every student to do it.

Describing and comparing

When doing an activity you always have to find something relevant and meaningful for children. Today I will talk about how children describe draws or pictures.

First of all, when starting a new topic, you will need loads of drilling and also patience! You can introduce a topic from a poem, repeating and repeating. You can start by reading and showing them the poem itself and then from the words do little draws to give more meaning and make them understand it better. Another resource could be do mimic and/or start with a brainstorming.

When we already have chosen a topic and work a bit over it, you can ask them to describe you a picture, for instance, of a landscape with animals like that:

Let's say they are studying jungle animals, that picture can be kind of meaningful for them. While describing they can say "one giraffe", "there is one elephant"or just say "one elephant", using more or less grammar depending on their knowledge and the vocabulary they have learned before doing the activity. But what can be even more meaningful for them? Letting them to draw an animal, their own animal. You don't need to give them rules, just let them draw the animal they decide and however they want to do it. After that, you can ask them to compare their own draw with their classmates ones. While they compare the draws they will already be doing a description and empowering their language skills.

For example, if they have a cocrodile and an elephant, they can differenciate the colour, the size, what they eat, where they live, etc. Here's an example:

Lion
Paula, 5 years old

Giraffe
Ethan, 5 years old

We have here a Lion and a Giraffe, they can start by saying who is taller than the other, the color, the what they eat, where they live... there are many possibilities.

As I said before, it is so important giving them meaningful things to work on and they will always get much more motivated describing and comparing their own draw than a simple picture.

Teaching language skills

When we talk about language skills, we are talking about speaking, listening, writing and reading. These four skills are connected to each other because we learn to speak because we first listened. When we start writing, we write the words as we hear them, but if we don't know how to read the letters, we can't write.

That skills can be classified depending on the direction of the information, if you are projecting it or recieving it. They also can be classified by oral, speak and listen, and written, write and read.

In this post I am going to explain how children learn L1 and how to introduce an L2.

Children start talking around the age of two, not always, but before that, they already start by saying some random words or sentences. When learning L1, it is so typical as babies to hear what people say and copy or repeat it. There is a period called "Silent Way", where children just listen and don't talk until suddenly a day they begin to speak. During that process children collect words and expressions that they will eventually use when start to speak. Not every children goes through that.

At the age of 3 or 4, children start recognizing some letters. It is so typical to start recognizing their names, sometimes, not because they know the letters, but because they have seen it writed down many times that they know that in there it says their name.

Now we ask ourselves, how we introduce L2 to children? There are many answers to that question, but I am going to suggest a few possibilites. You can start teaching an L2 by listenint to songs, watch videos in that language or easy as speaking to them in that language. At first it may be weird for them, but they will eventually get use to it and will be catching and learning words day by day.

During the learing of a second language, there are two steps that we all go through:

• Passive knowledge: when we can understand a language but can't project it
• Active knowledge: when we can understant a language and project it

When teaching an L2 we don't have to be in a rush, it is a long process, even longer than L1, because they don't hear it everyday and everywhere as they do with L1. That's why we have to be constant and patient.