CLIL Implementation with Pools of Resources for Teachers, Students, and Pupils

CLIL implementation with pools of resources for teachers, students, and pupils

CLIL implementation with pools of resources for teachers, students, and pupils

FinalReportPublic Part

Project information
Project acronym: / CLIL4U
Project title: / CLIL implementation with pools of resources for teachers, students, and pupils
Project number: / 537672-LLP-1-2013-1-DK-KA2-KA2MP
Sub-programme or KA: / KA2
Project website: /
Reporting period: / From / 01/01/2014
To / 30/06/2016
Report version: / 1
Date of preparation: / 01/07/2016
Beneficiary organisation: / Syddansk Erhvervsskole Odense-Vejle
Project coordinator: / Kent Andersen
Project coordinator organisation: / Syddansk Erhvervsskole Odense-Vejle
Project coordinator telephone number: / 004540797720
Project coordinator email address: /

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

The document may be freely copied and distributed provided that no modifications are made, that the source is acknowledged and that this copyright notice is included.

Executive Summary

The Clil4U project needs have been based on several reports, e.g. Eurydice “Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at School in Europe 2006” which in “Factors inhibiting general implementation” points at a need for training language teachers in the special skills needed to provide CLIL through initial and in-service training programs devoted to methods used to teach a subject in other languages. The report also points at a need for teaching materials geared to CLIL in the target language that cover subjects in the national curriculum.

In “CLIL/EMILE in Europe”, the recommendations for extending good practice proposes to develop thematic CLIL modules that would also act as a means for developing teacher competence in CLIL.

The projectoutcomes assist implementation of CLIL in primary schools and in vocational colleges through:

- 6 promotional videos showing CLIL used in classes

- 108 ready to use CLIL scenarios complete with instructions and materials

- Online collection of materials and commented links to resources

- Advisory materials to be used for including parents of primary school children in the CLIL process.

To prepare content and language teachers for implementation of CLIL the project partners have:

- Developed a teacher course on application of CLIL

- Developed online language courses for content teachers (to ensure the needed language level)

- Offered content teachers a placement test and certification of language level according to CEF.

All outcomes areavailable in English, manuals, promotional materials, and video subtitles have been prepared in all the partnership languages.

+500 teachers, 1723 pupils and students have piloted the developed CLIL resources. Evaluations and feedback were fed back to the developers and have resulted in improved versions of the project outcomes.

All outcomes are CopyLeft and may be used by any institution. The partnership teacher training institutions and associated partners will continue to offer pre-service and in-service courses after the project period.

Table of Contents

1.Project Objectives

2.Project Approach

3.Project Outcomes & Results

4.Partnerships

5.Plans for the Future

6.Contribution to EU policies

1.Project Objectives

In order to promote/enable implementation of CLIL in primary schools and in vocational colleges, the project have developed materials that support CLIL ranging from: information and inclusion of parents (especially for the primary schools) / employers (for the vocational colleges) by the creation of exemplary scenarios supported by an online materials bank, promotional videos showcasing the scenarios used in classes in the target sectors, to teacher courses for subject and language teachers.

The project outputs are:

-108 ready to use CLIL scenarios complete with instructions and materials

-6 promotional videos showcasing CLIL used in classes

-Online collection of materials and commented links to resources in European languages

-Advisory and information materials to be used for including parents of primary school children in the CLIL process.

-CLIL manual/guide

-Online language course for content teachers

-Teacher course on CLIL methodology, and for the content teachers with a language course leading to a placement test (with advice on how to improve the level) and certification in accordance with the CEFR.

The scenarios cover 24 scenarios for each target sector and because of the language versions the total number is 108 scenarios. Each scenario describes a module with advice on method and on how to share the tasks between teachers in a CLIL team, together with ready to use materials. For the primary schools the scenarios are based on the national curricula and cover subjects like maths and art as well as thematic projects covering several subjects. Two scenarios deal with life and traditions in two other countries (DK/IT/ES), so pupils can learn phrases, songs, games etc. from these countries. For vocational colleges the scenarios cover content from electrical regulations, first aid, human physics, medical subjects, etc..

The 6 videos showcase 3 scenarios from each sector, and act as both practical guide and as appetisers for CLIL

The information materials for parents and employers can be used to demonstrate the value of CLIL and gain their support. The employers were used for needs analyses of units suitable for CLIL/VOLL.

The CLIL manual that were used for the courses and for individual learning refer to / make use of the scenarios and videos and the materials bank to demonstrate the attractiveness of CLIL and remove some of the known barriers to successful implementation of CLIL in the two sectors.

Manuals, promotional materials, and video subtitlesare available in all partnership languages. The material bank have information / descriptions in English, but the bank also covers CLIL resources in other languages so, where appropriate, those languages are used in the description.

During the project +500 teachers, 1723 pupils and students have piloted the developed resources. All outcomes are copyleft, i.e. the material bank, information materials, manual, scenarios, course descriptions, and videos may be used (and adapted) for free, thus meeting the identified needs.

The project results will lead/have led to several changes:

-The content teachers (those who are not native speakers of the instruction language) will improve their language proficiency due to the language courses (i.e. the online course followed by the combined CLIL and language course).

- Through the CLIL methodology course the language and content teachers will learn about the team cooperation needed to apply CLIL in a pedagogically sound context.

-The pupils will learn about at least one language outside their own language family

-Parents will become aware of the advantages of language learning through school celebrations where the children showcase their experiences.

-Cooperation with employers will ensure the best selection of course content for CLIL in vocational colleges.

The above will improve language teaching and learning and lead to higher motivation for learning foreign languages

2.Project Approach

The project cooperation and work was based on project workshops, online cooperation, and online-shared documents.

The work groups were:

LdV: SDE, Intercollege, MCAST, and SUPSI

Com: CECE, I.C. "Monte Grappa", and Kroggaardsskolen

TT: CECE, ETI, Intercollege, and SUPSI

All partners have been peer reviewed in the ongoing work by the other teams from same group. All groups selected a quality assessor for each output, who peer reviewed the work of the other groups.

Development structures:

The CLIL scenarios/modules: Each Com and LdV team developed and tested scenarios reviewed and tested by the other Com and LdV teams. See the developed scenarios:

-Primary school scenarios:

-Vocational college scenarios:

Material bank/database: All teams have searched for, selected, and commented on online materials in different languages suitable for CLIL. The materials are available on the project website, categorized according to language, type, target group, and topic:

Information materials for parents and employers: The Com and LdV groups compiled the two sets of materials.

Promotion/demonstration videos: The Com and LdV groups selected the 6 most suitable scenarios to be presented in video. Planning, shooting, and editing was done by SUPSI and a subcontracted producer. The videos can be watched from:

CLIL manual: The TT teams cooperated with shared document files. The interim result was presented at the 2nd workshop and the final result was presented at the 3rd workshop in March 2015 in .pdf (printable) and ePub (eBook) versions.

The modules for the online language learning course for content teachers were developed by ETI based on materials from all teams. The first version was presented at the 2nd workshop, followed by piloting by the other teams. Try the course here:

CLIL teacher courses were developed by the TT teams coordinated by ETI (who did most of the hard work). The 1st version was proposed by ETI at the 2nd workshop, followed by a 1st pilot period in Malta. The pilot course in 2015 was base for online collaboration between the TT teams and for preparations, which resulted in improved courses.

The functions and content of the scenarios and learning units from the material bank have continuously beenadapted to include proposals and feedback from the language learner target group.

3.Project Outcomes & Results

In order to promote/enable implementation of CLIL in primary schools and in vocational colleges, the project has developed a suite of materials that support CLIL ranging from: information and inclusion of parents (especially for the primary schools) / employers (for the vocational colleges) by the creation of exemplary scenarios supported by an online materials bank, promotional videos showcasing the scenarios used in classes in the target sectors, to teacher courses for subject and language teachers.

The concrete outputs are:

-108 ready to use CLIL scenarios (48 different scenarios that have been adapted with materials for six languages thus resulting in 108 scenarios) complete with instructions and materials. Each scenario is available in English and one more language (the languages of the authoring teams)

-6 promotional videos showcasing CLIL used in classes

-Online collection of materials and commented links to resources in European languages

-Advisory and information materials to be used for including parents of primary school children in the CLIL process.

-CLIL Guidebook in six languages

-Online language course for content teachers, the main course is in English, but based on the CLIL Guidebook there are supporting online units in the five other languages.

-Teacher course on CLIL methodology, and for the content teachers with a language course before the methodology course, which after the methodology courser will be leading to a placement test (with advice on how to improve the level) and an option of certification in accordance with the CEF.

The 48 scenarios (adapted with materials for six languages thus resulting in 108 scenarios) cover 24 scenarios for each target sector. Each scenario describes a module with advice on method and on how to share the tasks between teachers in a CLIL team, together with ready to use materials. For the primary schools the scenarios are based on the national curricula and cover subjects like maths and art as well as thematic projects covering several subjects. Two of these deal with life and traditions in two other countries (DK/IT/ES), so pupils can learn phrases, songs, games etc. from these countries. For vocational colleges the scenarios cover content from electrical regulations, ICT, safety, etc..

The 6 videos showcase 3 scenarios from each sector, and act as both practical guide and as appetisers for CLIL

The information materials for parents and employers can be used to demonstrate the value of CLIL and gain their support. The employers were used for needs analyses of units suitable for CLIL/VOLL.

The CLIL manual that was used for the courses and for individual learning refers to / makes use of the scenarios and videos and the materials bank to demonstrate the attractiveness of CLIL and may thus remove some of the known barriers to successful implementation of CLIL in the two sectors.

Manuals, promotional materials, and video subtitles are available in all partnership languages. The material bank has information / descriptions in English, but the bank also covers CLIL resources in other languages so, where appropriate, those languages have been used.

4.Partnerships

All the Clil4U partners had experience with regional/international projects, and most partners had previously worked with the promoter, SDE (Syddansk Erhvervsskole) in LLL projects.

SUPSI was a “silent” partner in pools-t and in pools-m, where they brought their academic research experience to the LdV projects. Kroggaardsskolen was used for running teacher training courses during the exploitation phase of pools-m.

SDE, Intercollege, and MCAST were partners in the Spanish ToI project pools-2 coordinated by CECE.

ETI is a leading Teacher Training player. ETI offers Teacher Training courses developed from the BPBLTM and POOLS-T projects. These courses are run in Malta in partnership with the respective consortium project coordinators. In 2012ETI ran in-service courses for more than 220 teachers from all over Europe.

I. C. "Monte Grappa" was one of the first schools in Italy to experience the teaching of a subject in a foreign language as a primary school (more than 10 years ago). The teaching of modern foreign languages throughout the schools and Institute has a very high priority, with the use of a CLIL approach wherever possible.

Each of the partners had complementary skills that were needed for the project. The vocational schools Intercollege, MCAST, and SDE are all using CLIL, but represented very different stages in CLIL implementation. This was also the case for the primary schools Kroggaardsskolen, CECE, and I.C.: all three schools are known for their innovative pedagogy and inclusion of parents in the school life. This was a valuable asset in the development of promotional awareness raising materials for the pupils’ parents, in order to ensure their support for and understanding of the value of CLIL for their children. The practitioners from the LdV and Comenius sectors compileed and piloted the CLIL scenarios, together with supporting ready to use materials.

SDE and ETI brought expertise on CALL to the partnership and helped ensure that ICT has been exploited in a pedagogically sound framework. They compiled the database of available online resources suitable for CLIL and ensured cooperation with CALL experts and communities to share their results.

SUPSI was responsible for the promotional videos on CLIL, as was the case in pools-m ( The SUPSI videos have received a great deal of praise, e.g. at the European Day of Languages celebration event in Brussels. The videos have been watched more than 10,000 times since 2011.

Intercollege has university status departments educating new teachers and running in-service courses, and together with the teacher training departments at SUPSI, ETI and CECE, they exploited their expertise in communicative language teaching methods in order to incorporate them into CLIL and to ensure the academic value of the CLIL course and course book.

The piloting of results has been peer reviewed in such a way that each partner was paired with another partner in order to ensure feedback and improved outcomes.

5.Plans for the Future

The videos, information and support materials, scenarios, material bank, CLIL guide, and course materials will continue to be offered free of charge online after the funded period:

The website hosting and domain registration are continually being renewed (by languages.dk). We expect, based on the current statistics, +200,000 website visitors per year (
The Databank has 55,276 look-ups, i.e. approximately 3,500 searches every month, the number of entries is growing, which will result in more look-ups in the coming years
The CLIL Guidebook has over 14 months been downloaded more than 237,292 times, but it is only the English, Italian, and Spanish versions that we can extract from the statistics, so the real number of downloads is substantially larger. The book attracts many readers as it is new and up-to-date and free, it’ll remain free, so a monthly download in the next 4+5 years of 15,000 seems realistic.
The six CLIL videos are currently watched 1045 times per month with an increase above 30% per month, so we estimate they during the next five years will be watched around 100,000 times
The CLIL4U Pre-Course Visitor Counter (set up at the end of 2015, towards the end of the project) stands at 2746 visitors by the end of May 2016. This shows a high visitor count over 5 months. ETI intends to give every future Teacher Trainee (around 1000 annually) a link to this site for them to continue to use the outputs. Links from this site lead to the main CLIL4U website (where all outputs are stored), and should help teachers find other outputs and resources.
The CLIL4U Main Course Visitor Counter (also set up at the end of 2015) stands at 2738 visitors over a 5 month period until May 2016. Once again, this site is linked to the main CLIL4U Site, the CLIL4U Pre-Course, the scenarios and the CLIL4U Guidebook, which will enable visitors to be able to find and use more outputs. ETI will continue to disseminate CLIL4U and this site to around 1000 teachers annually.

All the outputs are copyleft, which means that anyone can use, repurpose, improve, and copy the resources as long as all new versions remain copyleft. This facilitates future development by third parties like language schools and teacher training centres.