CLIL lessons for young learners

Usually, we have different types of lessons in our syllabus: Vocabulary, Grammar, Songs, Stories, Revision, Craft. However, there’s one type of lessons I particularly like. They are CLIL lessons. CLIL is Content and Language Integrated Learning: teach other subjects in English. CLIL lessons are a great type of lessons to integrate into your English language syllabus. In this article, I’ll share:

• some ideas for CLIL lessons;
• coursebooks with CLIL lessons;
• resources you can use for CLIL lessons;
• lesson stages;
• ideas for activities.

Ideas for CLIL lessons’ topics

There’s an infinite number of the topics you can think of. I’ll give you some ideas on the topics of the typical lessons for young learners.

Animals

1. wild and domestic animals;
2. interesting facts about animals;
3. camouflage;
4. animal families;
5. baby animals;
6. endangered animals.

Art

1. music around the world;
2. musical instruments;
3. primary and secondary colours; mixing colours;
4. famous pictures, sculptures, etc.;
5. amazing museums, galleries;
6. origami;
7. portraits;
8. literature.

Biology

1. skeleton;
2. life cycles;
3. food chains;
4. senses;
5. plants, trees, flowers.

Food

1. healthy food;
2. food around the world; 
3. recipes;
4. breakfast/school lunches/dinners around the world;
5. unusual dishes;
6. traditional food;
7. food pyramid;
8. fruits and vegetables;
9. where food comes from.

Geography

1. solar system;
2. maps, directions;
3. extreme places on Earth;
4. habitats;
5. weather around the world;
6. time zones.

Holidays

1. festivals around the world;
2. unusual holidays.

History

1. antique furniture/houses;
2. unusual houses;
3. famous places.

School

1. schools around the world: rules, traditions, schedule; subjects;
2. maths;
3. figures, shapes;
4. measures;
5. graphs, diagrams.

Sport, Health

1. playground games;
2. unusual sport;
3. The Olympic games;
4. healthy lifestyle;
5. breathing;
6. hygiene;
7. heart;
8. things for the sport.

Technology

1. The Internet;
2. be safe online;
3. fire safety;
4. robots.

Other

1. materials;
2. transport around the world;
3. jobs;
4. uniforms.

Coursebooks with CLIL lessons

Nowadays, you can find CLIL lessons in almost all the coursebooks. However, there are some of them I particularly like and I find CLIL lessons there really amusing. So, here’s my top five:

1. Impact, National Geographic
2. Wonderful World, National Geographic
3. Incredible English, Oxford University Press
4. Big English, Pearson

Resources you can use for CLIL lessons

Besides, I highly recommend you using other resources to add variety to your lessons and make them more engaging and appealing for learners. Here’s my shortlist:

1. National Geographic Kids
2. TedEd
3. CK-12
4. Playing CLIL

Stages of a lesson

CLIL lessons can differ, but a typical lesson plan is:

• Vocabulary presentation.
• Vocabulary practice.
• Reading or listening (the text or the track include the target language).
• Comprehension task.
• Discussion on the topic, personalisation.
• Project/Craft work.

Ideas for activities

As one of the “4 Cs” of CLIL is Cognition, I would advise using tasks that develop thinking skills: analysing, matching, comparing, selecting, interpreting, evaluating, classifying, reflecting, selecting, categorising, applying new knowledge, giving reasons, comparing, remembering, sequencing, predicting, paying attention to details, checking, etc. To improve cognitive skills you may adapt and use the following tasks:

1. Look at the picture. Listen to the track or read the text and complete the facts with the missing information.
2. Look at the picture. Listen to the track or read the text and choose “True” or “False”.
3. Group the words.
4. Choose the correct characteristics.
5. Match the descriptions with the pictures
6. Order/number the pictures/steps.
7. Follow the instructions to do a poll/experiment/project, etc.
8. Make a diagram, bar code, pie chart, etc.
9. Do a logical puzzle.
10. Choose the odd one out.