Cognitive Aspects of CLIL Teaching: Arithmetic in the Classroom Piet Van de Craen, Katrien Mondt & Marielyne Millecam Cognitive Aspects of CLIL | pag. 1

CLIL Schools in Brussels Dutch-speaking schools teach three subjects in two languages (80% Dutch - 20% French): crafts environmental studies arithmetic Research interests: learning processes implicit and explicit learning of languages brain organization brain organizational differences in bi- and monolingual children cognitive development the level attained compared to control groups Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 2

Implicit and explicit learning or incidental and intentional learning Learning Processes 1 Implicit and explicit learning or incidental and intentional learning focus on meaning rather than on form; age dependent? relatively few classroom studies in a natural environment are available. State-of-the-art: implicit learning supported by explicit teaching seems to yield the best results... Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 3

Learning Processes 2 CLIL in primary schools is associated with implicit learning children start at an early age in kindergarten; there is no formal study of the language before form 5. Three groups of children process CLIL differently in this context: Dutch-speakers: early bilingualism; French-speakers: support in the mother tongue; other language speakers: learner support in two non-native languages. Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 4

Brain organization 1 32 children (age 8-9 years old) were scanned under three conditions a verb generation test with visual stimuli : e.g. food --> to eat an arithmetic test : e.g. 4+3 = 6+2 the Stroop test : measuring selective attention Results : there are differences in brain organization between early bilinguals, early late bilinguals and monolinguals... Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 5

Brain organization 2 The interpretation of these results is as yet unclear. They may lead to ‘better brains’ (cf. Scientific American, Sept. 2003); positive learners’ effects (cf. OECD, section on learning and the brain); added cognitive effects (cf. Fabbro 1999 and others). In any case: there is no evidence that CLIL teaching has negative effects for the learner nor that any knowledge is hampered. Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 6

Brain organization 2 Brain activity involving L1 in a bilingual population (N=12) Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 7

Brain organization 3 Brain activity involving L2 in a bilingual population (N=13) Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 8

Cognitive development 1 Cognitive development is here defined as follows: the results of a standardized arithmetic test. Pupils from three CLIL schools... with for 4 years of CLL... matched to a comparable control school for SES and language background. Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 9

Cognitive development 2 The arithmetic test consists of nine sub-tests varying from simple calculations to decimal fractions and to more complicated problems that are verbally phrased. Examples 632 + 205 = 2/5 out of 100 A music festival has 500 entry tickets. 386 have already been sold. How many tickets are left? It is hypothesized that CLIL pupils score at least equally well on these tests. Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 10

Cognitive development 3 Results for three CLIL schools and one comparable control group after 4 years... Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 11

Cognitive development 4 : results For nearly all sub-tests +CLIl pupils outperform -CLIL pupils. Remarkably, this is also true for schools that have not used arithmetic in the CLIL curriculum. Performing arithmetic is a language related activity. Differences between experimental ad control groups tend to be smaller if tasks are less language related. The more verbally the task is phrased the bigger the difference between experimental and control group. The more difficult the tasks are -as in the case of fractions- the bigger the difference between experimental and control group. Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 12

The Research Project: Final conclusions CLIL education - even unbalanced in terms of hours devoted to the second language- entails positive learning effects. It seems that in primary schools and in a multilingual context such as Brussels CLIL enhances pupils’ capacity to reason in the abstract. CLIL education enhances pupils’ results on cognitive tests … CLIL education prepares pupils for secondary education where the level of abstraction is much higher... Cognitive Aspects of CLIL 21/11/2018 | pag. 13