1. Piet Van de Craen & Katrien Mondt
Content and Language Integrated Learning as TBLT. The Brussels’ Experience
Piet Van de Craen & Katrien Mondt
CLIL as TBLT-Sep 22nd | pag. 1

2. Multilingualism in Belgium
Forbidden by a body of legislation ( )
Politically highly sensitive
Yet, the language laws get undermined by new initiatives in
Wallonia (the decree Onkelinx,1998),
Brussels (STIMOB schools, 2001) and
Flanders (a decree on early language learning, 2004)
These initiatives are related to European ideas on language learning and teaching.
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 2

3. The Research Carried out in CLIL schools
Long-term project in Dutch-speaking primary schools in Brussels
The emphasis is on
Cognitive development and
Neurolinguistic aspects of language learning in a CLIL contect
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 3

4. What CLIL is?
A generic term referring to teaching and learning whereby content is taught and learned through a language preferably -but not necessarily- by a native speaker of that language
The focus of this approach refers to
meaning rather than form;
learner- centered rather than teacher- centered;
simultaneous acquisition of both content and language;
learning rather than teaching;
non-remedial aspects of teaching and learning.
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 4

5. Implications of CLIL learning
Two kinds of implications can be distinguished
Aspects with respect to the outer learning environment
such as the neighbourhood, the schools, the stakeholders (e.g. pupils, parents, teachers, …)
Aspects with respect to the inner learning environment
such as learning and learning strategies, cognitive and neurolinguistic development,...
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 5

6. Hypotheses related to CLIL
Previously hypotheses were stated as follows:
“instructional approaches that integrate content and language are likely to be more effective than approaches in which language is taught in isolation;
the use of instructional strategies and academic tasks that encourage active discourse among learners and between learners and teachers is likely to be especially beneficial for second language learning;
language development should be systematically integrated with academic development in order to maximize language learning” (Genesee 1994).
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 6

7. New hypotheses related to CLIL
Learning content through a language rather than learning a language has
important cognitive implications for the learner since this kind of learning is a more of a challenge than traditional (language) learning;
influence on brain organization in the sense that more brain areas are involved especially in the left pre-frontal area.
CLIL research aims at liberating language pedagogy from its pre-scientific status...
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 7

8. The Research Context
Three Brussels’ Dutch-speaking primary schools have been followed for the last four years… N = 67...
+/- 10% of the curriculum is taught in French, e.g. either arithmetic, environmental issues or crafts...
Pupils: middle to lower class...
Control school with comparable SES and language spread...
Arithmetic test: Dudal’s ‘Leerlingvolgsysteem’
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 8

9. Arithmetic test
The test consists of nine sub-tests varying from simple calculations to decimal fractions and to more complicated problems that are verbally phrased.
Examples =
2/5 out of 100 =
500 tickets are available at a music festival. 386 have already been sold. How many tickets are left?
It is hypothesized that CLIL pupils do at least equally well as controls.
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 9

10. Results for the arithmetic test
Results for three CLIL schools and one comparable control group after 4 years...
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 10

11. Discussion
For nearly all sub-tests [+CLIL] pupils outperform [-CLIL] pupils.
This is also true for schools that have NOT used arithmetic in the CLIL curriculum.
Arithmetic is a language related activity.
Differences between experimental and control groups tend to be smaller if tasks are less language related.
The more verbally a task is phrased the bigger the difference between experimental and control groups.
The more difficult tasks are -as in the case of fractions- the larger the difference between experimental and control groups
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 11

12. Brain organization 1
32 children (age 8-9 years old) were scanned under three conditions
- verb generation test with visual stimuli;
e.g. food ---->to eat.
- an arithmetic test
e.g = 6 + 2
The Stroop test
measuring selective attention
Results: there are differences in brain organization between early bilinguals, early late bilinguals and monolinguals.
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 12

13. More lateral premotor (in green) and middle-superior temporal
Bilinguals in L1
Bilinguals in L2
More lateral premotor (in green)
and middle-superior temporal
(in blue) activation in L2
Bilinguals differ while processing languages:
there is additional articulatory and speech programming
activity (green)
more semantic processing (blue)
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 13

14. Brain organization 2
Brain activity involving L1 in a bilingual population (N=12)
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 14

15. Brain organization 3
Brain activity involving L2 in a bilingual population (N=13)
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 15

16. Brain organization 2
The interpretation of these results is as yet unclear. Reference is made 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 on the contrary.
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 16

17. Conclusion
Content and language integrated learning can be considered an improved form of TBL.
CLIL leads to positive cognitive added- values and increased learning aptitudes.
CLIL teaching influences brain organization but as yet it is unclear in what way this might be applied in teaching practice.
Systematic studies of teaching practices, cognitive development and brain organization seems a fruitful paradigm for future research.
CLIL as TBLT
20/10/ | pag. 17