Development of lesson material that meet students cognitive needs in CLIL.

The term CLIL was coined by David Marsh, University of Jyvskyl, Finland

(1994). CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of subjects, are taught

through a foreign language with dual-focused aims, namely the learning of content

and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language. Malaysis is multiracial country.

There are three main race in Malaysia who are Malay, Chinese and Indians. Each

race has their own mother tongue language. Here foreign language plays its role in

delivering teaching content to the students. When foreign language is taught to the

students a CLIL environments forms. Content and language integrated learning

(CLIL) programs combine teaching content from a curriculum area with the explicit

teaching of the target language. There is a focus on the vocabulary and structures

required for the additional curriculum area. Content may include all or part of one or

more curriculum areas. CLIL environments are assumed to consist of four key

characteristics that differ from the settings where learning occurs through the mother

tongue (Jppinen, 2002). CLIL provides new learning experiences for students.

According to Coyle 1999, a successful CLIL lesson should combine elements of

content, communication, cognition and culture. Content is crucial for the progression

in knowledge, skills and understanding related to specific elements of a defined

curriculum. While communication is the usage of language to learn while learning to

use language. Besides, cognition is needed in developing thinking skills which link

concept formation (abstract and concrete), understanding and language. Finally

culture enables for the exposure to alternative perspectives and shared

understandings, which deepen awareness of otherness and self.

There are two dimensions which are activity-based teaching and learning and

communicative teaching and learning. There are nine principles designed as

guidelines for organizing and planning instruction for classrooms in which language

develops as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Lesson material that meet students cognitive needs in CLIL.

Topic : The solar system
Year : 4
Objective : Understanding the Solar System
Learning outcome : At the end of the lesson pupils should be able to
1. list the constituents of the Solar System.
2. list the planets in the Solar System in a sequence.
3. state that planets move around the Sun.
Principle 1 Active engagement

Active engagement is very crucial for a learner. It creates an enjoyable, engaging

and active role in learning experiences. It motivates learners to learn language while
engaging in the activity. For the topic, solar system invite students to share facts that
they already know about the planets and the solar system while drawing a diagram
of the solar system on the chart paper. Lead the students with questions, as follows.

Questions

1. What are the names of the eight planets?

2. Which planet is closest to the sun?
3. Which planet is largest?
4. What is the name of the very small, distant dwarf planet?
5. Which planet is farthest from the sun?
6. Which are the terrestrial planets?
7. Which planets are the gas giants?
8. How long does it take Earth to revolve once in its orbit around the sun?
9. Which planets are Earth's nearest neighbours?
Principle 7 Prior knowledge
Principle 2 Cultural relevance
Teacher play important role in incorporate students cultures on solar system and
help students to understand the actual concept of solar system. This enables a
teacher to value and include what students bring to the classroom from their cultures
and the different world views represented in the classroom. Thus, prior knowledge of
the student could be analysed. For the topic, solar system students are given with
random flash cards containing key words about the topic. Students need to select an
appropriate flash cards that are related to the topic and paste it the space provided.

Fire Air Venus Jupiter

Sun Rod Earth Water

Saturn Cloud Sky Neptune

Mercury Rain Uranus Mars

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

After pasting the flash cards students watch a video on solar system from YouTube.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQrlgH97v94). Students listen to the lyrics of
the song and fill in the blanks of the song as given below. This helps student to
understand the characteristics of planets in solar system.

Song lyrics
There are ____________ planets in the solar system. We revolve around the
________. Join us to learn about the different ____________. Lets sing along
and have some fun.

My name is ____________. I am the ___________ hottest planet. The closest

one to the ___________. I here on my surfaces 88 days I am the smallest part
have a lot of fun.

My name is ____________. I am the ___________ planet but at the __________

planet from the sun. I am the ____________ planet in the solar system and too
_________ for anyone.

Principle 3 Collaboration
Students develop and practice language in collaboration with one another and with
teachers. Collaboration learning provide two way experiences through which
students solve problems, negotiate meaning, and demonstrate what they have
learned. For topic, solar system students are divided into groups and instructed to
create solar system mobile based on the information gained from the song earlier.
Then students present their solar system mobile.

Principle 4 Learning strategies

For topic solar system teacher instruct students to do small cards which consists of
word squares which is sorting terms into categories, visualizing meanings, drawing
planets and use mnemonic terms to remember the arrangement of planets.
Word Square Graphic Organizer

Mercury
Definition: the planet first in order from Characteristics
the sun - Closest planet to the sun.
Translation: in my language (Tamil) - Dry and almost airless.
- Very hot days with very cold
nights
- Solid planet with rocky surface.

Picture (drawing)

Venus
Definition: the planet second in order Characteristics
from the sun - Closest planet to earth.
Translation: in my language (Tamil) - Surrounded by poisonous gas.
- Greenhouse gases trap heat
from the sun. Thus it is the
hottest planet
- Solid planet with rocky surface.

Picture (drawing)
 Mnemonic terms for the arrangement of planets

My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets

Or

My Very Excited Mother Just Served Us Noodles.

Arrangement of planets
1. Mercury
2. Venus
3. Earth
4. Mars
5.Jupiter
6. Saturn
7. Uranus
8. Neptune
Principle 5 differentiation

Principle 6 Comprehensible input with scaffolding

English learners cannot learn from language they do not understand. To improve the
comprehensibility of written input, teachers must choose texts with rich graphic
elements and teach students how to understand and use these graphics. For the
topic solar system, a text about solar system could be given to students and from the
text students instructed to find word meanings, pronunciations, and examples of use.
Students organize and keep their own vocabulary notebooks or personal dictionaries
Scaffolding ( Text adaption)
 Simplification of language from the text
Our Solar System consists of:
- A star, the Sun
- The planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
- Satellites (i.e Moon) and other celestial bodies (comets, asteroids, metors,
meteorites...)
- The Sun nearest star is a red dwarf star called proxima Centauri at a distance
of 4.3 light-years.
- A light-year is the distance travelled by the light in one year

Example of glossary
Key word Definition
Asteroid A mass of rock that moves around in space; mostly found in the
asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

Comets ball of ice and dust in orbit around the Sun

Gravitation The force of attraction which exists between all particles of matter in
the universe.

Light Year Distance travelled by light in one year

Orbit Trajectory of a body rotating around another body
Planet A body orbiting a star
Satellite A body that is smaller than a planet and orbits a planet
Solar System Group of planets, satellites, asteroids and comets orbiting the Sun

Star Massive, luminous ball of plasma held together by gravity

Principle 8 Content integration
Content-based language learning can happen in a variety of settings. Content
integration make the content comprehensible to language learners and promote
language development. For the topic, solar system, the learning objective is list the
constituents of the Solar System, list the planets in the Solar System in a sequence
and state that planets move around the Sun. Besides, the language goal is making
comparisons, passive form of verbs, present tense and past tense.

Language and content goal for the topic solar system

Content goal Language goal
List the constituents of the Solar System Making comparisons

List the planets in the Solar System in a Passive form of verbs

sequence

State that planets move around the Sun Present tense

Past tense
Principle 9 Clear and Appropriate Goals and Feedback

For the solar system, summative assessments can be used to provide clear
feedback to learners on what they have achieved. This enable a teacher to ensure
that instruction is sufficient, appropriate, and well scaffolded. Teachers can give
power point presentation with a task related to solar system. Example of task is as
given below :

.
Task: Imagine you are a scientist preparing for a conference on the latest
discoveries on the Solar system
1. Choose one of the planet in the Solar System and, using internet, search
information about the latest discoveries.
2. Compare your information with those of a small group of classmates.
3. Prepare a power point presentation.
4. Make an oral presentation to the whole class.