CLIL

At Academic Summer, we embrace Content Language and Integrated Learning - CLIL. Described as "a major methodological revolution" in language teaching,  CLIL means learning another (content) subject such as physics or geography through English or another Foreign Language. In our lessons, you will use your knowledge of the subject(s) to create a learning frame to improve your English. We guarantee you will feel happier due to recognising some of the subject content without needing a complete understanding of English. You'll be surprised at how much you understand! 
  
At Academic Summer, English becomes the means of learning content. The focus is on language improvement rather than enforced learning, so you'll build up language competency by using it to explore and discuss curriculum topics, leading to more natural and sophisticated communicative skills over time. You will become academically proficient in a language because CLIL focuses on fluency rather than accuracy, treating errors as a natural part of language learning. 
  
CLIL helps with: 
  • Improving overall and specific language competence. 
  • Preparing for future studies and/or working life. 
  • Developing different interests and attitudes.
  • Diversifying methods & forms of classroom teaching and learning.
  • Increasing learner motivation.
  • Integrating language into the broader curriculum.
  • Academic language proficiency  
  • Introducing a broader cultural context to content lessons 
  
Conversely,  CLIL can increase your motivation to learn the subjects by enabling you to progress more quickly and solidly than you would with deliberately separated subjects. Allowing two subjects to paint a broader picture of reality is a great advantage of Academic Summer's methodology. We ensure that the content-specific subject is the primary objective and that the linguistic goals are secondary – this provides consistency and sturdy scaffolding on which to build linguistic progress.
 

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) 

  
Our methodology is centred around CLIL – Content and Language Integrated Learning which gives a holistic approach to learning. Experts have described CLIL as a significant methodological revolution in language teaching. 
  
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an approach where students simultaneously learn a subject and language.  
 
According to Coyle (1999), the CLIL curriculum is based on the 4 Cs
Content 
Cognition 
Communication 
Culture 
  
By studying at one of our camps, you will: 
  • enhance your content knowledge and revise key curriculum topic areas in your subjects  
  • develop your cognition skills. Your thinking and learning skills include your higher-order thinking skills (critical, logical, reflective, metacognitive and creative thinking). Teachers will guide you to think for yourself: analyse data, discuss outcomes, discover & create your own opinion and present & negotiate with your peers.
  • work on your communication skills in the English language. You use language to learn whilst learning to use language. You will learn to give a good presentation and write an extended essay. 
  • understand culture and your role as a global citizen, your beliefs and values enabling you to develop a reflective knowledge base  
By engaging in the content of curriculum subjects that interest you, you will unconsciously improve your language skills at the same time. If you are an international student, this is a far more engaging and motivating way of learning than traditional EFL textbooks. 
  
You will develop your communicative use of English as an international language and academic language proficiency, whether you are a native or non-native speaker of English.  
  
You will improve your: 
  • interpersonal communication skills – spoken interaction to discuss academic subjects informally  
  • academic language proficiency – skills in formal written work and spoken presentation of subject-specific ideas  
We will help you broaden your intercultural understanding and explore your responsibility as a global citizen. We will look at areas such as social justice and democratic ideals; you will find out more about your culture and learn how to communicate and network with young adults from other cultures.  
  
We encourage a positive atmosphere in CLIL lessons so that the learners’ affective filters are lowered, and the learning takes place in an anxiety-free environment.  
  
The benefits of CLIL 
  • It is a more natural way to improve your language skills. It gives an authentic context in which to use language, and you get more from the subject content if you understand the language around it.  
  • It engages and heightens your motivation to learn. 
  • Being exposed to content and language together significantly improves language acquisition.  
  • It encourages you to develop 21-century skills, which include thinking critically, being creative, communicating, and collaborating.  
We want you to enjoy learning with us and be able to approach your subjects in a new and exciting way. We will challenge and inspire you. 
  
In the summer, we are not restricted by curriculums which means you can explore your subject areas and start thinking like a mathematician, a scientist, a historian, an artist, a social scientist, an economist, a politician or a linguist.