PTPSP-CLIL

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) appeared on the scene much at the same time as the early proposals for task-based language teaching (TBLT). Both share the assumption that language learning is most effective when learners predominantly use language for real-life, meaning-oriented purposes. However, learners’ primary focus on content leads to less attention being available to be devoted to the language since concurrently attending to meaning and form results in cognitive overload for learners (Skehan, 1998). This meaning priority, however, is considered to be manipulable by pre-task planning opportunities. This project thus explores the following questions:      

• how can the right set of pre-task planning activities free up CLIL learners’ attentional resources when they work on content-tasks in geography or history?
• what learners do during the pre-task planning time and do they find their planning activities effective?
• Are their planning behaviors related to the quality of their speaking product, and could they be trained to plan more effectively?

The results of this project will illuminate effective planning behaviors which CLIL learners can be trained to use before the performance of tasks in their CLIL content lessons.