Talking CLIL #6: Working with “difficult” texts (part I)

Welcome to Talking CLIL #6. It’s been a while since I sent a newsletter. Corona has come but not quite gone, but we are all back to normal working lives, at least for the moment.

Do your students sometimes look at you like the goats in the photo? Confused, curious, blank? I’ve been working recently with CLIL teachers whose students find that their published course material is too difficult: they find it hard to understand the ideas in written text and get stuck. So I decided to dedicate this newsletter and number 7 to the topic: How can teachers help students understand and work with “difficult” material?

In this newsletter:

  • Working with “difficult” texts: simplifying
  • Use text-level checkers
  • Assess vocabulary
  • Simplify the materials themselves
  • Networking: events and news about CLIL in the Netherlands and Belgium

Working with “difficult” texts: simplifying

What is the definition of “difficult”? Difficult for me, in CLIL, means that students either find the material cognitively too hard, or the language is above their level.

One rule of thumb would be to assess whether there are more than fifteen new words for your students on a coursebook page: if there are, it’s probably too hard. Another rule of thumb: if the ideas in the text are complex, provide simple tasks; if the ideas are easier, provide more difficult tasks.

Photo from Gino Crescoli via Pixabay

Use text-level checkers

Did you know you can check the CEFR level of digital texts online? These are so-called digital text checkers or text analysers. You paste in a chunk of text and the website will tell you at what level the text is, according to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). Be a bit wary of these, though: sites seem to cough up different levels. But, in general, if you are aware of the level your learners are working towards, checking your text onllne can be a real eye-opener.

Here are two examples of text checkers and a “test your own level on the CEFR” tes:

Assess vocabulary

You can also reflect on which vocabulary seems to make a text hard for your learners by following the steps below (with thanks to input from Petra Hatley from CLIL&more). I did this exercise with a group of teachers recently:

  1. List the words or phrases that you think are “difficult” for your students in your text.
  2. HIghlight in one colour the words or phrases related to your subject. These are probably the one that you can explain clearly since you are a subject expert.
  3. Highlight in another colour the words or phrases which are either general or academic English.
  4. Compare your items in (3) with other teachers: you will probably notice that these items occur in other subjects, too. Which ones do you (as a team) need to help students with?
  5. Think in three categories: (i) items the students really need to use in a few weeks’ time, (ii) items that students only need to recognize and understand but not use in output and (iii) items which students may ignore. Reflect on which ones your class needs really to understand your material. Decide how to incorporate and recycle the words or phrases in (i) and (ii) above in your lesson series.

Simplify the materials themselves

Some other ways of simplifying materials are:

  • Find another, easier text.
  • Add video or other visual materials with the same content
  • Cut irrelevant sentences, passages or even whole units out (be radical!).
  • Cut the text into smaller chunks.
  • Add easier tasks.
  • Add white space, space the paragraphs at 1.5 or 2.0.

More ideas? I’ve created a two-page handout, Simplifying for CLIL with twenty-two suggested ways to simplify your text.

Networking: CLIL events and news

Heads up for a new one-day workshop on Wednesday 5 April 2023. in collaboration with Brian Dixon, working title New CLIL Strategies. More information will follow in due course on my website news page. Or contact me here if you would like to be on the mailing list.

My twelfth CLIL coach course will start on 3 November. Three full days of practical training as a CLIL coach, plus a personal online coaching session. More information and an online application form are here on my website.

Are you new to CLIL or have you never done a CLIL course? I’ll be teaching a five-day thorough Back2Basics CLIL course in 2023, starting in February. More information and an online application form here

Masterclass CLIL in Belgium. From 10-11 February 2023, I’m going to work with “Masterclass CLIL”, training and coaching teachers in Gent. Join me?

The third CLIL online summit will take place from 11-13 October 2022. The organizer, Patrick de Boer, of CLIL media, has again gathered a professional line-up of world-famous CLIL speakers. And it costs only €5 to join! OK, I’m in there too with an interactive workshop on Images in CLIL (Thursday 13 October, 16:00 CEST) and am participating in a panel discussion (Thursday 13 October, 17:00 CEST), but don’t miss out on the rest!

Contact me here for more information about personal online CLIL coaching or (online) courses including observations and/or coaching.

For those of you who haven’t yet got it, you can download a free pdf of my book CLIL Skills (co-authors Liz Dale and Wibo van der Es) here or by clicking on it below. It’s free to use under a generous Creative Commons licence.

The Online CLIL Summit 2022

Masterclass CLIL Vlaanderen

CLIL Skills book: free download