Feature Article

Trains Leaving Stations: A Language
Teacher Gets on Board with CLIL

Quenby Hoffman Aoki
Sophia University
Universities in Japan and elsewhere are increasing the number of CLIL or content-basedclasses which focus on academic subjects rather than or in addition to language skills, andteachers who may only be formally trained and experienced in foreign language education
are being asked to teach authentic content. In the words of a well-known expert in CLILat a 2012 workshop, “This train is leaving the station. Are you getting on board?” This
paper, based on my presentation at the 2016 CUE Conference, answers that question in
the affirmative, drawing upon my own professional narrative in order to explore ways inwhich language teachers can use their training to teach a variety of subjects. I argue that
language teachers possess a unique and valuable skill set, including cultural sensitivity, openmindedness, flexibility, and the ability to communicate effectively with a wide range ofstudents. Instructors who have cultivated these skills, and are willing to engage in ongoingreflective practice and professional development, are able to teach content even in subjects
for which they have no formal academic background and in situations which do not involve
cooperation with content-area teachers.

Asking language teachers to teach academic subjects for which they are notqualified is problematic, to say the least. That said, CBLT (Content-based
Language Teaching), CLIL (Content and Language-Integrated Learning), andEMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) are all increasing in Japanese higher
education. As a result, language teachers have been forced to develop new skills
and even adjust their concept of identity as educators. The purpose of this paper
is to explain my own process of professional development due to this shift in theprofession, and why I have come to believe that those of us trained in TESOL
or other language-teaching fields are uniquely suited to teach academic content
even in subjects for which we are not academically qualified. I argue that trained
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language-teaching professionals possess a unique and valuable skill set, including
cultural sensitivity, open-mindedness, flexibility, and the ability to communicate
effectively with a wide range of students. Based on my experience, I make several
practical recommendations for language teachers who wish to (or are requiredto) begin using CLIL or other content-based approaches in their classes.
By way of clarification, the “hard” version of CLIL requires the teacher tobe either qualified in both language teaching and the subject being taught, or tohave ongoing cooperation with content-area faculty. Unfortunately, although it
is a worthwhile goal which teachers and our employers should work towards inthe future, that sort of cooperation and dual qualification are difficult to achieve
in Japan at present, due to institutional and other factors beyond the scope of
this paper. Therefore, what I and others in similar professional situations are
actually doing in the classroom can more accurately be referred to as a “soft” or“light” CLIL approach, which meets the needs of Japanese university students,
and is certainly within the training and experience of a qualified language
teacher. Not only have the students expressed a high level of motivation andoverall satisfaction with these courses, but teaching authentic content has provento be an opportunity to grow personally and professionally. Embracing the CLIL
trend, rather than resisting it, has broadened my horizons and taken my career in
exciting new directions.

Guidelines and Observations

What follows is a list of several suggestions which language teachers may findhelpful when teaching a CLIL or other content-based class in a subject for which
they are not formally trained.
Teach subjects you find interesting. An important factor in the successof most of the courses I have taught is a strong personal interest in the topic,
coupled with a willingness to learn more about the subject on my own. Having
taken a few courses as an undergraduate, or having read several recent books on
the subject, is beneficial but in my experience not completely necessary.
Honesty is the best policy. The instructor should be honest with students
about his or her background. It is both unethical and unnecessary to pretend to be94

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something one is not. Honest communication with the students, and confidence
in one’s training and teaching experience, should not be underestimated.
Meet them where they are. It is useful to begin the course by assessing
the students’ skills and prior knowledge. Many subjects, such as psychology
and cultural studies, can be applied to a variety of academic fields and future
careers. If a student happens to be majoring in the subject and knows something
the teacher does not, the teacher can embrace the presence of a resident expert
rather than feeling threatened. Encouraging that student to contribute actively
and share knowledge of the subject becomes an exciting cooperative learning
experience.
Flexibility is the key. Rigidly following the syllabus is detrimental, if not
impossible, especially if the class consists of students with different majors and abroad range of skill levels and interests. Even if the result is a decision to change
the syllabus mid-term, meeting students’ needs comes before any predeterminedschedule.
Do not lose focus. A potential problem that can arise is becoming
overwhelmed with background reading. While it is fascinating to be able to learn
more about an interesting new subject, it is also important not to lose focus,
which at all times should be meeting the needs of the students. A languageteaching background means that the teacher already has the skill to assess thoseneeds, choose appropriate materials, and design a variety of activities.
Do not neglect language skills. After all, language skills are most likely
the main reason the majority of students registered for the class! In particular,consider the importance of vocabulary building. Informal feedback fromstudents (which will hopefully be quantified in future research) indicates thatmost students consider vocabulary to be the area in which they need the mostpractice, since they view it as affecting development of all other skills. Teachers
are advised to take this into consideration and assess the needs of their own
students during lesson planning and material development. Authentic texts
provide a wealth of relevant vocabulary, in addition to examples of real discourseand grammar in use, which students can practice and apply later in a variety oflearning situations.
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Basic Course Design

In the CLIL or content-based classes I have taught, which include Psychology,
Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Environmental Problems, and Literature, mostof the students have had little prior knowledge or interest in the course content.
Indeed, few have even read the syllabus before the first day of class! However, as
mentioned in the previous section, almost all of them have expressed a desire to
maintain or develop their English language skill. CLIL is ideal for this purpose.
Indeed, its very name states unequivocally that language is to be integrated with
content.
The basic elements of most syllabuses I have written for content-based classes
are as follows. If I am given a general subject upon which to plan a course, I firstnarrow the focus so that the students and I will not be overwhelmed in the 15
weeks of a typical semester at a Japanese university. Then I select short readings,
usually from introductory textbooks designed for native speakers. Newspapers
and properly-referenced, reliable websites such as those of the World HealthOrganization (http://www.who.int/en/) and the American Psychological
Association Topics page (http://www.apa.org/topics/) are also valuable. These
are used as classroom texts through discussions, scaffolding of vocabulary, andother activities introducing basic concepts. Periodic surprise quizzes confirm
whether everyone has been attending class, doing the readings, and paying
attention. Class discussions are expanded and synthesized in regular written
homework, usually essays, reaction papers, or short research reports. Homework,by the way, is corrected. The issue of when and how to correct students’ written
work is quite divisive among language teachers and beyond the scope of thispaper, but I fall into the pro-correction camp. Revising their written homework
is optional; students can pass the course if they complete all assignments.
However, revising and resubmitting essays is required in order to earn an A inthe class, and most students make an effort to do so.
The main assessment, amounting to 25-30% of the final grade, is an interactive
presentation, which is more accurately called a “mini-lesson”. Depending on classsize, this is done individually or in small groups, usually with a maximum offour members. Students select a topic related to the course subject, and actually96

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teach a 20-30 minute lesson about it to their classmates. It is made clear fromthe beginning that it is not a one-sided presentation or lecture, it must include
some kind of active audience participation, such as a discussion, role play, quiz,
game, audio-visuals, or anything that assists in making the topic understandable
and interesting for the class. The grade for the presentation is a combination of
my evaluation, score/comment sheets from the audience members, and a selfassessment from the presenters.

Reflections and Revelations

In September 2012, I first heard the term CLIL at a professional development
workshop offered at Sophia University, my current full-time employer. The
speaker was Peeter Mehisto, a recognized authority on CLIL, and he made astatement about CLIL which made a huge impression on me and inspired thetitle of this paper. He said, “The train is leaving the station. Are you going to get
on board?” He was referring to the necessity of language teachers continuing theirprofessional development by integrating authentic content and real-world skills
into their classes. Those refusing to change with the times would, indeed, be left
behind. Surely enough, Sophia announced that fall that a new CLIL curriculum
was being planned, and they offered and continue to offer many professional
development sessions, including other well-known names in the field, to help
the faculty become familiar with CLIL methodology and adjust to the ongoing
curriculum changes.
There was more than a little resistance from some of my fellow instructors
at the time. I understood, and still agree with some of their concerns. However,curriculum decisions had already been made, and I realized that my teaching
had already been heading in a content-based direction for some time. Therefore,
it made more sense to see this as an opportunity. As an increasing number of
institutions of higher education are boarding this particular train, I would
recommend that my colleagues do the same. I read as much as possible about
CLIL and the subjects I wanted to teach, attended conferences and professional
development meetings as often as I could, and came up with more ideas than I
will ever be able to teach in the remaining years of my career.
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A real turning point came with a unit of engineering and design in a mixed
class of first and second-year engineering and science majors. This topic was
far from my experience, but this class proved that I had no cause to be anxious
about my lack of an engineering background. The students demonstrated thatthey did know their subject, and reminded me that my role was to guide themto use that knowledge in English, as they developed communication and criticalthinking skills that would prove useful to them in any language. Their final
presentations included everything from a comparison of the structural designsof famous local landmarks Tokyo Tower and Sky Tree, to an explanation of how
engineering is used to create special effects in science-fiction films. Some groups
designed and performed their own experiments, others did field work at a local
science museum, and one student even introduced us all to a new presentation
software, which is used much more widely now but neither I nor the otherstudents had seen at the time. These were, without question, some of the best
student presentations I have seen in my career, mostly due to the high level ofenthusiasm and engagement from both the presenters and from the audience,
their classmates.
Indeed, none of the above should be new information to language teachers
who have been in the trenches. We already know that “learners must be taught
in a way that helps them to use language in order to acquire subject knowledge”(Ball, Kelly, & Clegg, 2015, p. 15). We are familiar with various ways to scaffold
material, make texts accessible, and help students to practice and develop theirlanguage and thinking skills. We are also comfortable with an active, studentcentered approach which encourages communication at all levels. Throughauthentic content and activating students’ background knowledge, teachers
can encourage students to go beyond developing English language skills, which
no one can deny are useful in today’s globalized world; we can help them movetoward higher-level thinking processes and provide opportunities for themto engage with material that actually relates to their future studies and theircareers after graduation. Thus, if a teacher is trained in language pedagogy, heor she can teach a CLIL course. The key is remaining aware of the relationshipbetween a subject and the language used to understand it. As Coyle, Hood, and98

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Marsh (2010) asserted, “no matter whether issues concerning the content or
the language are dominant at a given point, neither must be subsumed or theinterrelationship between them ignored” (p. 28).

Conclusion

As the current CLIL and content-based trend is likely to continue, language
teachers will have to be able to make use of it as an opportunity to meet students’needs as we ourselves grow professionally, using and building upon the valuable
skills we already have. While extra work and a shift in our perceptions may beneeded in these early years, it has been my experience that meaningful, authentic
content not only benefits students and results in increased engagement andimproved learning outcomes, but can help us to become better teachers witha wider repertoire of techniques and activities and a broader understanding of
our role in the classroom. This is what we call in my native United States a winwin situation. In the long run, it is my belief that CLIL (and its relatives, CBLT
and EMI) is a vehicle which can help bring Japanese tertiary education into theglobalized world of the 21st century. It is a train which I am happy to be aboard.

References

Ball, P., Kelly, K., & Clegg, J. (2015). Putting CLIL into practice. Oxford,
England: Oxford University Press.
Coyle, D., Hood, P., & Marsh, D. (2010). CLIL: Content and Language
Integrated Learning. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Recommended Resources

Botkin, D., & Keller, E. (2014). Environmental science: Earth as a living planet(9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Coon, D., & Mitterer, J. O. (2012). Psychology: Modules for active learning (12thed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Cunningham, W., & Cunningham, M. (2012). Environmental science: A global
concern (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Gerrig, R., & Rimbardo, P. (2010). Psychology and life (19th ed.). Boston, MA:
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Pearson Education, Inc.
Nation, I. S. P. (2013). What should every EFL teacher know? Tokyo, Japan:
Compass Publishing.
Nevid, D. (2012). Essentials of psychology: Concepts and applications (3rd ed.).
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Wood, S., Wood, D., & Boyd, D. (2007). The world of psychology (6th ed.).
Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Wright, R., & Boorse, D. (2014). Environmental science: Towards a sustainable
future. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Author bio

Quenby Hoffman Aoki teaches at Sophia University. Her research interests include
CLIL/ Content-based Instruction, language through literature, global issues(especially gender, race, and environmental problems), fluency, and all aspects of thewriting process. She is a Member-at-Large for the CUE SIG. quenbya@yahoo.com
Received: January 12, 2017
Accepted: November 17, 2017100