As we’ve already mentioned, we’ll be participating at this year’s CIEB bilingual conference, which will be held in Granada from 18-20 October. This year Benedict Barclay will be giving a short talk (comunicación) and a workshop (taller) on behalf of LinguaFrame. Below, he gives a brief summary of the talk that he’ll be giving at 7pm on Saturday 19 October.
“The title of my talk is Terminology in CLIL: content, language or neither? As the title suggests, the talk is about where technical terminology belongs within CLIL, and how it relates to subject content and language.
“I’ll start by looking at how some of the criticisms frequently levelled at CLIL programmes appear to reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of terminology in education in general, and in CLIL programmes in particular. Using specific examples of terminology used in secondary education, I’ll go on to explore the real function and importance of terminology in bilingual education.
“Building on that, I’ll look at practical ways in which CLIL teachers can successfully integrate all aspects of language learning, including terminology, into their subject content. Within that, I’ll also discuss what students at bilingual schools potentially gain and lose in terms of subject content, terminology and language — both in Spanish and English.
“My talk is primarily aimed at teachers at bilingual schools, and the aim is to provide useful advice on how to treat terminology in a way that will help students to both progress with the subject content and improve their English. However, many of the issues raised should be of interest to anyone involved in bilingual education.
“My talk will be in English, but obviously I’ll be very happy to answer any questions in Spanish or English.”