Scaffolding Strategies in CLIL Classes – supporting learners towards autonomy

Full text

i
Published by
ReCLes.pt –Associação de Centros de Línguas do Ensino Superior em Portugal
www.recles.pt
Title
Languages and the Market: A ReCLes.pt Selection of International Perspectives and
Approaches
Edited by
María del Carmen Arau Ribeiro
Ana Gonçalves
Manuel Moreira da Silva
ISBN 978-989-8557-78-0
Book cover designed by
Luciana Oliveira
Cover photo by © kirilart / 123RF & “Travel in Portugal”
All rights reserved. Copyright © 2017, ReCLes.pt
The papers published in the proceedins reflect the views only of the authors. The publisher
cannot be held responsible for the validity or use of the information therein contained.
Turismo de Portugal and the Estate of Joan Miró have approved use of the images included.


Editors’ Foreword
––
   ReCLes.pt 2014 International Conference on Languages and the Market:
Competitiveness and Employability 
 –            !  
!!"!#
" $     Languages for Jobs: Providing multilingual
communication skills for the labour market,     
%&%&"$anguage learning should be “better geared to professional contexts and the
needs” of the job market since doing so will then benefit not only learners but also “those
"  '    (  ' )   
professional responsibilities” (%&**+, 
"!'$
$'!#
'#"
!$$%&*,$
    !(!        
!         '     '
'$#'"#'
# '#'##'
!#!$#'#
-   $   !   # 
#!.$
!#!! !
     !  ! + $   '#'/
'/0/ /
  
1    Languages, Culture and Employability, Monika Hrebackova’s article on
“Intercultural Communicative Competence and the Management Dimension of Culture”
.     .      
$ '    #   ! ! 
 $!'$
      '$ !  '$   
#.22! 
'

1   $ #22 Kesbi’s “-  3'  4 '#'”
32
the country’s patent multilingualism to determine the economic relevance of teaching their
!     # "  '     .
3$#2$#2
-5#
support the country’s most recent progressive free trade agreements.
1  Languages and Technologies$!! $
“The Status of -36+ '3"7


of Technology”, Mohamed El Kandoussi argues the inadequacy of the ling


students’ vocational orientations while uncovering teachers’ attitudes and opinions towards a
           
material, the students’ needs for   

In line with technical concerns for future Engineers, Milan Smutny’s article on “ !
 " Linguistics as a part of a multidisciplinary study program” examines
    #     
 $
         


%&!&'&
 António Moreira on “Aprendizagem dialógica, dialética e autêntica da língua inglesa com
recurso à Web 2.0”, where the authors discuss the open, participatory and social nature of Web
()          
  #
*()
  
           

!!ana Cosenza’s article on “Teaching Foreign Languages for Specific Purposes
&!+nternationalization of SMEs”  +
, +,   
-    !,./ #
 &  
+
  ##
      0      
    1 &2  &3  , % 1’s article on
40 
%'4!!
 
.
 

  

iv
developed by higher education students in TV Cooking Show, an English language course that
aims to develop the specific vocabulary of students through research and taskbased activities
which enhance learner autonomy.
In the following article by María del Carmen Arau Ribeiro and Florbela Rodrigues, these
researchers consider the plethora of materials available from Tourism Marketing as an authentic
source for teaching English, Spanish, Portuguese and French in higher education, drawing on
commercial goods and promotional material on the respective countries to enhance
intercultural awareness and to practice language skills based on maximizing communication and
theories of visualization. The relevant and timely teaching strategies in their article, “Making
Tourism Marketing Work for You in the FL Classroom” cover, among others, the value of
fostering positive attitudes toward error in foreign language use, problemcenteredness, and
motivation. The authors find that, while simultaneously promoting student strategies for
developing skills in global effectiveness in their future professions, discerning teachers can take
steps to ensure that language users are immersed in a graphic and semiotic richness of cultural
and linguistic messages.
The final topic in the volume is dedicated to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL),
beginning with an article by Margarida Coelho on “Scaffolding Strategies in CLIL Classes –
supporting learners towards autonomy”, in which she deftly attributes scaffolding and
scaffolding strategies the key roles in CLIL teaching. She presents a brief overview of the origin
of the concept as a teaching strategy, focusing on some recent studies, and systematizes the
most relevant approaches and conceptual frameworks to scaffolding presented in those studies.
As a conclusion, she argues for a broader, more extensive, continuous and innovative use of
different scaffolding strategies in CLIL classes as an effective means to foster learner autonomy
and progressively build their confidence in using a FL language for effectively dealing with
content.
The volume then concludes with “The State of the ReCLes.pt CLIL Training Project”, by María del
Carmen Arau Ribeiro, Ana Gonçalves, Manuel Moreira da Silva, Margarida Morgado and
Margarida Coelho, which provides an update to the developments in research and publications
in the national project, from a collaboratively written book to numerous articles, presentations
and posters, culminating in first place at the friendly competition in the strand From research to
practice at the XIV CercleS International Conference on Enhancing Learners' Creative and Critical
Thinking: The Role of University Language Centres in September 2016.

IV. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
106
Scaffolding Strategies in CLIL Classes –supporting learners
towards autonomy
Margarida Coelho
Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre, margco@estgp.pt
Abstract
CLIL learners are faced with considerable challenges as they have to deal with both content and
language learning through using a foreign language as a medium of instruction. To make sure
that learners successfully deal with these tasks, it is essential that CLIL teachers adopt strategies
to assist and support them. These scaffolding strategies ! “temporary supporting structures that
will assist learners to develop new understandings, new concepts and new abilities” (Hammond
2001: 12) ! will help the learners’ development of content, language and learning skills and will
effectively support and lead them into a path of enhanced confidence, motivation and
autonomy in learning. Thus, assuming scaffolding as a key element in CLIL teaching, in this paper
we will provide a brief overview of the origin of the concept as a teaching strategy (Lev
Vygotsky's sociocultural theory), focusing then on some recent studies (A. Walqui: 2006; O.
Meyer: 2010; P. Mehisto: 2012) and systematizing the most relevant approaches and conceptual
frameworks to scaffolding there presented. As a conclusion, we argue for a broader, more
extensive, continuous and innovative use of different scaffolding strategies in CLIL classes, as an
effective means to foster the learners’ autonomy and progressively build their confidence in
using a FL language for effectively dealing with content.
Keywords: CLIL, scaffolding, Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), scaffolding strategies,
learner’s autonomy
Introduction.
In Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes and classes, foreign language
and content (teaching and learning) play a joint, equally relevant curricular role, both being
“integral parts of the whole” (Marsh 2002: 59). This dual integrative and multicultural approach
to language and subject teaching and learning is characterised by Coyle (1999) through four
dimensions –content, communication, cognition and culture –, the 4Cs, which build CLIL basic
pedagogic framework and it is characterized by Mehisto et al. (2008: 29) by six core
methodological features, namely, the multiple focus, the promotion of a safe and rich learning
environment, authenticity in class, the promotion of active learning, the enhancement of
cooperation among different participants and the use of scaffolding as one of its strategies.
To make sure that learners successfully deal with the challenges of coping with both content
and language learning through using a foreign language as a medium of instruction, it is essential
that the CLIL teachers clearly identify language demands and consistently adopt strategies to
assist and support students. These scaffolding strategies, or “temporary supporting structures
that will assist learners to develop new understandings, new concepts and new abilities”
(Hammond 2001: 12), “[…] designed to help the learner independently to complete the same or
similar tasks later in new contexts” (Hammond & Gibbons 2005: 5), will both help learners’
development of content, language and learning skills and effectively support and lead them
towards a path of enhanced confidence, motivation and autonomy in learning.

IV. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)


             !
"#   
          
$%&'()*&')*&'')"$ 
              
strategies, so as to effectively promote the learners’ autonomy and to foster their confidence in
    &+)" *  

 
 
,"
Scaffolding –Mapping the concept
-scaffolding 

              
 
needed. As the concept, in Shaman’s description, has been loosely used to describe “any
.centered approach […] [or] as an umbrella term
       teacher” (Shaman 2014:131),    
scaffolding within its original theoretical context, Vygotsky’s ‘zone of proximal development’
&/01)"
Scaffolding within Vygotsky’s ZPD framework
2
the child psychology research work of Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976). ‘The Role of Tutoring in
Problem Solving’ (Wood et al. 3() 4  .    
.& reconstruction) and the authors conclude that there is “a
 
achieve a goal which would be beyond his unassisted effort” (Wood et al. 3(5 3)" #
ng process entitles the tutor with the role of “activator” of the child’s skills to support
 "#%
breaks down a task into smaller parts, redirects the learner’s focu
     &$  " 3(5 36)" $    
4
.           
  ,     5 &) recruiting the learner’s
7 &') reducing the degrees of freedom       
7&8)maintenance of direction  
7 &9) marking critical features, by directing the child’s attention to what is relevant; (5)
frustration control 7&()demonstration modeling
 &$"3(536.33)"
It was only in 1978, however, with Jerome Bruner’s study‘The Role of Dialogue in Language’,
   emerged associated with Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory,
ly in connection with the notion of ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD). Although

IV. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)

Vygotsky’s seminal theory was established in the 1920s and 1930s, his work only became known
Thought and Language 
  The Psychology of Art !"# Mind in Society" !$
% &'"#( )$*!+, &
-#(
Mind in Society %. !"#/0*“
    $* $  *   *
$ $$***$
tion with more capable peers” (%. "&#  
formula that “the only ‘good learning' is that which is in advance of development” (Vygotsky
"&-#/01$(
 /0$*
**
$ .*.2
*2(.
*$.$
.a, a “window of opportunity” $,
.,$
 2*(
 3 !"#  %. /0 
concept of scaffolding as “guidance” or “collaboration with more capable peers” provided him
       *.    
        1    
progressively extend the learner’s skills, by confronting him/her with that precise level of
(
/0.
%.**
“reevaluation of the role of imitation in learning” (%. "& "#( 3ner’s (1978)
      /0 
 * Vygotsky’s   4announced “reevaluation” and set up the
         . *     
(
Key features of scaffolding in educational settings
1 *    +(  " !( (-#
**.!5
 6$( &67**8 5 9&63  &9463 -&
"#( :   Wood describes scaffolding as “tutorial behaviour that is contingent,
collaborative and interactive” (Wood, 1988: 96 in Walqui 2006: 163), these attributes being
 *
*(
In educational settings scaffolding is also described as a “sheltered learning technique that helps
students feel emotionally secure, motivates them and provides the building blocks needed […]
to do complex work” (Mehisto 2008: 139) and its study has alrea1
.!*

IV. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)

21*#
$(
context of classroom interaction, Hammond and Gibbons highlighted three “key
features” (Hammond and Gibbons 2001: 13) of scaffolding:
( Extending understanding, when the learning activities and the quality of teachers’
support manages to “challenge and extend what students are able to do” (Hammond 8
Gibbons 2001: 13) pushing them “[…] beyond their current abilities and levels of
understanding […] to 'internalise' new understandings” (Hammond 8 5 &
-#6
( Temporary support     *     * 
        *   .
alone, and to the provision of customized, timely and “at the point of need” (Hammond
8 5 &9#$6 
-( Micro and macro focuses$4
4$
!7**8 5 &-4#(
;* 9 when trying to answer the research question “what [does] scaffolding
look like in the enacted curriculum” (Hammond 8 5 9& 9#  * 
$ “*” !7**8 5
9& "#   <     & designedin ! #
         $  
2*   $$  ,   4.
   *   *= .  ‘interactional’ 
$     2 **44**    
   $     1tends student’s
(7**5! #**
$&
“[…] knowledge is collaboratively constructed rather than simply passed on, or handed from
teacher to learner. That is, knowledge is constructed in and through joint participation in
activities where all participants are actively involved in negotiating meaning. Clearly,
learners construct new and extended understandings through their collaborative
participation in scaffolded activities. But in doing so, they are doing more than simply
absorbing information or digesting chunks of knowledge. Their active participation, with
support from the teacher, enables them to construct and, potentially, transform
understandings.” (Hammond and Gibbons 2001: 12!13)
+, ! #      .  
structure !***
.#*process !*
  # !+, #(   * $ > ! "#    
 design feature interactional process, because “only in this way
$
 *4supporting” ( "&9#(
+,! #$  
.&macro level !**$
#  meso level !      $2.#   micro level !
**!#2#! &'496$>& "&#(

IV. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)


      , handover/takeover being the defining one: “(1)
! " # # $    # 
%$&'(!%  %# %$) !"
# # teacher’s actions depend on actions of learners); (5) handover/ takeover
 # % "" $"
challenges are in balance, participants are in ‘tune’ with each other)” (van Lier 2*
+! ,# -.!
    ' ' .  * /   %%0  
%1  ontingency#fading#transfer of responsibility
"! *
Figure 1- 2% -*)
Scaffolding strategies in CLIL contexts
Scaffolding is “at the heart of all CLIL teaching” (Morgado  *     
'!! 3" 
     % ' !   * 2     
!'  2+# '
  4#%!"54
#6!6*
Walqui considers scaffolding as “both structure and process, weaving together several levels of
  #%%,  %%,%%,
,%%        
they unfold” (Walqui 2006: 159). The author claims that the additional cognitive workload of
         2+      
%2+ *
54   !         ds “especially
salient” (    %  %   # %   

IV. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
111
development of the student in CLIL classes (Walqui 2006: 177). She affirms that, in a CLIL
supportive learning environment, the teacher adopts different types of scaffolding strategies –
modelling, bridging, contextualising, schema building, re'presenting text and developing meta'
cognition – and thus amplifies and enriches “the linguistic and extralinguistic context, so that
students do not get just one opportunity to come to terms with the concepts involved, but in
fact may construct their understanding on the basis of multiple clues and perspectives
encountered in a variety of class activities.” (Walqui 2006: 19). Her brief explanation of each
type of scaffolding is summarized in Table 1.
Table 1 –Types of Instructional scaffolding (adapted from Walqui 2006)
Types of instructional scaffolding (Walqui’s model)
Modelling Teacher provides clear examples for imitation
Bridging Teacher creates bridges that build on previous knowledge and
understandings
Contextualizing Teacher adds context to academic language (films, images, realia,
metaphors and analogies)
Schema building Teacher provides thinking frameworks to help illustrate ideas (charts,
advanced organizers)
Representing text Teacher presents the same content through using a variety of genres (re'
presented as drama, narrative, report, exposition, tautological
transformation, theory, poem, third'person historical narratives,
eyewitness accounts, scientific texts, letters, cooperative posters, …)
Developing meta
cognition
Teacher develops students’ learning skills for planning,
monitoring, and assessing
Meyer’s (2010) model for scaffolding language and learning is part of the conceptual framework
he developed for defining quality criteria for effective CLIL teaching and learning. The author
considers scaffolding as one of the core elements in successful CLIL teaching (Meyer 2010: 20'
21) and he lists it, together with study skills and learning strategies, as fundamental elements of
the CLIL planning and teaching processes (Meyer 2010: 25). In his view, by providing adequate
scaffolding to students, teachers are supporting them to deal with the different sorts of language
inputs they are confronted with in CLIL classes. Moreover, the provision of language and content
scaffolds in CLIL classes lessens the cognitive and linguistic overload of the subjects studied; it
supports students to successfully completing a given task and it helps improving their linguistic
production (Meyer 2010: 15).
In Meyer’s “CLIL'Pyramid”, a planning tool he devised for developing CLIL quality materials,
scaffolding is assigned a central role in supporting the student to move from lower'order to
higher'order thinking skills. For producing quality CLIL material, scaffolding strategies must be
taken into account both at the stage of choosing the media to use (texts, image, film, etc.) and
at the phase of task'design. The amount and type of input and output'scaffolding needed are
determined by the type of input selected and by the nature of the desired output (text,
presentation, painting, outline) as represented in Figure 2.

IV. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
112
Figure 2 –The CLIL Pyramid (Meyer 2010: 24)
Mehisto (2012) identifies ten criteria for the development of quality CLIL materials and he
presents a vast amount of examples on how to implement them (Mehisto 2012: 17$25).
Particularly relevant for our study is criteria number nine which asserts that quality CLIL
materials should “Foster cognitive fluency through scaffolding of a) content, b) language, c)
learning skills development helping students to reach well beyond what they could do on their
own” (Mehisto 2012: 24). The author also suggests activities teachers can use in CLIL classes in
order to provide adequate scaffold for language, for content and for learning skills, while
promoting students’ cognitive development and supporting their growing autonomy. Mehisto
assembles the following catalogue of activities available to the teacher to scaffold language,
content and learning skills in CLIL contexts:
Language can be scaffolded by: repeating new nouns as opposed to using
pronouns; shortening sentences and paragraphs; inserting synonyms in
parentheses; providing explanations of some key vocabulary and expressions in the
margins; asking students to first brainstorm related language; grouping language
according to use (e.g., procedures, equipment, personal attitudes); presenting
information in two side$by$side boxes using two different registers of language;
embedding electronic pronunciation and dictionary links for difficult terms; using
wordsmyth.com or wordchamp.com.
Content can be scaffolded by: helping students in an introductory paragraph or
assignment to access their tacit knowledge and to connect the topic to their lives;
providing an advance organiser; using other graphic organisers such as Venn
diagrams, tables and charts; avoiding compound sentences; shortening paragraphs;
highlighting or underlining key ideas or facts; using plenty of subheadings; providing
sample answers or exemplars of good work; showing what falls outside of a
concept, as well as what it includes; providing electronic links to animations.
Learning skills can be scaffolded by: providing a sample correct answer at the start
of an exercise; spotlighting samples of well done student work; providing a
commented sample of poorly done student work; including planning, monitoring

IV. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
113
and evaluation tasks; asking students to guess meaning from context; providing
electronic samples of recasting and error correction techniques. (Mehisto 2012: 24)
Conclusion
In general terms, the nature and type of the scaffolding to use for supporting a student in a
particular activity or task is determined by the needs of the student and the circumstances
specific to the learning process he is engaged in (learner –centered approach). For CLIL teachers
there is even a higher challenge, as students are learning a foreign language while learning a
subject matter, which requires the use of pedagogical tools that ensure the enhancement of
both components in a balanced way. In fact, scaffolding involves serious class planning work,
the teacher being given the task of evaluating how much and when scaffold is needed, who
needs it and which form it is going to take (Hammond and Gibbons 2001).
In all cases, the objectives of both the planned and the on-the-spot scaffolding should be to
support students while pushing them beyond what they already know and can do, guiding them
to learn how to think and not only what to think (Hammond and Gibbons 2001: 13; 81; Wood et
al. 1976), enabling their participation in an interactive context where knowledge is
collaboratively constructed (van Lier 2004) and they are able to move from their existing levels
of performance to higher cognitive ones, towards growing independence, up to autonomy over
time. Walqui (2006) refers this moment as the stage when “scaffolds are changed, transformed,
restructured or dismantled” (Walqui 2006: 165), an echo of Vygotsky’s ZPD, here represented
as a never-completed building site where, building on prior knowledge, new learning takes place
in a potentially continuous movement.
Finally, in CLIL classes, and considering the dual focus of this approach, scaffolding strategies
should be extensively used as a means to foster the learners’ autonomy and progressively build
their confidence in using a foreign language for effectively dealing with content. This integrated
development of language skills and content/professional competences will also give the CLIL
learner an innovative competence to face the increasingly competitive labour market and which
will enhance his/her employability opportunities.
References
Barnard, R., and L. Campbell (2005). Sociocultural theory and the teaching of process writing: The
,
, and W. J. M.
-Verlag.
London:
Mainstream

114
,, 
Wood, D., J. S. Bruner, and G. Ross. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child
Psychology and Child Psychiatry, 17 (2), 89100.