Teaching arts through English

1. Introduction

- What is art?- What is art in Infant Education- How to teach arts in Infant Education- Art in the “Aragonese Curriculum” - What is English?- English in the “Aragonese Curriculum” - What is CLIL? Arts + English as a language

2. Considerations when planning a CLIL Arts lesson

3. Why to use arts to teach English?

4. Conclusion

5. References

1. What is art:

“The expression or application of human creative shill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciate primarly for their beauty or emotional power”. (Oxford Dictionary, 2014)

“Art, philosophy of, the study of the nature of art, including such concepts as interpretation, representation and expression, and form. It is closely related toaesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste”. (Britannica Encyclopedia, 2014)

2. What is Art in Infant Education:

It’s the way in which children start to communicate and representate their own feelings or opinions that uses different techniques and plastic materials that favor and enrich the creative process (free expression). It progresses in the motive, cognitive, affective and social development.

3. Arts in the Aragonese Curriculum:

The Aragonese curriculum is constituted by three areas but where the plastic expression is located it is in the area of Communication and Representation. The aims and contents that are related with are:

1. To appropriate progressively of the different languages to express his needs, preferences, feelings, experiences and representations of the reality.

2. To experiment and to express using the body languages, plastically, musically and technologically, to represent situations, experiences, needs and elements of the environment and to provoke aesthetic effects, showing interest and enjoyment.

4. How to teach Arts in Infant Education?

a. By using corners

b. By using Workshop

c. By usingLittle projects

5. What is English?

“The language of England, now widely used in many varieties throughout the world”. (Oxford Dictionary, 2014)

English language, West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family that is closely related to Frisian, German, and Dutch languages. English originated in England and is now widely spoken on six continents. It is the primary language of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and various small island nations in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is also an official language of India, the Philippines, Singapore, and many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa. English is the first choice of foreign language in most other countries of the world. (Britannica Encyclopedia, 2014).

6. English in the “Aragonese Curriculum”:

8.To begin in the oral use of a foreign language with communicative intention in activities related to the habitual situations of the classroom, and to show interest and enjoyment on having taken part in these exchanges.

7. What is CLIL?

CLIL is an acronym for Content and Language Integrated Learning. It is an approach to teaching the content of curricular subjects through the medium of a non-native language. In a CLIL course, learners gain knowledge and understanding of the curricular subject while simultaneously learning and using the target language. (Marsh, David. 2001)

It is helpful to think of Coyle’s 4CS of CLIL for planning lessons (Coyle, 1999):

1. Content: What is the arts topic?

2. Communication: What language will learners communicate during the lessons? E.g. the artistic language: colours, forms, etc.

3. Cognition: Which thinking skills are demanded of learners in the arts lesson?

4. Culture (sometimes the 4Cs is referred as Community or Citizenship): is there a cultural focus in the lesson?

7. Considerations when planning a CLIL Arts lesson

Activating prior knowledge: it is helpful to start a lesson by finding out what learners already know about the art topic. Learners may know many facts about a topic in their L1 but may have difficulty explaining this knowledge in a L2 or L3.Input and output: Teachers need to plan input and output.

Wait time: it refers to the time teachers wait between asking questions and learners answering them.

Collaborative tasks: Include tasks that involve learners in producing key subject-specific vocabulary and structures in meaningful pair or group work activities.

Cognitive challenge: Learners usually need considerable support to develop their thinking skills in a non-native language. They need to communicate not only the everyday functional language practised in many English classes, but they also need to communicate the cognitive, academic language of school subjects.

Developing thinking skills: Teachers need to ask which encourage lower order thinking skills (LOTS) and also the higher order thinking skills (HOTS). These involve the why and how questions and therefore require the use of more complex language.

University of Cambridge (2008). Teaching History through English. ESOL Examinations.

8. Why use arts? (Amy Lightfoot, 2011)

Lessons based around works of art have many benefits for both the teacher and the students.

Responding to art can be very stimulating and can lead onto a great variety of activities.

Using art provides a useful change of pace.

Incorporating art into the class or syllabus can take the students out of the classroom and encourage them to use their language skills in the real world.

Thinking about or even creating art can be very motivating.

Responding to art has the potential to develop students’ creative and critical thinking skills.

9. Some problems and solutions ( Amy Lightfoot, 2011)

Problems :

Subjectivity

Students (and teachers!) may not perceive someart-related activities to be useful for language learning.

Solutions :

Choosing art that has some relevance to the students

Structure activities carefully

Clear outcome and learning point

10 References:

Do Coyle, (2008) University of Nottingham. Kunst CLIL.

Lightfoot Amy. (11 July, 2007). British Council, India. Art in the classroom.

The New York State Education Department Office of Bilingual Education and Foreign languages Studies, (2010). Art as a tool for teachers of English language learners.

Oxford Dictionary (2014)

Available at http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionahgries.com/

Britannica Encyclopedia (2014)

Available at http://www.britannica.com/

María del Rosario Félix Valverde; Raquel Toledano Valentín, (2011). Expresión y comunicación. Editorial CEP, S.L.

University of Cambridge (2008). Teaching History through English. ESOL Examinations.

Available at: http://www.cambridgeenglish.org/images/168750-teaching-history-through-english-a-clil-approach.pdf

ORDEN ECI/3960/2007, de 19 de diciembre, por la que se establece el currículo y se regula la ordenación de la educación infantil.