CLIL in tertiary education – developing material for the course, Scientific Writing in English

Abstract

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a dual-focused approach to teaching an additional language through a particular subject. CLIL as a concept is mostly and very effectively used within bilingual education. CLIL as a methodology provides teachers with very creative means to prepare course materials. Our PhD course, Scientific Writing in English includes biomedical students who need specific knowledge and skills when writing their PhD dissertation. The course material was developed using CLIL, taking students’ specific interests and needs into consideration. Their scientific writing needs to focus on simplicity with clear-cut, to-the-point sentences while using similar structures and improving their field-specific linguistic intelligence. Their choice of language affects their success in conveying the message of their research outcome. The course material was built by using the structure of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy starting each lesson with the engagement of lower-order thinking skills and widening the focus towards higher-order ones. Students’ receptive and productive skills are activated while their expertise in the given topic improves. According to students’ feedback, the interactivity of the lesson aids comprehension, and the structure helps digest the topic. However, their habits of receiving content in a frontal lecture-style way make them less open to new styles and strategies for processing material.