CLIL and co-operative learning strategies in primary education in The Netherlands (plenary)

Netherlands, ID LLCE2015-150

Early English in the Netherlands is relatively new. Until recently the focus was (almost) completely on the use of English course materials. CLIL is now introduced, a welcome transfer from secondary education.  

The presenters are managers of EarlyBird, the leading centre of expertise for Early English. EarlyBird has designed  a great number of CLIL projects for primary schools  (age 4-12 years) serving two goals:   to increase the time children can spend on learning of and working in English leading to integration of English lessons and activities in the regular curriculum.

It is essential that children become independent users of the target language.  A model of co-operative learning in CLIL has been developed with special attention to various forms of presentations by the learners.  Two other  issues addressed are  the need to differentiate in the heterogeneous classroom settings of primary education and formative assessment.

The projects require use of digital resources and are used by hundreds of schools. EarlyBird is also involved in the design of new course materials English for publishers in the Netherlands and abroad and has teacher training programmes in CLIL methodology.

Keywords

Early English, primary education, CLIL methodology, digital resources,  differentiation, assessment, integration in regular curriculum