Teaching History and Culture in the CLIL Environment

Slovakia, ID CLEaR2015-208;  

During the last decade of teaching English as a foreign language in Slovakia the CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) approach has become of serious interest. Some elementary schools within Slovakia have adopted this approach as a way to teach and learn a foreign language in a more natural way. The above mentioned approach gives teachers and learners alike the opportunity either to discuss some specific content in the foreign language being studied or to practice the foreign language in a content-rich environment. It is evident that to teach any content subject (biology, geography, history, mathematics, etc.) in a foreign language  much teacher preparation is required  to prepare lessons in accordance with learners' needs (already gained knowledge, information about a precise topic). For this reason it is important to be equipped with suitable activities and materials that support both the teacher's objectives for the preplanned lesson and the learners' need to study the necessary information in a motivating space. The aim of the presentation is to show one way and possible options for the use of different activities when teaching history and culture topics. Several online activities will be presented and closely annotated with regard to their application in everyday teaching practice.

Key Words: Activities, CLIL, History Lessons, Culture, Slovak Learners, Teaching English