The Four C's in CLIL

The Four C's in CLIL

1. Content

Specific knowledge, skills and understanding related to the subject.

2. Communication

Use of the foreign language to learn and to communicate the subject’s content.

3. Cognition

Thinking skills which link concept formation (abstract and concrete), understanding and language.

4. Culture

Connect to learning of both content and language with the student’s culture and the foreign language culture.

Example (primary and secondary education)

1. Content

Depending on their age, students will learn about their forms and colours, when to plant or sow, germination or their content in nutrients. 

2. Communication

Depending on their age, students will just learn some words to describe them in a very simple way (colour and shape), or they will learn more specific vocabulary and grammar structures that will allow them to describe the main steps of the plant cycle.

3. Cognition

Depending on their age, students will just associate different colour or shapes to different vegetables and will be able to distinguish ones from others. Older students may be able to reason why some vegetables are planted while others require seeds to reproduce, and will understand and will be able to explain the sequence of plant reproduction, being able to reason why the flower is produced before the fruit.

4. Culture

Younger students can use vegetables to prepare Spanish and British dishes, and compare the main differences between them. Older students can relate the kind of vegetables more frequently grown and eaten in each country to the  weather, soil, amount of rainfall, etc.