Developing CLIL materials for teaching local religious traditions in English

Abstract

Religious diversity is a significant concern in multicultural societies, and an understanding of history and religion can help diverse communities live and work together harmoniously. As such, the theme of religious education is expected to enable students to understand and tolerate cultural differences. The subject of religion can be difficult for students to absorb and discuss in a non-biased fashion. One approach to such a challenge is to present the subject material in a foreign language, which encourages students to be critical thinkers and interests students who might otherwise be uninterested in the subject. This approach allows students to develop their skills in the foreign language and the subject material simultaneously. The educational approach in which learning subjects are taught through a foreign language is known as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). This MA thesis aims to support teaching by creating materials for teaching local religious traditions in English to Year 8 students using the soft CLIL approach. The author tested the materials for six 40-minute lessons at Kreutzwaldi school. The thesis has two main chapters. The first chapter introduces CLIL, explaining what it is, its main ideas, and its strengths and challenges. It also provides an overview of how subjects such as history and religion can be taught, explains the role of language learning in CLIL, and offers guidelines for creating CLIL teaching materials. The second chapter describes how the materials were created and tested in the classroom. The materials themselves are in the appendices.