Students' Needs

Students' Needs

Today, I'm going to talk about the linguistic requirements of for our students in a typical class. For today's assessment, I've chosen the first year of Bachillerato, and the subject will be as usual: Biology. 

During a typical Biology class, students are required to listen to the teacher's lecture, and they often have to read their textbook and also additional materials provided by the teacher (such as articles, newspapers, etc.). Occasionally, the students view a video in class about a topic relevant in class.

In addition to listening, Biology lessons also require students to perform writing tasks, such as compositions and presentations, in order to expose them in front of the class afterwards.

According to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), such activities require the students to have a certain minimal English language skill in order to perform successfully:

1. Lectures: students must follow and understand the lecture, and be able to take notes. CEFR describes B1 as follows: "Can follow a lecture or talk within his/her own field, provided the subject matter is familiar and the presentation straightforward and clearly structured". Therefore, B1 is the minimal suitable level for such tasks.
2. Reading: students are required to be able to read the textbook all by themselves and understand the content. Since textbooks tend to have fairly straightforward texts, the description that best fits is "Can read straightforward factual texts on subjects related to his/her field and interest with a satisfactory level of comprehension", which corresponds to B1. However, besides the textbook, students are also required to read articles and newspapers provided by the teacher, and those may require a higher skill level, such as B2 ("Can read with a large degree of independence, adapting style and speed of reading to different texts and purposes, and using appropriate reference sources selectively. Has a broad active reading vocabulary, but may experience some difficulty with low-frequency idioms.").
3. Watching videos: in order to understand TV reports and documentaries, a minimal level of B2 is required, as described by CEFR: "Can understand documentaries, live interviews, talk shows, plays and the majority of films in standard dialect".
4. Writing and exposition: Bachillerato students are expected to write well-reasoned essays about the relevant topic and be able to argue for and against certain points of view. This description is closest to B2 level: "Can write an essay or report which develops an argument, giving reasons in support of or against a particular point of view and explaining the advantages and disadvantages of various options".

To summarize, 1st-year Bachillerato students are expected to have a language skill level of about B1-B2 in order to make good use of CLIL Biology lessons.