Culture through comparison: creating audio-visual listening materials for a CLIL course

Abstract

Authentic listening has become a part of CLIL materials, but it can be difficult to find listening materials that perfectly match the language level, length requirements, content, and cultural context of a course. The difficulty of finding appropriate materials online, financial limitations posed by copyright fees, and necessity to produce intellectual work led to the idea of designing videos specifically for a university level CLIL course. This article presents a brief overview of current approaches to creating CLIL materials, gives rationale for recording of CLIL audio-visual materials, and discusses their challenges. It provides an example of audio-visual materials design for listening comprehension taking into consideration educational and cultural contexts, course content, and language learning outcomes of the program. In addition, it discusses advantages and limitations of created audio-visual materials by contrasting them with authentic materials of similar type found on YouTube. According to a pilot survey, language used in recorded CLIL videos is easier to understand than the language used in YouTube videos. The content of CLIL videos is more related to students' life and they experience more positive emotions while watching them. CLIL videos bridge the gap between the concepts studied and a local culture making the learning more meaningful and enjoyable.Key words: CLIL materials; culture; foreign language; listening; video recordings. La cultura a través de la comparación: la creación de materiales audiovisuales de escucha para un curso AICLE ResumenLa escucha de textos auténticos se ha convertido en una parte de los materiales AICLE, pero puede ser difícil encontrar materiales de escucha que coincidan perfectamente con el nivel de lengua, los requisitos en cuanto a longitud, contenido y contexto cultural de un curso específico. La dificultad de encontrar materiales apropiados en línea, las limitaciones financieras impuestas por las tarifas de derechos de autor y la necesidad para producir trabajo intelectual condujeron a la idea de diseñar videos específicamente para un curso AICLE de nivel universitario. Este artículo presenta una breve descripción de los enfoques actuales para la creación de materiales AICLE, fundamenta algunos principios para la grabación de material audiovisual de AICLE y analiza los retos en este proceso. También, proporciona un ejemplo de diseño de materiales audiovisuales para la comprensión auditiva teniendo en cuenta los contextos educativos y culturales, el contenido del curso y los resultados del programa de aprendizaje de la lengua. Además, el artículo analiza las ventajas y restricciones del material audiovisual creado, contrastándolo con materiales auténticos de corte similar que se encuentran en YouTube. Según la encuesta de la fase de pilotaje, el lenguaje utilizado en los videos AICLE grabados es de más fácil comprensión que el lenguaje utilizado en los videos de YouTube. El contenido de los videos AICLE está más relacionado con la vida de los estudiantes, y s...

Content and language integrated learning in Latin America 2008-2018: Ten years of research and practice

“…Thus, CLIL, as implemented in Latin America, seems to be compatible with different approaches that highlight the need to provide learners at different levels with authentic, purposeful and engaging learning experiences which connect L2 learning with the curriculum and broader social imperatives such as global citizenship (see Section 5.4). In complying with such needs, there are publications which offer details around CLIL lesson planning (e.g., Banegas, 2016;Helver, 2015), materials development (e.g., Bettney, 2015;Zhyrun, 2016), and rubric-supported assessment (e.g., De la Barra et al, 2018;Leal, 2016) as an integral part of the learning process. These publications share the criteria that these aspects of CLIL need to be driven by (1) authenticity of tasks and multimedia input (e.g., Banegas, 2018, Porto, 2016 and (2) language scaffolding (e.g., Castillo, 2008;Keogh, 2017).…”

“…Four empirical studies (Garzón-Diaz, 2018;Porto, 2016Porto, , 2018Zhyrun, 2016) and three reflective and practice accounts (Helver, 2015;Liendo, 2012;Rojas Gonzáles & Liviero, 2013) were analyzed for their focus on some facet of global citizenship in relation to CLIL. In general, there are two articles that explore ways of incorporating local culture(s) into the English classroom (Helver, 2015;Zhyrun, 2016) through different activities and the creation of context-specific material. There is also one study that presents examples of pedagogical tasks for incorporating a multicultural focus in an English for medical purposes course with the goal of students using English as a lingua franca to communicate with and attend to patients from cultures different from students' own (Rojas González & Liviero, 2014).…”

Situated Practice in CLIL: Voices from Colombian Teachers

“…The aforementioned challenges with printed resources (textbooks) might be tackled via the implementation of other additional sources such as audiovisual tools (Zhyrun, 2016). Since the textbook does not provide all the necessary elements for proficiency development, teachers are also called to gather additional resources that allow them to customize their lessons based on students' preferences and needs, while using authentic and reliable resources.…”

Poly-Multiculturality in Higher Education: Methodological Level of the Research Concept

“…[4;7; 19; 13; 12; 9]. -Even more academics investigate and analyse the theoretical aspects of multicultural education are revealed(Vertovec, 2009;Zhyrun, 2016; Zarate, Gohard-Radenkovic, Lussier & Pens, 2004; Swain & Lapkin, 2013, etc.) [25; 28; 27; 20].…”