The Department of Education and Skills has initiated a national pilot project for the use of a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach in Transition Year (TY) modern foreign languages classes in post-primary schools. This will pilot the teaching and learning of another subject through the target language (French, German, Spanish, Italian) with a dual focus on the content and the language. Maynooth University Department of Education, in collaboration with the Post-Primary Languages Ireland (PPLI), are facilitating the continuing professional development programme (CPD) for teachers who are piloting CLIL in their TY classes from September 2019.
In the first phase of their CPD, on June 4th and 5th 2019, teachers engaged in a two-day workshop on CLIL, facilitated by Dr Céline Healy (MU) and Craig Neville (PPLI), in MU Department of Education. They also formed a Community of Practice (CoP) where the participating teachers will meet both face-to-face in MU and on an on-line forum. The CoP will support their collaborative planning, development of teaching, learning and assessment resources, and reflection on their CLIL practice. This project is in response to the goals outlined in Languages Connect Ireland's Strategy for Foreign Languages in Education 2017-2026 and the actions in its associated Implementation Plan 2017-2022.