PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY THROUGH CLIL CLASSES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

: In this paper, we present a CLIL module that combines teaching of English and content related to environmental and geosciences. This is an experimental CLIL module devised and implemented at the Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade with the second-year students of the Environmental Sciences Department and Geography Department. The organization and development of the module was conditioned by the students’ needs, motivation and interests, their foreign language proficiency and their prior education. The main objective of the module was to promote learner autonomy. Students themselves selected the topics they wanted to study. The general themes were climate change, environmental devastation and water scarcity. Students had to find information on these issues and come up with possible solutions, which they presented to their classmates. They were assigned to write an essay on a selected topic and prepare a presentation for the class. Unlike teacher-centered environments in which students are given grades, in this CLIL module the assessment was performed by the students themselves. They evaluated their own learning, monitored their progress and assessed the achievement together with their classmates.