Playing beyond CLIL

The Erasmus+ project 'Playing beyond CLIL' (PbC) will provide a pedagogical strategy and practice-oriented tools for the implementation of the crucial element of formative assessment in a pluriliteracies approach in CLIL and non-CLIL forms of schooling. In this context the project aims to improve the specific classroom skills of teachers - the primary target group of PbC - and also aims to address schools and initial teacher training institutions.

In teaching environments where the language of instruction is not the same as the learner's first language and especially in those where the language of instruction is being learned simultaneously with new subject content (i.e. CLIL - content and language integrated learning), a pluriliteracies model for deeper learning (PTDL) has the potential to actively and transparently enable all students - at any age or stage - to become more effective learners. This by requiring teachers to rethink the design of learning environments (including tasks and activities) to foreground the development of literacy skills across disciplines and languages, i.e. for learners to become pluriliterate. This approach will provide a practical contribution to the inclusion of learners with little language skills in the official classroom language(s), e.g. 'traditional' CLIL learners but also learners with migration backgrounds (economic and political).

Building on the methodology developed in a former project 'playingCLIL', the project PbC offers an alternative more holistic way of thinking about assessment by integrating CLIL approaches with drama education. The PbC project will research, develop, promote and put to trial new and transformative approaches to the assessment of the learning processes in CLIL and other contexts of pluriliteracies education. The project will provide its results in form of a pedagogical guidebook and toolbox for teachers and schools to assist the implementation of the PbC-methodology. It will provide an interactive online-platform for dissemination purposes and as a resource for schools for networking. Finally, the rationale of the PbC-Methodology will be published in a programmatic scholarly paper to open up a critical discussion on drama games-based assessment within the scientific community.