CROSSCURRICULAR TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH

What is crosscurricular teaching and learning? Usage of English for crosscurricular teaching purposes Students engagement in English crsosscurricular activities Methods and results around the world Implications of crosscuricular teaching and learning English Conclusions

What is crosscurricular teaching and learning?

A cross-curricular approach to teaching is characterised by sensitivity towards, and a synthesis of, knowledge, skills and understandings from various subject areas. These inform an enriched pedagogy that promotes an approach to learning which embraces and explores this wider sensitivity through various methods. The sensitivity, synthesis and subjectivity refer to the ways in which teachers should approach the knowledge, skills and understanding for every curriculum subject. They are exemplified in curriculum documents and traditionally connected to the teachers and others conceptions about a particular subject and how it should be taught. These words also refer back to the act of teaching, they are important, as they render the teaching principles that have impact on learning. Cross-curricular teaching is not about weakening and diluting subjects in any way. In fact, it is about the development of an enhanced pedagogy that a skilful teacher adopts for the explicit purposes of enhancing teaching and learning. The pedagogy of cross-curricular teaching will make use and explore the teachers sensitivity towards, and synthesis of, the different knowledge, skills and understanding within curriculum subjects. In order for this to happen, there are at least two premises: firstly, teachers will need to understand their own self-motivation, and their subjects, subjectivities; secondly, teachers will need to ensure that their subject knowledge is extended beyond their own subject areas. When this occurs, teachers will be in a position to develop a cross-curricular approach to learning that uses several methods or techniques according to the suitable principles and purposes. According to digital media these principles and purposes are: The Principles of Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning Cross-curricular teaching and learning is: Based on individual subjects and their connections through authentic links at the level of curriculum content, key concept or learning process, or through an external theme/dimension;

Characterised and developed by individual teachers with excellent subject knowledge, a deep understanding of their subject culture and a capacity to reconceptualise this within a broader context of learning beyond their subject, and with sensitivity towards other subject cultures; As much about a the development of a skilful pedagogy as anything else; Coherent in its maintaining of links with pupils prior learning and experience; Contextualised effectively, presenting opportunities for explicit links with pupils learning outside the formal classroom; Demanding in its use of curriculum time and resources, requiring flexibility and often needing the support of senior managers if collaborative approaches are to be implemented effectively; Underpinned by a meaningful assessment process that is explicitly linked to, and informed by, the enriched pedagogical framework; Normally collaborative in its nature, requiring meaningful and sustained cooperation between subject teachers with support from senior managers. The Purposes of Cross-Curricular Teaching and Learning The purposes of cross-curricular teaching and learning flow from an understanding of the definition and principles described above. As with the principles, these purposes benefit teachers and pupils alike. The purposes of cross-curricular teaching and learning are to; Motivate and encourage pupils learning in a sympathetic way in conjunction with their wider life experiences; Draw on similarities in and between individual subjects (in terms of subject content, pedagogical devices and learning processes) and make these links explicit in various ways; Provide active and experiential learning for pupils; Develop meaningful co-operation and collaboration between staff leading to the dual benefits of curriculum and professional development; Contribute towards a broad range of teaching and learning opportunities located within individual subject teaching, across subjects and in relationship to specific external curriculum themes or dimensions; Promote pupils cognitive, personal and social development in an integrated way; Allow teachers the opportunity to evaluate and reflect on their teaching and be imaginative and innovative in their curriculum planning; Facilitate a shared vision amongst teachers and managers through meaningful collaborations at all levels of curriculum design. Usage of English for cross curricular teaching purposes Cross-curricular projects are ways to engage students in authentic and meaningful activities in which they have the opportunity to experience and learn about a topic. Vale and Feunteun (1995) maintain that English is not an isolated educational issue. The child has whole needs in terms of learning. It is important to acquire language across curriculum. [] When developing their understanding of language, children need a lot of opportunity for review, recycling and consolidation of language, ideally through a variety of cross-curricular contexts (p.66). .

Taking into account the most relevant characteristics of what Wendy Scott and Lisbeth Ytreberg (1990) call Topic-based work, Jackie Holderness (1991) call Topic centered work, David Vale (1995) calls Activity based approach, Kathy Short, Jerome C. Horste and Carolyn Burke (1996) call Inquiry based curriculum and Susan House (1997) calls Projects; we propose Cross-curricular projects A cross-curricular project is a way of teaching English through content in which the target language is the vehicle of interaction and knowledge, not the subject matter. According to the authors mentioned above, Cross-curricular projects involve: Bringing together several disciplines (subjects: mathematics, science, arts, music, movement, social studies, etc.) in the classroom, working on cross-curricular projects can help the learning process. . To be done successfully teachers should rely little on the textbooks and therefore have a lot of room to prepare things that suit students needs. Students generally find the topic familiar as the teachers are already presumed to be aware of their interest in various themes boosted during the previous lessons. Children can associate words, functions, structures and situations with a particular topic. Association helps memory and learning in context clearly helps both understanding and memory. Since different students have different learning needs, standards and expectations, teachers need to develop materials that are adapted to students levels and pace of learning .Cross curricular teaching helps students to see English as a vehicle with a purpose. When the class is concentrated in a particular cross-curricular project, the content of the lesson automatically becomes more important than the language itself. This means it is easier to relate the lessons to the experiences and interest of children. . In the cross curricular teaching and learning project, teachers design and use teaching materials wisely, teach different skills, assign different tasks and use students feedback to inform teaching and learning. Working in the classroom naturally (through English) includes all the language skills as well as a wide range of guided and free activities emphasizing on content not on language. It gives children the opportunity to inquire on topics that the class has decided to work on. The teacher needs to be informed about what students are doing in other classes. Crosscurricular projects facilitate children learning, integrating all subjects through the use of foreign language, allowing children to inquire and connect experience and knowledge

3. Students engagement in English cross curricular activities Generally English teachers found the experience of planning the curriculum across subjects useful. Teachers could work collaboratively with other teachers in lessonplanning, co-teaching and designing the module. It largely enforces teachers professional development in integrating language across curriculum. Teachers agree that cross-curricular planning can grant students a chance to have a different approach of learning. Moving away from the textbook, teachers observed that students had participated very actively in group tasks like poster design and poster-selling, and the activities can be really fun. We can also notice obvious improvement in students speaking skills besides consolidation of the other subject-related content knowledge.

Students are commonly highly involved as the curriculum is generally quite interactive. They may find the topic relevant to their life and they could use their knowledge to develop their own ideas. After such modules, the students became more proficient in speaking. They feel much more confident about presenting in front of the others. Students enjoy drawing and presenting posters. They try their very best to participate in different kinds of classroom activities such as brainstorming in groups, designing posters and presenting their end products. Most of the students were able to make use of what they learned in the cross curricular lessons. Their biggest challenge was how to put the ideas into English The curriculum normally includes a lot of new vocabulary and tasks. The aim is to make students feel confident when presenting their projects. Some less able students might encounter challenges and they found the projects quite hard in the beginning, they are able to manage it and to express themselves using the target vocabulary, but, of course, in certain cases some adjustments need to be made in the curriculum. Methods and results around the world English teachers and researchers have been studying the importance of English in nonEnglish speaking countries. In Colombia, teachers of English, for instance, have implemented several methods and approaches with different results. One of the objectives for education should be the acquisition of skills of conversation and reading at least in one foreign language. A cross curricular project is the purpose of a community (the school, the family and the students) that should be executed and possible to be evaluated; it should emerge from a need and gives a result. There are some international projects that have promoted the teaching of English in primary school from third grade on, as the COFE Project (1994), Universidad Surcolombiana (1995) and Universidad del Valle (1996); they suggest that students of 8 years of age are at the right time to begin the learning process of a foreign language, not before. As a result of teaching experiences and reflection of teaching a diagnostic survey has been carried out to collect information about the teaching of English in public schools. The results revealed that in some of the schools children from first and second levels are not receiving English classes; English is taught as an isolated subject in the curriculum; the most used activity in the class is drill practice of questions and answers. Researchers concluded that a possible innovation to apply was teaching English through crosscurricular projects. This innovation has theoretical foundation on meaningful learning; education is seen as a social process in which the interaction with the environment and collaboration brings learners to levels of understanding and skill development. Language is seen as a vehicle of communication and interaction used for exchanging meaningful information and knowledge through cross-curricular projects that contribute to the process English language learning because in projects language is used for interaction and knowledge. We should aim at offering an opportunity for students to learn English through projects that integrate curricular content with language (English/Romanian/Spanish). After analyzing children production two categories emerge. One category shows connections between English as a foreign language classes and the curriculum; and the other one shows understanding and meaning constructions. These categories are to be

illustrated using evidences from videotaped lessons, teachers journals, direct observation and children individual portfolios. For analyzing the English learning process we need to look for categories that emerged from the data and are implicit in the process of children learning of English. During the implementation of cross-curricular projects, childrens production led us to the following results: - Connections between EFL classes and the curricula - Children make content connections across subjects. - Children make inquiries to find cross-curricular relationships. - Using the language students know. - Talking about the topic connecting it with childrens experience. - Transferring activities done during the English class to daily lives. While developing the classes children had the opportunity to inquire topics so; they decide which topic to work on. Inquiring and deciding topics students are involved in learning, children use what they know and cooperate to enrich their knowledge. As a result of topics presented by the teachers and childrens inquiries based on their experience, while working on cross-curricular projects a final conclusion emerge: Children are the center of the learning process. Implications of crosscuricular teaching and learning English
Some learning Implications Children understand language when it is in context. When children find that a topic is relevant, related to their real world and previous experience, they get involved in the learning process. Children like to experience manipulating the objects used in the learning process. Children are very creative and like to work with everything they have near. Children use to repeat what the teacher said expressing understanding. Children like to use drawings to express what they really know or understand about a topic. Some teaching Implications To work in cross-curricular projects is not necessary to follow a specific text book because teachers can guide the English class according to what children are studying in other the subjects, teachers can also take advantage of children curiosity to plan their classes. Teachers can use different materials, easy to find everywhere like natural sources or recycled material. Teachers should be very active and promote this energy to students. Teachers should establish routines from the beginning of the lessons to facilitate class work and discipline. Teachers need to reinforce the new language presented as much as possible. While designing activities, teachers must have in mind that when the language used is joined with movements or images, music and meaningful activities for children, is easier for them to keep this language in mind and use it. Teachers must take into account that activities that involve stories, with colorful pictures, few words and implicit TPR activities, increase student's motivation, facilitates students' recognition of facts and helps the student's production.

 Teachers must value students contributions and work, taking advantage of this and bring students positive reinforcement about what they do as feedback. While developing cross-curricular projects, teacher need to ask for the topics studied in the other subjects, but also he/she need to ask about the kind of pedagogical activities that they do. Teachers must create a confident environment developed with the students. While the teaching process, teachers have to use body language in order to make students sense about what is expressed in the foreign language. Teacher must realize that if an activity does not work, she/he has to re-adapt it in order to get better results. Teachers should use different environments out of the classroom according to the projects setting. Teachers should promote drawing as a way of expression. Teachers should help children to answer their inquiries. Teachers should motivate childrens curiosity to promote their inquiries and facilitate the discovery of learning.

Conclusions Teaching English to children through cross-curricular projects is an effective way that guarantees learning. It is a way of learning English through content in which the target language is the vehicle of interaction and knowledge, not the subject of study. It is also the best opportunity that children have to learn what is meaningful for them, using English naturally. It allows children to inquire about what they want to learn according to their interest, their experience and the related to topics studied in their previous curricula. Children learning is expressed by means of the transfer of activities done during the English class to daily lives; making content connections across subjects; making inquiries to find cross-curricular relationships according to their experience, interests and interacting with other children; talking about the topic connecting it with their experiences and using the language they know, like body language, drawings, written and spoken English and/or Spanish language. Spain has introduced the study of various subjects such as Art, Music, History, Geography, etc. at a cross-curricular level with English. Researchers assume that the foreign language learning do not interfere with the process of acquisition of the mother tongue e.g. Me lavo la feis, Water para las plantas. These are evidences of foreign language learning, because students are using the language they know to express knowledge. Teachers can work on cross-curricular projects for first-graders, centered on the curricula and adapting the projects to students cognitive and psychomotor development. Thus, teachers do not have to worry about the development of a specific skill, through crosscurricular projects, children learn English in a natural way. The motivation and quality of their first English classes would increase or decrease their interest for future classes.
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