CLIL Method
Our school has ambitions to provide quality education according to the Slovak Curriculum and on the other hand to give education broader dimension by integration of English Language using the CLIL method (Content and Language Integrated Learning).
Why CLIL?
As a child grows and becomes adult, his brain can work differently. Nonetheless, learning tools become crucial in language learning. The reason why very small children seem to learn language better and easier is often associated with the natural environment around them.
A foreign language lesson, on which pupils go through a complex process of sorting sounds, structures, grammar or vocabulary, is rarely natural. Foreign language lessons are important for pupils to understand the basic principles of language. But in class, the language teacher rarely has the time to go beyond this important part. The CLIL method can offer pupils of different ages the natural situation for language development, and this natural use of language can encourage their motivation and desire to learn languages. Students stop focusing on language and focus only on the subject being taught. In most cases, some time is spent on teaching subjects or special modules through a foreign language. In CLIL method, the teaching of languages and other subjects is interconnected. Thus, the lesson has two goals - one focuses on subject or theme and the other on the language. CLIL is therefore sometimes called dual-purpose education.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CLIL METHOD IN TEACHING PROCESS AND BILINGUAL EDUCATION
Organizational unit of the Associated Private School, Starozagorská 8, Košice: Private Primary School, Starozagorská 8 in Košice started its activity from the school year of 2006/2007. In the 1st year we include pupils who have already acquired foreign language skills in English or Slovak kindergartens, whether they come from bilingual speaking families or attended foreign pre-school or school institutions during their residence in a foreign country.
We cooperate with English kindergartens and Slovak kindergartens, we exchange experience, we organize open classes for parents and we prepare cultural events in foreign languages. Assigning pupils to the first year of Private Primary School is based on the results of the entrance tests of foreign language skills which have been compiled by the school in cooperation with a psychologist and a special educator.