Under the microscope: CLIL teaching materials for Biology

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is one of the most recent and most innovative phenomena in education at the moment. Since this approach is still very new, only a few suitable teaching materials have been published for the various school subjects. In some countries, however, there are dedicated CLIL teachers and linguists who have already developed CLIL-specific textbooks for certain content subjects (e.g. Geography, History or Biology). In this thesis, a theoretical analysis and practical evaluation of the CLIL teaching materials "Cross-Curriculum Creativity Biology" (Books 1-4) (Fierling & Machotka 2008) was carried out. These textbooks are intended to be used to teach Biology in English. They follow the Austrian curriculum for Biology for the first form of secondary education (i.e. for children aged ten to twelve). Overall, the examination showed that while the books are a good basis for CLIL teachers who intend to teach Biology in English in Austria, there is still room for improvement.

Autorentext

Mag. Theresa Floimayr was born on June 10th, 1985 in Stroheim, Upper Austria. She attended a grammar school and completed her school leaving exam in 2003. Between 2003 and 2009 she studied in Vienna to become a teacher in Biology and English. In 2009, she graduated with honors. Since then, she has worked at a grammar school in Vienna.