The Exploration of CLIL Teaching Mode in Moral Education in College English Courses

College of Foreign Languages,Taiyuan University of Technology,Taiyuan,China Email:772524162@qq.com

[Abstract]In the context of moral education development and the development of higher education,it has become an inevitable trend to strengthen moral education in college English courses.Based on the characteristics of college English teaching and the current situation of moral education in college English courses,this paper explores the feasibility and practical paths of CLIL teaching mode in moral education in college English courses,so as to further promote the development of moral education in college English courses.

[Keywords]CLIL teaching(language and content integrated teaching);College English courses;moral education;Learner

Introduction

National Medium- and Long-term Education Reform and Development Planning Outline(2010-2020)clearly states that improving the quality is the core task of higher education development,and college English education is an important part of higher education.And it is also an activity aimed at cultivating a large number of talents with professional knowledge and higher language level that are needed by the society.Therefore,it is essential for us to provide high-quality foreign language education so as to improve the teaching quality of higher education.In view of the current international situation and China’s development,General Secretary Xi Jinping also stressed that in colleges and universities higher education should take moral education as the central link,strengthen and improve moral education and conduct all other courses in the same direction.In view of this,this paper,based on the characteristics of college English courses,expounds the current research status of moral education in college English courses,and explores the feasibility and practical paths of CLIL teaching mode in moral education in college English courses.

Moral Education in College English Courses

The main contents of college English education in China are general foreign language,specific-purpose foreign language and cross-cultural education.Among colleges and universities,college English courses are characterized by long hours,high credit ratios,large span and wide coverage(Liu,2020,pp.105-106).All colleges and universities offer compulsory courses,elective courses and other college English courses according to the actual situation.Based on the characteristics and current situation of college English courses,it is necessary to explore moral education in college English courses.

In China,moral education for college students has always been set up by special courses,but in recent years,with more attention on the concept of moral education,carrying out moral education through various professional courses has become a trend.Throughout moral education in college English courses,it is not difficult to find that there are still many deficiencies.For example,foreign language teachers lack of“teaching moral values through professional courses”consciousness,lack of systematic understanding and in-depth researches on“moral education”,and foreign language teaching has maintained the status quo of emphasizing tools over humanities for a long time.Some college teachers choose to add some moral elements into courses which only floats on the surface without going deep.This is because in college education,there are specific courses to teach moral contents;secondly,the textbooks of foreign language courses mostly contain typical western cultural knowledge and background with few traditional Chinese culture connotation.How to embed Chinese core values and moral elements in the classroom of foreign language with strong western values in a silent way does increase the difficulty for foreign language teachers.Most important of all,learners feel bored in traditional classes because of monotonous traditional teaching mode,and they regard foreign language courses as a kind of tool to improve language skills so as to find a good job.All these make learning focus pay more attention to instrumental and utilitarian needs while ignoring the humanity nature of foreign language.Influenced by western values for a long time,learners’critical thinking is also more or less affected.In addition,there is also a problem of the disconnection between language and subject knowledge in the examination-oriented teaching mode.

More western developed countries have taken moral education as the theme of the times.Moral education,which included virtue education and patriotic education,has become the top priority in education.Especially in recent years,moral education in western countries has been developing towards a comprehensive direction.On the one hand,moral education is set up by specific subjects;on the other hand,it is carried out through various courses in the whole educational process.It is effective to promote moral education in multidisciplinary courses.Following the principle of Mr.Dewey’s“life is education”,the United States has passed on some concrete and practical moral codes to students through classroom teaching.At the same time,it has paid attention to inculcating moral thoughts in school practice.Japanese universities offer about 25 kinds of comprehensive courses and special lectures for civic education including patriotic education and value education.South Korea,on the other hand,attaches great importance to national spiritual education by compiling new textbooks for national education and requiring every course of school to reflect the requirements of national spiritual education in various ways.

CLIL Teaching Mode

CLIL(Content and Language Integrated Learning)is another name for Bilingual teaching in Europe,which is translated as Content and Language Integrated Teaching or Subject and Language Integrated Learning(Jin,2013,pp.41-44).It is a new teaching mode proposed by European scholars who study foreign language teaching based on Hymes’communicative competence theory,Halliday’s functional linguistics theory and the existing educational practice mode(Wu,2017,pp.59-67).This teaching mode advocates the combination of language teaching and content teaching in foreign language classes,focusing on both content and language without bias.There are three teaching methods in CLIL teaching mode,namely Immersive Teaching Method,Thematic Teaching Method and Sustainable Content-based Teaching Method(Guo&Wu,2019,pp.166-169).The first one Immersive Teaching Method focuses on the use of real language materials and enables learners to master knowledge in classroom through foreign language media.Thematic Teaching Method,as the name suggests,advocates integrating language into specific topics and topics which achieved the aim of combining language with content in learning.Sustainable Content-based Teaching emphasizes the sustainability of teaching.

The Feasibility of CLIL Teaching Mode in Moral Education in College English Courses

CLIL teaching mode is in line with teaching objectives of moral education in college English courses.

At this stage,the teaching goal of foreign language courses in colleges is to realize knowledge,ability and value guidance,and the focus of the CLIL teaching mode lies in the integration of professional knowledge and language teaching.It means that on the basis of language and professional knowledge,it is expectable to promote learners to receive knowledge,train language skills and develop thinking ability.In other words,the CILI teaching mode is consistent with the objectives of moral education in college English courses,which provides a theoretical basis for CLIL teaching mode to be applied in moral education in college English courses.

CLIL teaching mode creates a reasonable access point for moral education in college English courses.

As the window to learn western culture and broaden cultural horizon,college English courses are the most suitable stage to cultivate learners’cultural identity,cultivate core values and integrate moral education into curriculum.In CLIL teaching mode,one element“culture”of 4Cs teaching framework can become the breakthrough point for teaching moral education.It is important to put the teaching practice into language classroom and the whole teaching process,and grasp the culture core of moral education of courses in the omni-directional way within the multi-angle.Another effective way is to combine language knowledge and discipline knowledge with moral education.In the teaching design,we should not only highlight the teaching content of professional knowledge,but also focus on excavating the cultural connotation and moral elements in the content,such as flexibly designing the classroom teaching links,enriching the classroom content in the college English“implicit”classroom and creating the moral and cultural environment.

CLIL teaching mode provides supports for moral education in college English courses.

CLIL teaching mode emphasizes the cultivation of learners’critical thinking in the process of combining language learning with professional content.It is because only learners improve their critical thinking can they better understand and interpret concrete or abstract concepts and cultural connotations.On the other hand,the textbooks of foreign language courses contain a lot of western cultural background knowledge,foreign language teachers always adopt related context unconsciously to introduce the contents in the process of teaching.So after long time learning,it is likely to make learners influenced by the western culture while accepting knowledge,and make learners worship the superiority of western culture.At this time,it is more necessary for learners to give play to their critical thinking,which can help learners raise vigilance,grasp the right cognition and judgment of content.Learners can view western values comprehensively and critically with the value guidance by teachers.The effective implementation of moral education is inseparable from the cultivation and improvement of learners’critical thinking.The combination of critical thinking and CLIL’s teaching advantages will further promote the development of moral education in college English courses.

CLIL teaching mode can effectively make up the deficiency of moral education in college English courses.

In college English teaching,learners’initiative is ignored.And teaching mode is too traditional so that the result of class participation is not ideal,which also brings obstacles to the development of moral education in college English courses.The key point of the development of moral education in college English courses is to enhance the effectiveness and creativeness of college English teaching.If learners are not highly motivated to learn,the teaching effect of moral values conveyed by content teaching and language practice in the courses will be greatly reduced.Researches shows that Immersive Teaching Method,Thematic Teaching Method and Sustainable Content-based Teaching Method in CLIL teaching mode can stimulate learners’learning motivation to the maximum extent,deepen learners’understanding and mastery of knowledge,mobilize learners’learning enthusiasm and optimize learning effect.This will effectively make up the deficiency of moral education in college English courses and promote the smooth development of moral education in college English courses.

The Realization Paths of Moral Education in College English Courses under CLIL Teaching Mode

Develop a comprehensive teaching plan with equal emphasis on subject content,language skills,moral and culture.

Before class,teachers should make a comprehensive teaching plan,consider teaching objectives,combine the subject content to be taught with language skills and sort out the moral and culture elements to be delivered in class.It is also necessary to straighten out the overall framework of the lecture.Depending on the content of the courses,Immersion,Thematic or Sustainable Content-based approaches can be chosen.Flexible choice of appropriate teaching method is beneficial to stimulate learners’interest in learning,make learners play their subjective initiative and optimize the classroom effect.For example,if the teaching content is mainly about etiquette,Immersive Teaching Method can be chosen.Simulating scene can make learners easily involve into the scene and restoring the cultural context to the maximum extent can lead learners to have further studies.

Integrate teaching resources and dig up moral elements.

In the process of lesson preparation,teachers should not only confine themselves to teaching materials,but also integrate teaching resources according to the actual situation.With the rich resources such as the Internet,Learning Power APP,Super Star Learning Channel and MOOCs,teachers should enrich teaching content,select entry points with times characteristics and cultural background and cultivate patriotism in classroom teaching.Based on textbooks,moral elements,values and related traditional cultural knowledge can be effectively supplemented by various resources,so that moral education can walk with foreign language learning in the same direction.In this process,teachers can discuss with teachers who major in moral education,so as to carry out moral education in college English courses in a softer and more natural way.

Design teaching links and enrich teaching forms.

In this process,teachers should focus on language knowledge and skills,organically integrate moral elements and help improve learners’intercultural critical thinking.At the same time,learners’learning level and interest should be taken into consideration.Diversified teaching links should also be designed.Teachers can determine the teaching theme according to the teaching content.For example,if the teaching content is related to the quality of workers,they can specially apply the Thematic Teaching Method and design the teaching links.The sublimation of textbook themes by introducing moral concepts can be combined with the craftsman spirit advocated by China,as well as the groups who are selfless to dedicated their lives to the COVID-19 epidemic.It is also a good idea to design learners’discussion links,or assign tasks for learners to collect relevant topic materials for group speech or presentation,which can enhance classroom interaction,activate classroom atmosphere,stimulate learners’thinking on teaching content and improve their thinking connotation.In addition,taking advantage of multi-modal teaching means and making reasonable use of audio and video materials in courses can meet different teaching needs.

Pay attention to after-class reflection,evaluation and improvement of teaching.

as the two main roles in class,teachers and learners should jointly reflect after class.Learners can reflect on what they have learned and the learning results in the form of writing report or learning summary,and teachers can summarize their thoughts through teaching experience and teaching reflection.The part of teaching evaluation should not only evaluate learners’mastery of language skills and professional knowledge,but also evaluate learners’comprehensive quality.Teaching evaluation standard is no longer limited to exam results,but should be multi-dimensional comprehensive evaluation.The ability of logical judgment,cultural critical and other developmental skills should also be included in the evaluation scope.In the process of evaluation,we should also apply peer evaluation and learner evaluation,and pay special attention to moral elements and the important role of value guidance,so as to make the results of teaching evaluation effective for the improvement of moral education in foreign language courses.

Conclusion

It is of great significance to strengthen the moral education in college English courses,but moral education in college English courses is still in the preliminary exploration stage.And it is even more challenging to reform the teaching mode.Therefore,to better carry out CLIL teaching mode in college English teaching with Chinese characteristics and to implement moral education still need many parts work together.It is desirable to make college English courses not only become the courses to cultivate international innovative talents but also the courses to carry the fertile fields of the Chinese native culture and core values.It exists more rooms for schools,teachers and learners to make mutual coordination,do further theoretical researches and practical exploration.Only in this way can improve the level of foreign language education courses construction,can cultivate more high-quality talents speak good Chinese story and spread voices of China.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper was the research result of(Grant No.2019B041)Practical Research of Moral Education on College English Courses from Philosophy and Social Science of Shanxi in 2019;(Grant No.2019JG040)Collaborative Construction of Moral Education Courses for Graduate Students under the Background of“Double First-class”Construction for Graduate Education Reform of Shanxi in 2019;(Grant No.2019SX0008A)An Empirical Study of Multimodal Corpus Based on the Construction of Corporate Foreign Language Websites from the Key Project of National University Foreign Language Teaching and Research Project; Exploration on the Cultivation Paths of First-Class International Talents in the Context of Shanxi Province University Alliance from Education Science Planning Project of Shanxi Province in 2019;and Research on the Training Paths of International Talents on the Basis of CLIL under the Background of“New Engineering”and“New Liberal Arts”from the Teaching Reform Research of Shanxi in 2020.