Applying Innovation to CLIL

This paper describes a successful experience of flipped classroom conducted at the University of Salento, Italy, with students of English of the Courses of Study in Science of Primary Education, for the past three years. The initiative arises from the realisation that the traditional lecture does not work anymore with the new generations of students who need different stimuli in order to get the appropriate skills and competences required for their future profession. In a traditional lecture, students just take notes and try to memorise notions so as to pass the final exams and, after that, they tend to forget most of what they studied during the course. Moreover, in spite of the awareness of the importance of speaking English today, and in spite of various reforms aimed at achieving better competence, Italian students graduating from secondary schools, generally enter University with a low-level competence in the language. The pedagogical model of the flipped classroom applied to CLIL, along with strategies of non-formal education, involving team-work and problem- solving, based on the principle of learning by doing, were used to introduce theoretical topics and to perform a number of activities aimed at inclusion and intercultural education. Through active participation in discussion, different tasks assigned which required critical thinking, creativity and the use of communication technologies in creating several products, the students were able to master the theoretical topics planned for the course as well as the teaching approaches, methodologies and strategies to put them into practice in their future jobs.