Complementing CLIL lessons: a focus on vocabulary acquisition for 2nd grade students at ‘Unidad Educativa Pasos"

Abstract

The use of CLIL readings in the acquisition of a foreign language has become a trendy approach in bilingual education. The implementation of CLIL shows its dual-focused perspective, including not only language and content but also communication, cognition, and culture. CLIL readings nowadays are part of many English textbooks; however, these readings do not provide the essential previous input for a full understanding of the content. Starting for this, vocabulary acquisition in EFL learning will provide young learners with the necessary input to manage and develop the reading comprehension skill. Learning vocabulary is a basic constituent of learning a foreign language. The more words we know, the better we understand what we read. Vocabulary learning is one the major challenges for young learners during the process of foreign language acquisition. The aim of this work is to help young learners, specifically 2nd-grade students, to acquire vocabulary to understand the CLIL readings offered by Story Central textbook by using suitable vocabulary strategies, particularly crosswords, word search puzzles, and stories.