Instead of drawing your attention to an interesting article or study today, I would like to invite you all to a seminar devoted to CLIL in primary and secondary education. This seminar will be held on 28^th April, in the Verlooyzaal, Oudstrijderslaan 200, 1140 Brussel-Evere. Schools and other people interested in CLIL, how it really works and how to implement it, are more then welcome to come. Read More

(Part I was published on 28 July)

Managerial and intercultural skills

Doing business with Latin America has a project based approach. It fosters integration between content and language, but involves the learning of skills as well. Moreover, depending on the stress that is put on the economic context or the cultural component, these skills can be defined as managerial and intercultural.
First of all, students should apply knowledge from diverse disciplines in order to solve multidisciplinary problems. A good simulation of real practice, where managers are supposed to accept responsibilities and to combine different layers of information, going from facts and figures to a wide range of human interest topics. Read More

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) is a widely spread concept: it involves teaching a curricular subject through the medium of a language other than the one normally used by the teacher/lecturer and the students.

The University College Brussels (HUB) recently implemented ‘Doing Business with …‘, a assignment (3 credits) for Master students in Commercial Engineering (first year). Various economic contents are being offered while submerging students in a foreign language context.  Students can focus on quickly growing economies, transition economies, underdevelopment and middle-income economies. They will choose from the 4 languages offered at bachelor level: English – ‘Doing Business with Middle East-East‘ (including India), German – ‘Business with Eastern Europe‘ (mainly Russia), French – ‘Business with the French-speaking part of Africa‘ (e.g. the former Belgian colony Congo) and Spanish – ‘Business with Latin America‘.
Let’s take a look at ‘Doing Business with Latin America’. Spanish is only exceptionally taught at Belgian secondary school level. Most students have to start from scratch at the beginning of their university career. Hence, creating the best pedagogic setting for CLIL is easier said than done. The course consists of three parts: Read More