Integrating Curricular Contents and Language through Storytelling: Criteria for Effective CLIL Lesson Planning

Storytelling is a receptive and productive educational resource in which social values, content and language are linked and integrated (López Téllez, 1996; Hearn & Garcés, 2005; Miller & Pennycuff, 2008, etc.). Hence, as a current approach to language teaching, CLIL represents the best framework for providing young learners the effective acquisition of some topics from the curriculum (Bentley, 2010, , p.6). However, this methodological approach requires establishing quality criteria for successful and sustainable CLIL teaching and learning. This paper aims to explore the complex process of delivering effective CLIL lessons through storytelling and to illustrate a framework (Bloom, 1956; Coyle, 2005 and Coyle et al., 2010) that a pre- primary teacher needs to apply in order to facilitate learners’ linguistic development and acquisition of content knowledge. These theoretical principles are then exemplified and assessed in the development of microteachings conducted at Universidad de Alcalá, where student teachers could reflect on 1) the establishment of an appropriate framework for successful and sustainable CLIL teaching and learning, 2) the effective teaching and learning of some curricular topics through storytelling and 3) the potential development of language and cognitive skills. The findings of the study report that storytelling can be considered an effective educational CLIL resource that facilitates not only the effective acquisition of contents from the curriculum, but also cognitive development and communication in another language. Limitations of the present paper call for further research in the young learner classroom.