Project management with CLIL approach

Teaching team: Varpumaria Jeskanen ja Kirsi-Marja Toivanen

University and degree programme: Karelia UAS, International Business

Course: Project Management, 3 ECTS

Timing: October – December 2023

CLIL pilot type: Light

CLIL assignments: Key terminology (In other words) and a steering group meeting

Language: English

The learning objectives of the course was to learn the key elements of successful project planning to understand how to carry a project from an idea to the conclusion. The students created a project plan in a project team and worked as active members of a project team. The CLIL method was used in two assignments to support the students to build professional vocabulary and communicate actively with the executive stakeholders.

• Sequence: The lectures and workshops were on campus weekly. When the project management course started, the first assignment of practicing the key business terminology was already partly completed by playing a game “In other words” with a language teacher. In the project management course, we then started by identifying and defining specific terms related to projects, such as risk assessment or project budget. We then categorised these terms and created a concept map of project management. Once the groups were actively working together with their own project plan, the Language and Content teacher organised a steering group meeting where the students had to explain how their group work was progressing. 
• Concept and Task > Language: In the vocabulary task, the students learned the professional terminology used in the projects. When they categorised these into different categories of project management, they worked in teams and had to explain to others why certain terms belonged to a particular category. They also ended up negotiating some terminology, which gave them good practice in discussing and arguing their choices in a professional context.

Language also played an important role in the final task where groups of students had a 15-minute meeting with the teaching team to explain how they were progressing with their tasks, what they were going to do next and whether they had encountered any problems or risks in achieving their goals. This meeting required them to prepare in advance to give their status update clearly and concisely, using professional language and communication. This exercise simulated managerial communication in a steering group situation where the teachers assess the group’s ability to communicate effectively.

• Guided multimedia input: The course had moodle environment to which the content teacher placed supporting materials, like videos with the English subtitles to study independently.
• Key language: English was used in lecturers, group work and assignments. Groups of 4-5 students had to have 2-3 different nationalities and working language had to be English.
• Instructions:
  • The first CLIL assignment was concentrated in concept definitions. The students were asked to listacademic business terms from the Academic Corpus (e.g. Analysis, approach, formula, process, procedure, etc.). Students familiarised themselves with the terms individually using dictionaries and thesauruses. After the vocabulary of key terms, the students had a workshop on campus where they discussed the definitions of terms in diverse groups using the idea of ALIAS/In Other Words. (Course Academic communication, Kirsi-Marja Toivanen, September 2023). In the project management course, students were given a list of key terms related to project management. The students used the same dictionaries to check the meanings. During class, students created concept maps of key project management terms (Project Management, Varpumaria Jeskanen, October 2023)
  • The second CLIL assignment was the simulation of the steering group meeting (stakeholder meeting). In the meeting, the project team introduces the progress and next steps to the project stakeholder. They prepared a status report which covered what tasks are completed, what has been achieved and has there been difficulties. Resource allocation and responsibilities are also discussed as well as next steps and potential risks to complete the remaining tasks on time. The meeting lasted 15 minutes per team. Both the language teacher and content teacher participated as key stakeholders. The assessment grid with the criteria to assess both contents and language is introduced in ch 5.
• Interactions: Both CLIL assignments required active interaction with the team members. The students also needed to prepare in advance independently to be able to actively participate for the In other words game on campus and the stakeholder meeting with the teachers. In a group they needed to decide how to utilize each person’s strengths in working with the project tasks. Both written deliverables and verbal and non-verbal communication was assessed in the assignments.
• Thinking: The students needed to read materials given by the teachers and use their skills in finding answers. They also needed to think as a team a feasible and fresh project idea and how to conduct a project successfully.
• Supported output: We used templates for the assignments and they had several submissions during the course. After each submission they received feedback at group level with the assessment. Each assignment had a certain number of points, with a maximum total of 100 points.
• Feedback: According to the student survey which we asked them to fill at the end of the Project Management course, the CLIL tasks enhanced their
• project management terminology (50/50 agreed or strongly agreed)
• time management skills (49/50)
• understanding project phases and tasks (48/50)
• ability to prepare project documentation in English (47/50)
• skills in project management techniques (47/50)

58 % of students said that studying in English is more complicated and requires more effort than studying in the native language. In this course we worked in teams and 80 % of students felt that they enjoyed helping team members to learn the specific subject contents. 88 % found this collaborative approach in learning to be often or always fun way to work. The students came from very different backgrounds and there were 17 different first languages in the group. As first year students, these group tasks and supported workshops were a good way of getting to know their classmates and using English on a daily basis to express ideas and opinions in a safe environment.

88% of students said that they considered their participation in the steering group meeting good or excellent even though it was in English in a professional business setting. This was a good result considering that 78 % of students said that their vocabulary in English is more limited and 36 % admitted that they feel somewhat nervous when they need to communicate in the classroom in English.

We introduced the concept of the steering group meeting in advance and they had to prepare their status update report as a team which helped them to prepare for the meeting together.

• Team teaching: The key is to plan the implementation together in advance. If students feel that teachers are not consistent in their instructions or assessment, the outcome will not be as successful. Planning adds clarity to the whole process, which makes it easier for students to follow the planned learning journey. Timing should also be considered so that the intensity of the course is maintained and they understand the key learning objectives for each task. This is particularly important when analysing their communication. So that they are not only preparing documentation for the steering group meeting in advance, but also considering who is showing what and how others are adding value to the conversation. When teachers are on the same page, implementation runs smoothly and it is fun to work together on the course.
• Further development ideas: The concept map task for key vocabulary could also be played as a game. For example, one student could take a random term, explain it to the others and suggest a category where it belongs. This could be done by using an online tool to prepare the game or a quiz with the correct explanation and category information to check their answer after they have tried it first. The steering group meetings could be recorded and given to the groups to do a self-analysis after the meeting. This would help them to improve their skills for similar situations in the future.

Link to the file: Donwload the assesment grid for a steering group meeting