4.2 Support Strategies for Assessment
Key Takeaways
- Unsupported assessment in CLIL risks measuring a learner's target-language ability rather than their actual subject-content knowledge
- Recognized support strategies include changing vocabulary, simplifying language structures, adding visuals, using the L1 or target-language glossaries, and modifying test instructions
- Further strategies include providing additional examples, allowing extra time, repeating or reading oral instructions in the L1, explaining instructions, and allowing learners to ask questions in the L1
- Support strategies change how a task is accessed and explained; they do not lower the content standard a correct answer must meet
- A learner who understands a subject but cannot yet express that understanding fluently in the target language needs support strategies, not a lower content bar, to demonstrate what they know
4.2 Support Strategies for Assessment
Quick Answer: Because CLIL tests subject content through a second or foreign language, unsupported assessment risks measuring language ability instead of content knowledge. Eleven recognized support strategies - from simplifying vocabulary to allowing L1 questions - help teachers separate what a learner knows about a subject from how well they can currently express it in the target language.
Why Support Strategies Matter in CLIL
In a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classroom, subject content is usually taught and tested through a second or foreign language rather than the learner's first language (L1). This creates a specific risk at assessment time: a learner may fully understand a subject - how a volcano forms, why plants need light, how a map's contour lines work - but fail to show that understanding if a test's wording, instructions, or format place heavy demands on language the learner has not yet mastered.
If a teacher does nothing to manage this, the result is an assessment that quietly measures target-language proficiency rather than subject knowledge, even though it is labeled a science test, a geography test, or a history test. The learner's real content knowledge gets under-measured - the score ends up saying more about how well they can read or write in the target language than about what they actually know. Because the whole point of CLIL is to develop content and language together without letting either one silently cancel out the other, the syllabus lists a specific set of support strategies teachers are expected to use so that assessment measures subject content fairly, alongside language.
The Eleven Recognized Support Strategies
| # | Strategy | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Changing vocabulary | Swapping a low-frequency or technical word for a more familiar synonym without changing the meaning being tested |
| 2 | Simplifying language structures | Shorter sentences, active voice, and fewer subordinate clauses in test items |
| 3 | Adding visuals | Diagrams, photos, or icons placed next to written questions to support meaning |
| 4 | Use of the L1, or target-language glossaries | Giving key terms with an L1 translation or a plain target-language definition |
| 5 | Modifying test instructions | Rewriting instructions in plainer, more explicit wording |
| 6 | Providing additional examples | Including a worked or sample item that shows exactly how to answer |
| 7 | Allowing extra time | Giving additional minutes to complete the same task |
| 8 | Repeating oral instructions in the L1 | Restating spoken instructions in the learners' first language |
| 9 | Reading instructions aloud | Reading the written instructions to the class before learners begin |
| 10 | Explaining instructions | Paraphrasing or clarifying what a task is asking learners to do |
| 11 | Allowing questions from learners in the L1 | Letting learners ask clarifying questions in their first language before starting |
Worked Example: Supporting a Geography Test Item
Take a test item asking learners to identify areas of steep and gentle slope from a contour-line map. An unsupported version might read: "Analyze the contour intervals depicted and determine which region exhibits the most precipitous gradient." Even a learner who fully understands contour lines could be blocked by "exhibits" or "precipitous gradient."
A supported version applies several strategies at once: the vocabulary is changed ("steep" instead of "precipitous gradient"), the structure is simplified ("Look at the map. Which area is steepest?"), a labeled diagram is added showing what "steep" and "gentle" look like on a contour map, and the teacher reads the instruction aloud and checks understanding before learners begin. None of these changes make the geography easier - the learner still has to read the actual map correctly - but they remove language obstacles that have nothing to do with geography knowledge.
Support Strategies Change Access, Not Content Standards
A critical point in the syllabus is that these eleven strategies adjust how a task is presented and explained - they do not lower what counts as a correct or complete content answer. Extra time is given so a learner can process language, not so they can leave out content. A glossary explains what a word means; it does not supply the answer. Reading instructions aloud clarifies what learners are being asked to do; it does not simplify the geography, science, or history being tested. Handled this way, support strategies let a fair, valid picture of subject knowledge emerge even while a learner's target-language proficiency is still developing - exactly the outcome CLIL assessment is meant to protect.
Worked Example: An Oral Instruction in a History Lesson
A second, spoken example makes the same point from a different angle. A history teacher tells the class, orally and only in the target language, "Now compare the two sources and decide which one is more reliable, giving reasons for your judgment." A group of learners whose L1 is not the target language may lose the instruction the moment an unfamiliar word like "reliable" or "judgment" appears, even though comparing two sources for trustworthiness is a skill they have already practiced in their own language in other subjects.
The teacher addresses this by repeating the instruction in the learners' L1, then explaining what "reliable" means with a quick example ("Reliable means you can trust it - like a witness who was actually there"), and finally inviting any learner who is still unsure to ask a clarifying question in the L1 before the task starts. None of this changes what the task is asking learners to do with the two historical sources; it only makes sure every learner has actually received the instruction before they are judged on how well they carry it out.
Putting It Together
Support strategies exist because content knowledge and language ability develop at different rates in every CLIL learner, and a test that ignores that gap risks telling a false story: a low content score that is really a language-access problem, or a strong-looking language score that hides shaky subject knowledge. By deliberately choosing from strategies such as changing vocabulary, adding visuals, using L1 or target-language glossaries, modifying instructions, giving additional examples, allowing extra time, repeating or reading instructions aloud, explaining instructions, and allowing L1 questions, a CLIL teacher keeps the assessment focused on what it is actually meant to measure - giving every learner a genuine chance to show what they know about the subject, not just how well they can currently express it in the target language.
A CLIL teacher rewrites a photosynthesis test item by replacing the word "synthesize" with "make," removing subordinate clauses, and shortening each question to one main idea. Which support strategies is she using?
Match each support strategy to an example of it in practice.
Match each item on the left with the correct item on the right
Why is it important for a CLIL teacher to provide support strategies such as simplified instructions or visuals during assessment?
A learner fully understands how volcanoes form but scores poorly on a written test because the instructions use academic vocabulary she has not yet met in English. Which two support strategies would most directly address this specific problem?
Which of the following is NOT one of the recognized support strategies for assessment in CLIL?
You've completed this section
Continue exploring other exams