Genres in CLIL Subjects

The Genre of History

Source: Llinares, Morton and Whittaker, The Role of Languages in CLIL, CUP, 2012

CLPA Primària – Carme Florit Ballester CLSA Secundària – Joan Alberich Carramiñana

Genres of History at school

The different genres in school history have been found to correspond to distinct conceptions of history and the task of the historian.

These genres can be seen to form a developmental path, starting with chronologically structured narration focused on historical figures, moving on to logically structured explanationos causes and consequences of historical events, and , finally, argument or discussion around different interpretations of history.

Llinares et altri, 2012:132

Students come into contact with five text types:

PERIOD STUDY: Students show their knowledge of the way things at a particular time.

RECOUNTS IN HISTORY: Texts in which events are structured sequentially using markers like ‘and then’, ‘next’… They are usually biographical recounts.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS: Texts which explain causes, why events happened in a particular sequence.

HISTORICAL EXPLANATIONS: Texts in which past events areexplained by a number of causes or consequences, not explained chronologically but grouped logically.

HISTORICAL ARGUMENT AND DISCUSSION: Texts in which is required interpretation, documentation and some arguing; cognitively and linguistically demanding.

PERIOD STUDY

A PERIOD STUDY includes the following stages:

Period Identification

+ Description

Example of PERIOD STUDY

Period

Identification

The feudalism

Description It flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Simply

defined, it was a system for structuring society around

relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange

for service or labour.

Feudalism describes a set of reciprocal legal and military

obligations among the warrior nobility, revolving around the

three key concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs.

RECOUNTS IN HISTORY

A recount in history includes the following stages:

Person Identification

+ Episodes & Evaluation

Example of RECOUNT IN HISTORY Person

Identification

Napoleon Bonaparte

Episodes &

Evaluation

Napoleon was born in Corsica in a family of noble Italian ancestry that had settled in Corsica in the 16th century. He spoke French with a heavy Corsican accent. Well-educated, he rose to prominence under the French First Republic and led successful campaigns against the enemies of the French revolution who set up the First and Second Coalitions, most notably his campaigns in Italy. He took power in a coup d'état in 1799 and installed himself as First Consul. In 1804 he made himself emperor of the French people. He fought a series of wars —the Napoleonic Wars—that involved complex coalitions for and against him. After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in continental Europe, and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances and the elevation of friends and family members to rule other European countries as French vassal states.

HISTORICAL RECOUNTS (Variation of a recount)

A HISTORICAL recount includes the following stages:

Background& Record of Events

+ Deduction & Evaluation

Example of HISTORICAL RECOUNT Background War of the Third Coalition: Great Britain broke the Peace of

Amiens and declared war on France in May 1803.

Record of

Events

Napoleon set up a camp at Boulogne-sur-Mer to prepare for an invasion of Britain. By 1805, Britain had convinced Austria and Russia to join a Third Coalition against France. Napoleon knew the French fleet could not defeat the Royal Navy in a head-to-head battle and planned to lure it away from the English Channel. The French Navy would escape from the British blockades of Toulon and Brest and threaten to attack the West Indies, thus drawing off the British defence of the Western Approaches, in the hope a Franco-Spanish fleet could take control of the channel long enough for French armies to cross from Boulogne and invade England

Episodes &

Evaluation

However, after defeat at the naval Battle of Cape Finisterre in July 1805 and Admiral Villeneuve's retreat to Cádiz, invasion was never again a realistic option for Napoleon.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS

A HISTORICAL account includes the following stages:

Background& Account Sequence

+ Deduction

Example of HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

Background End of slavery in the United States: Slavery had been

practiced in British North America from early colonial days,

and was recognized in the Thirteen Colonies at the time of the

Declaration of Independence in 1776

Account

Sequence

When the United States was founded, the status of slave was largely limited to those of African descent, creating a system and legacy in which race played an influential role. The United States was polarized by slavery into slave and free states along the Mason-Dixon Line, which separated Maryland (slave) and Pennsylvania (free).

Deduction

The 1860 Civil War, which caused a huge disruption of Southern life, with many slaves either escaping or being liberated by the Union armies. The war effectively ended slavery, before the Thirteenth Amendment (December 1865) formally outlawed the institution throughout the United States

HISTORICAL EXPLANATION

A HISTORICAL EXPLANATION includes the following stages:

Input& Consequences

+ Reinforcement of Consequences

Example of HISTORICAL EXPLANATION

Input Consequences of the Industrialisation: Industrialisation is

the period of social and economic change that transforms a human

group from an agrarian society into an industrial one.

Consequences It is the extensive organisation of an economy for the purpose of manufacturing. Industrialisation also introduces a form of philosophical change where people obtain a different attitude towards their perception of nature, and a sociological process of ubiquitous rationalisation.

Reinforcement

of

Consequences

As industrial workers' incomes rise, markets for consumer goods and services of all kinds tend to expand and provide a further stimulus to industrial investment and economic growth.

HISTORICAL ARGUMENT

A HISTORICAL Argument includes the following stages:

Background & Thesis

+ Argument & Reinforcement of Thesis

HISTORICAL DISCUSSION

A HISTORICAL Discussion includes the following stages:

Background & Issue

+ Perspectives & Position

Example of HISTORICAL DISCUSSION

Background &

Issue

Europeans had a great impact in America. They colonised

America and it changed the life of its inhabitants completely.

Perspectives In one side, they brought diseases. They killed many people and they kidnapped women. Europeans had the monopoly of commerce with indigenous. Added to that, Europeans destroyed native traditions and culture , and even they tried to convert everyone to Catholicism. What is more, Europeans made a lot of indigenous slaves, and slavery lasted for many years. In the other hand, Europeans brought new irrigation techniques, new ways of agriculture, new products and new ideas.

Position

From my point of view, although Europeans brought new ways of agriculture and this was good for agriculture and food to advance, they were too violent and arrogant with the indigenous population, so they caused a lot of harm. They beneficiated from the resources found like precious metals, new crops and the slaves, but they didn’t provide enough in exchange.