Valeriya Shemyakina

• The Integration of Art and Estonian as a Second Language in extracurricular Art classes of Basic School
• Tutor(s): PhD Mare Kitsnik

The aim of the Master’s thesis was to design and carry out the project “The Integration of Art and Estonian as a Second Language in extracurricular Art classes of Basic School”, based on CLIL approach; to test teaching methods that integrate Art and the Estonian language for the third level of basic school, and to analyze the impact and effectiveness of these methods. Research question: Can visualization and art immersion methods be used to integrate the learning of Estonian as a second language and Art in basic school? What is the impact and effectiveness of these methods? How can the employed methods be improved in order to increase their impact and effectiveness? The work was based on action research, in the process of which a programme for extracurricular Art classes, based on the CLIL methodology, was developed and carried out. In total, two study cycles took place in the project. In both of the cycles, the same subject methods were used: picture visualization, body and emotional visualization, creating an art immersion outside the classroom; and creating an art immersion in collaboration with two teachers. Nine 7-8th graders took part in the classes. After each lesson, the teacher’s reflection notes were completed and feedbacks from each student were collected. The collected data was analyzed using the targeted content analysis. The results showed that all four tested methods have good potential for integrated learning of the Estonian language and Art. These methods provide the sustainable environment for learning Estonian through interesting, creative tasks so that the language learning process becomes motivating and rewarding for students. In order to increase the effectiveness of the methods, the material of the lesson must also be differentiated carefully according to the student’s language proficiency.