by Mahboubeh Rakhshandehroo,

Kwansei Gakuin University

Special Topics CLIL courses are part of an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program offered by the Department of Policy Studies at Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan. Unlike the usual EAP courses in this department, the Special Topics courses do not follow a strictly coordinated curriculum. It is the instructor's responsibility to select an appropriate course topic, define clear goals and objectives, design the curriculum, and develop effective materials.

Second-year, higher-(language-ability)-stream students are required to take one Special Topics in the spring and one Special Topics in the fall. Most of these courses are taught by full-time instructors, but part-time teachers may also have the opportunity to teach one. The courses are primarily content-based, hard CLIL while integrating and recycling the EAP skills the students have acquired in the core skills courses. Unlike the EAP courses, students are not divided into courses based on their English proficiency. Students are given the option to self-select the special topics course that interest them (based on the course descriptors); those who miss the registration deadline are placed at random. Therefore, these courses are mixed levels (within the higher stream). To meet the needs of a wide range of learners, instructors are encouraged to develop curricula and materials that are flexible enough to accommodate a broad range of abilities. Among the topics covered in CLIL courses are English Translations of Japanese Literature, International Relations, Internalization of Higher Education, and Science of Health and Happiness.