Innovations and Challenges in CLIL Implementation in Europe

ABSTRACT

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) implementation has become the cornerstone of educational change all around Europe, building on a reconceptualization of language learning, as well as an innovative remodelling of pedagogical perspectives. In a foreign-language-mediated CLIL scenario, different aspects of teaching and learning are affected: curriculum development, task designing, available resources, language and content relationship, or translanguaging. This has led teachers enrolled in multilingual educational programs to reconsider, rediscover, and reinvent their practice. However, although methodological commonalities exist, the full significance of CLIL implementation goes beyond methodology, because it develops out of the synergy brought about by integrating language learning methods and methodologies related to the learning of other subject matter. CLIL is a reconceptualization, a philosophy of language learning, an approach. This article addresses the analysis of existing research on CLIL implementation, along with its pedagogical implications and its impact on remodelling teaching practice.

Additional Resources

• 1. Beacco, J. C., Byram, M., Cavalli, M., Coste, D., Cuenat, M. E., Goullier, F., & Panthier, J. (2010). Guide for the development and implementation of curricula for plurilingual and intercultural education. Strasbourg, FR: Council of Europe.

This document, essential due to its influence in curricula elaboration all around Europe, was prepared for the Policy Forum The right of learners to quality and equity in education—The role of linguistic and intercultural competences (Geneva, Switzerland, 2–4 November 2010). In this guide, the Language Policy Division included recommendations on how to elaborate curricula taking into account the European multilingual reality and the impact language policy has had on curriculum planning, including stages in designing curricula as well as a variety of scenarios and contextual elements. It is a very good starting point to understand the situation in bilingual schools.

• 2. Meyer, O., Coyle, D., Halbach, A., Schuck, K. & Ting, T. (2015). A pluriliteracies approach to content and language integrated learning—Mapping learner progressions in knowledge construction and meaning-making. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 28, 41–57.

Through unravelling the integrated approach and the interrelationship of using language for furthering knowledge construction and meaning-making, this article addresses the role of subject-specific literacies in CLIL and the use of a model building on the existing 4Cs framework, which maps literacy and language progression in CLIL contexts and serves as a guide for evolving classroom practices.

• 3. Nikula, T., Dafouz, E., Moore, P., & Smit, U. (2016). (Eds.). Conceptualising integration in CLIL and multilingual education. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

This volume focuses on the conceptualization of integration. Using different theoretical and methodological approaches, ranging from socioconstructivist learning theories to systemic functional linguistics, the book explores three intersecting perspectives on integration concerning curriculum and pedagogic planning, participant perceptions, and classroom practices.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xabier San Isidro

Xabier San Isidro is in the English Studies Department, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU.