Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become the umbrella term describing both learning another (content) subject such as physics or geography through the medium of a foreign language and learning a foreign language by studying a content-based subject.

Content and Language Integrated Learning - methodology article
Author
Steve Darn, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey

In ELT, forms of CLIL have previously been known as 'Content-based instruction', 'English across the curriculum' and 'Bilingual education'.

  • Why is CLIL important?
  • How does CLIL work?
  • The advantages of CLIL
  • CLIL in the classroom
  • The future of CLIL
  • Where is CLIL happening?

 

Why is CLIL important?
With the expansion of the European Union, diversity of language and the need for communication are seen as central issues.

  • Even with English as the main language, other languages are unlikely to disappear. Some countries have strong views regarding the use of other languages within their borders.
  • With increased contact between countries, there will be an increase in the need for communicative skills in a second or third language.
  • Languages will play a key role in curricula across Europe. Attention needs to be given to the training of teachers and the development of frameworks and methods which will improve the quality of language education
  • The European Commission has been looking into the state of bilingualism and language education since the 1990s, and has a clear vision of a multilingual Europe in which people can function in two or three languages.

 

How does CLIL work?
The basis of CLIL is that content subjects are taught and learnt in a language which is not the mother tongue of the learners.

  • Knowledge of the language becomes the means of learning content
  • Language is integrated into the broad curriculum
  • Learning is improved through increased motivation and the study of natural language seen in context. When learners are interested in a topic they are motivated to acquire language to communicate
  • CLIL is based on language acquisition rather than enforced learning
  • Language is seen in real-life situations in which students can acquire the language. This is natural language development which builds on other forms of learning
  • CLIL is long-term learning. Students become academically proficient in English after 5-7 years in a good bilingual programme
  • Fluency is more important than accuracy and errors are a natural part of language learning. Learners develop fluency in English by using English to communicate for a variety of purposes
  • Reading is the essential skill.


The advantages of CLIL

CLIL helps to:

  • Introduce the wider cultural context
  • Prepare for internationalisation
  • Access International Certification and enhance the school profile
  • Improve overall and specific language competence
  • Prepare for future studies and / or working life
  • Develop multilingual interests and attitudes
  • Diversify methods & forms of classroom teaching and learning
  • Increase learner motivation.

 

CLIL in the classroom
CLIL assumes that subject teachers are able to exploit opportunities for language learning. The best and most common opportunities arise through reading texts. CLIL draws on the lexical approach, encouraging learners to notice language while reading. Here is a paragraph from a text on fashion:

The miniskirt is a skirt whose hemline is high above the knees (generally 200-300 mm above knee-level). Its existence is generally credited to the fashion designer Mary Quant, who was inspired by the Mini Cooper automobile, although André Courrèges is also often cited as its inventor, and there is disagreement as to who invented it first.

 

The language to be looked at in a passage like this falls into three categories - subject specific, academic and other lexis including fixed expressions and collocations:

Subject specific Academic Other language
miniskirt
hemline
knee-level
fashion designer
credited
designer
cited
invented
above the knee(s)
credited to
inspired by
cited as
disagreement as to

 

The treatment of this lexis has the following features:

  • Noticing of the language by the learners
  • Focus on lexis rather than grammar
  • Focus on language related to the subject. Level and grading are unimportant
  • Pre-, while- and post-reading tasks are as appropriate in the subject context as in the language context.

 

The future of CLIL
There is no doubt that learning a language and learning through a language are concurrent processes, but implementing CLIL requires a rethink of the traditional concepts of the language classroom and the language teacher. The immediate obstacles seem to be:

  • Opposition to language teaching by subject teachers may come from language teachers themselves. Subject teachers may be unwilling to take on the responsibility.
  • Most current CLIL programmes are experimental. There are few sound research-based empirical studies, while CLIL-type bilingual programmes are mainly seen to be marketable products in the private sector.
  • CLIL is based on language acquisition, but in monolingual situations, a good deal of conscious learning is involved, demanding skills from the subject teacher.
  • The lack of CLIL teacher-training programmes suggests that the majority of teachers working on bilingual programmes may be ill-equipped to do the job adequately.
  • There is little evidence to suggest that understanding of content is not reduced by lack of language competence. Current opinion seems to be that language ability can only be increased by content-based learning after a certain stage.
  • Some aspects of CLIL are unnatural; such as the appreciation of the literature and culture of the learner's own country through a second language.

 

Until CLIL training for teachers and materials issues are resolved, the immediate future remains with parallel rather than integrated content and language learning. However, the need for language teaching reform in the face of Europeanisation may make CLIL a common feature of many European education systems in the future.

Where is CLIL happening?
CLIL has precedents in immersion programmes (North America) and education through a minority or a national language (Spain, Wales, France), and many variations on education through a 'foreign' language. Euro-funded projects show that CLIL or similar systems are being applied in some countries, but are not part of teacher-training programmes. There has been an increase in the number of schools offering 'alternative' bilingual curricula, and some research into training and methodology. Several major European organisations specialising in CLIL projects have emerged, including UNICOM, EuroCLIC and TIE-CLIL (see web references for details).

  • In the UK the incentive comes from the Content and Language Integration Project (CLIP) hosted by CILT, (the National Centre for Languages) which is the UK government's centre of expertise on languages. CILT monitors a number of projects covering the 7-16 age range and involving innovations in language teaching such as the integration of French into the primary curriculum. Other research is based at the University of Nottingham, while teacher training and development courses in CLIL are available through NILE (the Norwich Institute for Language Education).

 

Further reading
Translanguage in Europe www.tieclil.org
Centre for Information on Language, Teaching and Research www.cilt.org.uk
Forum for Across the Curriculum Teaching www.factworld.info

The BBC and British Council are not responsible for the content of external web sites, neither do we endorse them. These are the recommendations of the writer.

Comments

Submitted by Khamis Hegazy on Wed, 01/13/2021 - 19:21

How can we prepare teachers to teach sts using the CLIL approach?

 

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Thu, 01/14/2021 - 12:07

In reply to by Khamis Hegazy

Hi Khamis

You might find these resources from our website useful for some ideas about how CLIL works and how it can be used in the classroom:

This looks at a framework for using CLIL in class:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/clil-a-lesson-framework

This gives a more general introduction to CLIL:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/content-language-integrated-learning-clil

This is Keith Kelly's webinar about how to successfully introduce CLIL:

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/keith-kelly-ingredients-successful-clil

You can also find links to other resources on these pages.

Hope that helps!

Cath

TE Team

 

 

Submitted by dmc101 on Fri, 10/25/2019 - 13:41

thanks for the article i found useful

Submitted by AzazelAriel on Tue, 01/16/2018 - 19:45

I agree with the statement that reading is the main skill which is improved by CLIL, especially by extensive reading. This skill should be considered extremely useful to enrich lexis and enhance CALP.

Submitted by Zaibee on Tue, 11/01/2016 - 16:29

It's great stuff about content based subjects that can helpful to learn the foreign subjects and can be more helpful for bilingual kids. For bilingual kids, to learn a both languages is a difficult one but content based subjects make it easy.

Submitted by Phil Ball on Fri, 11/20/2015 - 12:19

Some good points made there Steve, but I find the 'reading skill' comment slightly odd. If reading were the 'main' or 'essential' skill in CLIL, then CLIL would be an extremely dull paradigm, methodologically speaking. And of course, it isn't (dull). In fact the main reason why CLIL has taken off is because it forces people to extend their methodological repertoire, conditioned by the realisation that in a 2nd/3rd language, the kids might not understand you so well. Text and reading strategies are no more or less important than in L1 teaching, but what you tend to find is that teachers (or CLIL authors) find a wider variety of ways to work on them. But speaking, listening and writing all involve 'text', and the multi-modal aspect of post-modern classrooms has extended the notion of 'text' massively - and the way that students approach them and respond to them. The idea of merely 'reading' in CLIL sounds terribly dull. It's not like that at all, and anyway, it depends (surely) on the type of subject you're talking about. There's much more 'reading' (in the traditional sense) in History than there is in Biology. But there's still 'text', yes. Best Phil Ball (Co-author of 'Putting CLIL into Practice', OUP 2015)

Submitted by lawrenceuwg on Wed, 08/15/2012 - 22:28

Early in my international teaching career I found that I did know little about the students I taught. The emphasis of instruction for the year was ancient river civilizations. The country where I was teaching was Kuwait. One of the most water-starved countries in the world.

I remember a conversation with Abdulwahab's father. "Wahab does not seem to understand the basis for the unit which is how civilizations grew and developed around fresh water supplies". I looked at Wahab and asked him if he knew what a river was and he shook his head no. His father was also surprised and asked him if he remembered seeing the Seine River when they visited Paris. Still no. It was time to teach about water so....

As time went on the concept of teaching water developed. Life in the desert became the context for how people survived and found water supplies. Pictures of life on the Gulf, donkeys carrying water and courtyards with wells to store water were more relevant for students. Once me, the teacher, embraced the culture was there understanding between the students and the context of water in their lives. 

 

 

Submitted by JenniMathews on Sat, 04/11/2009 - 10:35

I'm an ardent reader of this topic - content and language integrated training. Recently I got really surprised by few very innovative products.

We know that the people of Indian sub-continent are cricket crazy. Then why not teach English through Cricket? Let them learn English through their passionate topic. We know most people in the world are crazy about movies - even in Saudi. Why not make them learn English through movies - in the end movies reflect life. Many of us love love stories. Why not learn English through love stories?

This is what exactly I observed in the "smarten your English through" products. High school English to GRE / GMAT level English is explained through a passionate topic of the common man! Just imagine "Sharpen Your English through Love & Romance", "Smarten Your English through Cricket" , "Smarten Your English through Movies" etc.

I think we should encourage our youngsters to catch this opportunity to study through these effortless and enjoyable way. An exciting news for the IELTS student.

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