What's CLIL?

                                     

   A new language learning methodology: CLIL 

According to David Marsh, the Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a new educational methodology in which the contents of a subject are taught through a foreign language with dual-focussed aims, namely the learning of content, and the simultaneous learning of a foreign language.

This methodology is being applied all over the world. But, to what would I attribute this great success? I believe it lies on several key factors.

First of all, the immediacy of it, as you learn languages while using them when being taught other subjects, instead of learning a language now to use it in another context later. And it is really important, as new generations are pending on the “culture of now”. Therefore, it may reduce the academic failure and disinterest of new language learners, motivating them to go on.

The second one is that it avoids having to increase the number of school hours dedicated to learning languages, as one may take advantage of the time in which other contents are taught.

Another one might be that skills, knowledge and language strategies are not decontextualized or artificial. A language is used in different real situations: tell a historical fact, reading operational instructions for a device in a laboratory, describe life on Earth and the list goes on.

I would add a fourth one that consists of what is created and used in other subject as a consequence of a real necessity, is not forgotten any more.

And the last one is that it is a well-known fact that the common underlying proficiency may be built from any language. That is that certain language contents may be learnt in one language and then may be used in another one, what is extremely useful to learn several languages.

Last of all, during the last decade, the Spanish educational system is witnessing the arrival of CLIL and English is changing from a goal-oriented school subject to a medium of instruction in content subjects. What is taking place in our system is influenced by what has previously happened elsewhere. And in my opinion, this new approach to learning language methodologies is going in the right direction.