Bilingual Education in Spain: An Analysis of L2 Methodological Requirements and Non-Linguistic Disciplines Within Primary Education Legislation

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been gaining in popularity and is influencing ways in which various non-European countries approach bilingual education. For example, some Australian bilingual programmes are now being officially referred to as CLIL programmes. Although CLIL methodology shows potential outside Europe, this article argues that certain aspects of CLIL should be subject to scrutiny before programmes are adopted in an Australian context. In the article, these aspects relate primarily to organisational and affective factors, which are considered to have a substantial influence on successful programmes. The article specifically addresses Australian primary and secondary public education because public bilingual education programmes may offer a way to address the high attrition rates and the decline in languages taught. The article will focus on ways in which CLIL arose and is defined through the European context for which it was designed. Then it will identify some of the bilingual programmes on offer in Australia and explore issues related to applying/expanding the CLIL approach to Australian mainstream education – English language dominance, language choice and human resources.

In a political context of international cooperation in education, one of the EU’s multilingualism goals is for every European to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue (Commission of the European Communities, Teaching and Learning: Towards the Learning Society. White Paper on Education and Training. Brussels: ERIC Clearinghouse, 1995). In this context, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has emerged as a major innovation for improving the quality of language learning and introducing a reform of educational curricula. Spain has become one of the European leaders in the development of bilingual and multilingual education policies based on CLIL (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, CLIL—Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). However, the rapid expansion of these Spanish bilingual and plurilingual programmes (Llinares & Dafouz, Content and language integrated programs in the Madrid region: Overview and research findings. In D. Lasagabaster & Y. Ruiz de Zarobe (Eds.), CLIL in Spain: Implementation, Results and Teacher Training (pp. 95–114). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2010) has exceeded the provision of teachers who are able to face the challenge of CLIL. According to Perez-Canado (Teacher training needs for bilingual education: In-service teacher perceptions. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 19(3), 266–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2014.980778, 2016), overcoming this challenge is key to any future vision for the improvement of bilingual education. This chapter provides a detailed diagnosis of pre-service and in-service teacher training for CLIL in Spain and describes Spanish CLIL teachers’ needs with reference to their linguistic and methodological profile.

In recent years, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become the subject of attention, especially in East Asian countries, due to the introduction of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education in primary schools. However, limited empirical studies have been conducted regarding the feasibility and potentiality of content- and language-integrated instruction in these contexts (Butler, Nihon no shougakkou eigo wo kangaeru: ajia no shiten karano kensho to teigen [Thinking About Japanese Elementary School English: Inspection and Suggestion from Asian Perspective]. Tokyo: Sanseidou, 2005) with fewer studies related to Japanese primary schools (Yamano, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in a Japanese Elementary School: A Comparative Study of a CLIL Program in Early EFL Education. Unpublished Master’s thesis, Sophia University, Tokyo, 2012; Utilizing the CLIL approach in a Japanese primary school: A comparative study of CLIL and EFL lessons. The Asian EFL Journal, 15(4), 70–92, 2013a; Exploring the use of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in foreign language activities. JES Journal, 13, 20–35, 2013b; CLIL in a Japanese primary school: Exploring the potential of CLIL in a Japanese EFL context. International CLIL Research Journal, 2(1), 19–30, 2013c; Exploring the cognitive change of an elementary school teacher through CLIL practices. Bulletin of Utsunomiya University, Division of Educational Department, 65, 205–219, 2015). Therefore, this study explores the potential of CLIL application in a Japanese context from four important aspects, known as the 4Cs: Content (subject matter), Communication (language learned and used in the CLIL lesson), Cognition (cognitive skills), and Community/Culture (awareness toward learning community and pluricultural understanding) (Coyle, Content and language integrated learning: Towards a connected research agenda for CLIL pedagogies. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 10, 543–562, 2007; Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010; Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, Uncovering CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning in Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Oxford: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). This chapter first defines the Japanese primary EFL education and discusses the rationale for applying a CLIL approach in a Japanese primary school context. Then, based on the 4Cs perspective, it investigates the differences between a CLIL class of 35 students and a non-CLIL class of 36 students in conventional EFL instruction and analyzes results from three different data sets: classroom observations, pupil questionnaires, and teachers’ interviews. Lastly, the present study indicates the potential of a CLIL approach in a Japanese primary EFL environment regarding the 4Cs perspective: enhancing diversity and experiential learning because of the authentic content, accelerating classroom interaction, deepening students’ cognitive learning, and activating students’ cooperative learning as well as comprehension of global issues.

In spite of the multiple competencies necessary to design and deliver proper Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) lessons, the teachers’ linguistic proficiency is the primary competence considered in the accreditation of CLIL teachers in Spain. However, teachers’ competence in planning CLIL lessons is key to bilingual education. This article explores this competence and reports on the several factors that influence the level of integration of CLIL methodological principles in the lesson planning style of in-service teachers at primary and secondary education. The factors studied are the stage of education, curricular subjects, teacher education, status at school, years teaching CLIL and type of school in a sample of 383 in-service CLIL teachers. Results show statistically significant differences in all the factors studied except in the stage of education (primary-secondary) and the type of school (state-semiprivate). These results reveal a high heterogeneity in the sample, which allows the description of the CLIL teacher profiles according to the factors that influence their competence in planning and delivering CLIL lessons. It is concluded that education and training in CLIL competencies, such as planning CLIL lessons, is also necessary in order to achieve a more homogeneous competence profile of the teachers. Therefore, a review of the academic programs and of the accreditation model so as to guarantee that they include prescriptive education and training in CLIL is recommended, since the quality and sustainability of bilingual programs also depends on teachers’ competence in CLIL and not only on the students’ academic results.

This study explores the impact of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) on the development of listening skills in English both in Primary and Secondary Education in Spain. To do this, CLIL (n=2,790) and non-CLIL learners (n=17,070) enrolled in the 4th grade of Primary Education (9-10 years old), and CLIL (n=2,680), and non-CLIL students (n=17,638) in the 2nd year of Secondary Education (13-14 years old) were compared regarding their oral comprehension skills. Results showed no differences between CLIL and non-CLIL groups in Primary Education, while in Secondary School, the CLIL group significantly outperformed the non-CLIL group in the overall results of listening and in every oral comprehension subskill evaluated, and differences were higher in the most complex listening tasks. These findings seem to suggest that CLIL programs are more effective to promote the acquisition of listening skills in the target language in secondary than in primary school settings. The age of students, along with other contextual differences between the CLIL programme in Primary and in Secondary School might explain these results.

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has emerged as one of the major educational trends in the European Union. It is an innovative approach which refers to educational settings where a language other than the learners’ mother tongue is used as the medium of instruction. For many years the methodological aspects of CLIL were neglected. The CLIL classroom looked like a traditional teacher-centred language or content subject classroom but the content of the content subject replaced the traditional content of the language classroom (Marsh 2001, p. 32). The situation has changed in recent years and CLIL-specific methodology is being developed. The paper provides an outline of CLIL methodology starting with a brief outline of the phenomenon of CLIL. Additionally, the importance of teaching materials in a CLIL classroom will be discussed. All the data presented is based on CLIL classroom observations in Poland as well as on interviews conducted with CLIL teachers. Finally, problems concerning CLIL methodology are discussed and specific solutions are provided.

The paper analyzes CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) as a teaching method contributing to training competitive specialists in demand both in the Russian and international labor markets. CLIL has become popular in the Russian system of higher education while insufficient understanding of the conditions for its effective implementation in our country often leads to unsuccessful foreign experience adoption. The paper aims to study the specifics of the Russian educational system and its potential as a platform for CLIL implementation. The foreign practices and CLIL-methodology are analyzed with the objective to identify a number of didactic principles and key factors affecting the choice of a model and form of CLIL for a particular educational paradigm. The specificity of the Russian educational system is analyzed from the standpoint of the obstacles to CLIL implementation. Based on the results of the study, it is determined that CLIL implementation in Russia is possible. However, this methodology should be adapted to the Russian reality. The author suggests an adaptation mechanism that implies the following measures: approving CLIL at the university level, establishing interaction between the university and businesses to jointly develop a training plan, creating a team of CLIL-methodology developers at the university level, providing conditions for professional retraining of subject teachers in CLIL methodology, establishing interaction between subject teachers and linguists for the development of CLIL-courses.

Recent global developments have intensified the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF), the principal means of communication employed among speakers of different linguistic backgrounds to interact worldwide. Consequently, there has been a growing interest in the pedagogical implications and applications of ELF in language teaching and learning. Few works, though, have investigated the influence of ELF in bilingual education such as in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The current paper describes the design and implementation of a CLIL + ELF observation tool that was used to study a pilot CLIL program in Taiwan and to anticipate CLIL teachers’ training needs. The data collected from the rubric were contrasted with several unstructured interviews. The rubric contains 10 criteria developed from previous CLIL and ELF studies including: learners’ L1 and L2 proficiency; teachers’ L2 proficiency; teachers’ ability to reflect upon their practice; their familiarity with CLIL and ELF methodologies; and the school’s commitment to bilingual education and language policy considerations. Using these criteria, the researchers identified many positive results such as teachers’ growing familiarity with CLIL and their use of class management language, content-related language, and academic communication. The study also suggests areas for improvement such as the need for teacher training regarding ELF.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has been implemented in Spain for almost two decades. Most studies in this area have shown that this approach provides students with plenty of benefits. However, current studies have also shown that more than half of in-service CLIL teachers are methodologically untrained to provide this kind of education since the only requirement to do it is teachers’ proficiency in the foreign language. This paper is aimed at analyzing the level of acquisition of CLIL principles by student teachers according to the academic program studied, their interest in teaching CLIL, their perceived level of training in CLIL, and their English level in a sample of 56 potential CLIL teachers from different Spanish universities. To measure the degree of integration of CLIL principles, the Cuestionario de integración de los principios metodológicos AICLE (CIPMA) was used (Custodio Espinar & García Ramos, 2019). Results show that there are differences between the groups who have studied a Master's Degree in Bilingual Education, and those who have studied a Degree in Infant or in Primary Education without specific training in CLIL in two of the four dimensions of the questionnaire, the foundations of CLIL (D1), and the specific resources and activities that this approach requires (D3), in favor of postgraduate students. Besides, significant differences were found between participants who are hesitant and those who are convinced of offering bilingual education and between students who think that they have been poorly trained and those who perceive themselves to be fairly trained, in favor of the latter in both cases. Finally, students with higher linguistic competence show a better integration of the CLIL principles. It is concluded that important challenges are to be faced by universities regarding the education of the future CLIL teacher such as providing CLIL courses in all the academic programs of the education degrees.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is taking on bilingual education in the 21st century. In this particular context, Spain, this approach has firmly taken hold. Due to mainstreaming, or the move to entirely bilingual schools, diversity has been put at the forefront of research. Charged with bolstering language learning competences in Spain, a country with notoriously poor foreign language competence and an unbalanced tradition with bilingual education, CLIL has now risen to meet the challenge to cater to the wide spectrum of students and foment access to high quality, functional language education. Thus, analyzing the perceptions of those implementing these classes, the teachers, is critical to gauge how the CLIL methodology is working with all types of students. Through the use of ADiBE protocol and instruments, this study explores six teachers’ perceptions at the secondary education level in Andalusia through the use of questionnaires, one-on-one interviews, and classroom observations. The results show how diversity is being attended to by teachers in this particular context, while simultaneously casting light on the obstacles and limitations that are still in need of addressing.

The implementation of bilingual education programs in the Indonesian secondary school context has experienced considerable changes in the last decade. In this case, the enactment of the International Standards School (ISS) program that propelled the students to experience bilingual education programs at schools was discontinued by the government in 2015. Consequently, the discontinuation of the ISS program leads to the scarcity of studies in examining the progress and effectiveness of bilingual education programs in Indonesia. At the same time, the phenomenon of private schools that offer bilingual programs has been significantly more popular after the ISS program was abolished. However, there is a lack of established instruction on how to implement bilingual programs in such schools. Therefore, this paper aims to conceptualise the implementation of bilingual education programs through the implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and Genre-Based Approach (GBA). Drawing on the relevant literature, this paper examines a new perspective in bilingual education programs by considering the suitability between CLIL and genre theory in the Indonesian secondary school context. Further, this paper also provides a unit of work/syllabus sample that incorporates both CLIL and GBA. Ultimately, future implications in responding to the enactment of bilingual education programs in Indonesia are also discussed.

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) was widely implemented in the education system in Europe in the mid-1990s based on their multilingual education policy. CLIL integrates acquisition of subject knowledge with language learning, either a second or foreign language, simultaneously. Recently, CLIL in English has been introduced in higher education in Japan although its implementation is still at an early stage. This article aims to provide a brief overview of CLIL in higher education in Spain, which advances CLIL research, and in Japan in relation to the social economic rationales, and to investigate students’ perceptions of CLIL implementation in the two countries through questionnaire surveys. The results show differences in social economic rationales of CLIL implementation in both countries: CLIL in Spain, on the one hand, is ‘proactive’ (Coyle, Hood & Marsh 2010), adhering the bilingual and multilingual education policy in the European Union. In Japan, on the other hand, introduction of CLIL seems to be ‘reactive’ to provide human resources with English proficiency for its economic purposes. In terms of students’ perceptions, about a half of the respondents in both countries shows a positive view of CLIL at tertiary level.

This chapter focuses on an under-researched topic in relation to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL): the effects of bilingual programmes on content learning. It was carried out with a total of ten schools (in Primary and Secondary Education) and 318 students in public bilingual and charter non-bilingual schools in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Students’ performance in the subjects of Science in Primary Education and Natural Science in Compulsory Secondary Education is compared across schools in order to provide data on the important issue of whether CLIL programmes are watering down subject matter learning or promoting it as successfully as in monolingual streams. Factor and discriminant analyses are performed with the type of school and educational level variables in order to determine whether CLIL is truly responsible for the differences ascertained or whether other variables account for a greater proportion of the variance. The statistical analysis confirms the positive effects of CLIL on content subject learning, showing that bilingually educated students outperform monolingually educated ones at both educational stages, although this difference is clearly significant when finishing their Secondary Education studies. The results also provide some clear-cut differences in terms of type of school and educational level, as public bilingual schools only outperform charter non-bilingual schools only at the end of Compulsory Secondary Education, which suggests the long-term effects of CLIL on subject matter learning.

CLIL is widely implemented in English as a foreign language class, but there has been no specific research conducted to identify the advantages and challenges of implementing it in the context of bilingual education. This study aims to examine the implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in bilingual education. Specifically, this study focuses on the benefits of CLIL in bilingual education and the challenges of implementing CLIL in bilingual education. Then, a recommendation to implement CLIL effectively was drawn using the benefits and the challenges of CLIL. This research was conducted by following the steps of a literature review. Data was collected from articles from accredited international journals published online from 2012 to 2022. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively using an interactive data analysis model, carried out in three stages of analysis: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification. The data collected showed that CLIL improved mastery of a second language. It is because CLIL provides a lot of exposure for the students. Besides, CLIL enables students to acquire English by practicing it actively. The challenge in implementing CLIL lies in teachers’, students’, and teaching media readiness. To run CLIL effectively, it should be done by considering the quality, quantity, and consistency of the English exposure.

CLIL is widely implemented in English as a foreign language class, but there has been no specific research conducted to identify the advantages and challenges of implementing it in the context of bilingual education. This study aims to examine the implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in bilingual education. Specifically, this study focuses on the benefits of CLIL in bilingual education and the challenges of implementing CLIL in bilingual education. Then, a recommendation to implement CLIL effectively was drawn using the benefits and the challenges of CLIL. This research was conducted by following the steps of a literature review. Data was collected from articles from accredited international journals published online from 2012 to 2022. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively using an interactive data analysis model, carried out in three stages of analysis: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing/verification. The data collected showed that CLIL improved mastery of a second language. It is because CLIL provides a lot of exposure for the students. Besides, CLIL enables students to acquire English by practicing it actively. The challenge in implementing CLIL lies in teachers’, students’, and teaching media readiness. To run CLIL effectively, it should be done by considering the quality, quantity, and consistency of the English exposure.