Abstract
In an attempt to explore the effects of different kinds of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning contexts, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) have been at the centre of FL acquisition research over the past decade. Studies have focused on the features and gains this setting brings, whether content is learnt at the same level of success as when taught in the learners’ L1, and whether that L1 is negatively affected by CLIL. However, to our knowledge, very little attention has been brought to how the seniority of the programme affects learner progress in the target language. This study aims to fill such a gap in the understanding that the programme will have developed and improved in terms of quality of exposure and interaction, and that learners’ EFL performance will be higher. To do that, we measured the efficacy of a long-standing CLIL programme in Barcelona twelve years after it was launched and examined the reading, writing, and lexico-grammatical abilities of CLIL EFL learners aged 8, 11, and 14 compared with results obtained by learners measured at the onset of the programme in 2005. The results showed that the quality of the programme has increased over the last decade, guaranteeing a higher level of EFL student proficiency when raw scores are considered, but not in terms of linguistic gains, in which only improvement in older students’ grammar and reading skills can be observed.
Highlights
Over the last few decades, instructed second language acquisition has experienced a change towards more meaningful activities in classrooms in order to generate a more natural and authentic learning context
It is believed that through Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approaches, in which a curricular subject is taught through the medium of a foreign language (FL), learners are immersed in more meaningful communication than in conventional formal instruction (FI)
Even if most research shows that CLIL programmes result in benefits for learners (APAC, 2006; Brinton, Wesche, & Snow, 1989; Lasagabaster, 2008; Pérez-Vidal, 2013; Roquet, 2011; Van de Craen & Pérez-Vidal, 2001), more research is needed to assess their real impact in different settings
Summary
Over the last few decades, instructed second language acquisition has experienced a change towards more meaningful activities in classrooms in order to generate a more natural and authentic learning context. The study seeks to examine the impact of the school’s CLIL programme twelve years after it was launched to analyse its effects as a programme that is no longer at its pilot stage, but that has been running for over a decade. This date is important for the main objective of the study; the evaluation of the programme’s efficacy in bringing along higher levels of proficiency in EFL. We examine CLIL learners’ abilities from 8 to 14 years of age, with data collected in 2017, and cross-sectionally contrast it with data collected at the Research Article
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