The impact of CLIL instruction on content learning: evidence from the Greek context

Abstract

The present paper aims to look into the effect of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) instruction on learners' content knowledge. The study took place in a Greek primary school where CLIL has been implemented for the last six years. Two groups of 6th graders participate in the study: an experimental group which is taught geography in English and a control group that is taught geography in Greek. The comparison between the two groups is based on two Geography tests that each group took - the experimental group in English and the control group in Greek. The results of the study indicated significantly superior performance of the experimental group in the first test and slightly inferior performance in the second one. Learners' proficiency level in English seems to affect significantly learners' performance in the content tests at the beginning of the school year. Differences in CLIL performance between students of higher and lower proficiency level in English seem to fade out as the year progresses.