The Key Role of Foreign Language Teachers in Content and Language Integrated Learning at a University Level

Abstract

Content and language integrated learning is a teaching formula that is recently proliferating in Andalusian universities with the implementation of programmes including bilingual education. In such a context, the recognition of the profile of the participants in these CLIL teaching proposals is extremely important for the identification of roles that may exist linked to this didactic formula. The role of the content teacher facing CLIL teaching seems to be clearly defined. Additionally, we have at our disposal the contributions that foreign language teachers can offer since they can provide didactic strategies that are enriching to content teachers to become co-responsible for the linguistic learning of their students. In particular, the didactic proposals that can be made by teachers whose didactic approach is part of the Foreign Language Acquisitive Teaching Method can be very useful for a content teacher who has to face the linguistic progress of their students. There seems to be agreement on the value of collaboration between both groups of teachers (those of linguistic areas and those of non-linguistic areas). However, at a university, there is not always a bilingual coordinator to help the CLIL teacher. For this reason, the establishment of this collaboration in the university context is extremely important, since the exchange of ideas between both contributes to the generation of quality bilingual education. The creation of a protocol of cooperation between the content teacher and the FL teacher must be a crucial component of bilingual programmes in higher education that guarantees optimal CLIL teaching.