Content and Language Integrated Learning

David González Gándara

1 de mayo de 2010

The Action Plan for Language Learning

The European Commission, from its Action plan for Language Learning
and Linguistic Diversity [1] promotes, among other iniciatives, the teaching
of content areas in school using official European languages other than the
students mother tongue. It is clear that this action will foster the ability to
communicate of European citizens in the future, provided they acquire com-
petence in more than one official European language. Content and Language
Integrated Learning is deeply related with the language policies of the Com-
mission, as long as one of the main objectives of the Plan is the knowledge
of own’s mother tongue plus two other languages.

New methods
The use of a language other than the students’ mother tongue in the
teaching of content areas may lead to achieve some other objectives the Com-
mission is aiming for Education in general. The fact that the students do not
master the language used in these subjects may well force teachers to look
for new methods, more centered on the students’ interests and motivations,
in a way that they can attract their attention more easily.

Affordability
Some criticism has been made in my community about the real possi-
bilities of putting Content and Language Integrated Learning into practice.
Spain, and specially Galicia are deeply affected by the economic crisis of the

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recent years, and some people do not appreciate the increase on the budget
for education that would be required in order to implement the programs.
But the truth is that some schools, each year more are joining, are imple-
menting the program with the resources they already had. The requisite of
agreement by the student’s families is easily achieved in most of the cases. It
may not be possible to carry out Language and Content Integrated Learning
on every school, but it is likely to be a fact in a big number of them.

What languages are present

One logical consequence about implementing the programs with the re-
sources schools already have is that the languages available are only the
ones that have been taught as a subject until this moment. In most of the
schools, only English is available, specially in the case of primary schools,
where French has not been taught for the last decade. Secondary schools
usually have the possibility of CLIC experiences in English and French. A
few very big schools may have German or Portuguese teachers available. The
rest of Europe official languages are not very likely to be present on Spanish
schools.

Conclusion
Although there are some limitations, it seems that CLIL is being success-
ful in Spain. There is a long way to run, teachers and students motivations
and possibilities have not reached their limits yet.

References
[1] Commission, E. Communication from the commission to the council,
the european parliament, the economic and social committee and the
committee of the regions. Brussels, 2003.