Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) at School in Europe

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Ensuring that everyone can become proficient in several languages is a daunting challenge in Europe, in which mobility and cooperation are intensifying. Different studies and experimental initiatives are being carried out to improve the teaching of languages at school. Against this background, Eurydice now offers a first appraisal of CLIL type provision, which really started to become adopted in Europe as an integral part of foreign language teaching in the 1990s.

In this type of provision, certain subjects in the curriculum are taught in a language other than the mainstream curriculum language of instruction. The language in question may be a foreign language, a regional or minority language, or even a second state language.

This study takes stock of CLIL provision in the education systems of 30 European countries (its status and that of its target languages), as well as its organisation (admission requirements, aims, the school subjects concerned, pupil assessment). In addition, the study discusses conditions governing the recruitment of teachers working in CLIL and the opportunities available to them for initial or in-service training in this area. It also considers existing pilot projects, ongoing debate and barriers that have to be overcome if this kind of provision is to become more widespread. The study is concerned primarily with activity in primary and secondary education (in the 2004/05 school year), although reference is also made to initiatives implemented in pre-primary education.

EURYDICE: CLIL: Country Descriptions https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fpfis/mwikis/eurydice/index.php/Countries

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