A Look at Content and Language Integration Learning: Students’ Attitudes, Teachers’ Perceptions and Challenges

Abstract

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is currently getting increased attention in higher education.This article describes an interventionist study whose aim was to investigate the effectiveness of CLIL instruction, and offers information on the challenges that teachers face in providing CLIL instruction in real classroom settings.After creating relevant CLIL material, and in collaboration with both language and content teachers, data was collected using student questionnaires, and class observation forms were analysed.Six teachers and 24 students were interviewed regarding their attitudes towards, perceptions of, and experiences with CLIL lessons.Student abstracts written in English were also analysed.The results indicate that the implementation of the CLIL approach requires close collaboration between content and language teachers through training sessions so that the steps and procedures that need to be taken in the classroom can be properly understood and provided.Some of the content teachers had difficulty in delivering CLIL instruction using English as the medium of communication.Giving the students constructive feedback on their revisions was also challenging, since it required both capabilities in English and diverse content knowledge (depending on the students' scientific research topics and laboratory procedures).This study suggests that a number of factors, such as CLIL-related training, language competency, multifaceted support and instructional material, are all necessary if CLIL is to be delivered successfully.