I totally agree with Larissa Rivera when asking the question about who might teach, she comments

what she cited about teaching, and that it becomes a major task in a globalized world where information
is easier to get, it is a defiance that we as teachers must face and give the best of ourselves to use CLIL
as it is. .

I would like to answer the second question from the professor first. I had the opportunity to teach in a
primary school where we had to use CLIL in some subjects like science and arts, I have to say that in
some places in the Colombian context, it is easier to work CLIL on children rather than adolescents at
school. From my experience, the planners didn’t contain strong CLIL lessons but we got close to it. It was
the most demanding experience I’ve ever had since it pushed me to learn more things than I had learnt
at college.

I started with that question because the question about if CLIL enables us to teach languages better,
comes from not only the theory about it, but also our personal experiences. The latter showed me that I
was really enabled to teach languages in a much better way, because it opened a wide gate to more
knowledge to apply on a daily basis. On the other hand, Garay (2007) assured about CLIL that:

“It is a way of learning languages by means of learning another subject. It encourages the
students to actually use language as a real means of communication. The best way to learn a
language is by doing not by studying it or performing exercises or drills.”

It means that from the perspective of researchers, the CLIL teacher will always count on more ways and
strategies to cope up with any kind of learner he may face, giving him the tools to teach languages more
completely.

Garay, O. (2007). CLIL: An innovative new Trend in the Field of Language Teaching. ELT Journal.
Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301291371/download

Regarding evaluation, I think that the ideas given by Massler can be quite a mind opener and a strategy
giver for us who are planning to teach CLIL, but yet don’t know how to assess what has been taught. He
said that “The content that was taught in the L2 needs to be assessed in the L2 as well”. Massler (2011,
p.121)

About assessing Language in CLIL, it might seem very difficult but Pokrivčáková (2015) puts it easier
when he suggests that the “Criteria for foreign -language assessment are elaborated in Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages, issued by the Council of Europe in 2001, as well as in
school educational programmes based on ISCED (The International Standard Classification of
Education)” this can give us a more reliable source of information when it comes to the evaluation of
the language aspects on CLIL.

-Ioannou-Georgiou, S., & Pavlou, P. (2003). Assessing Young Learners. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

-Massler,U. (2011). Assessment in CLIL Learning. In Ioannou-Georgiou, S. & Pavlou, P. (Eds.),

Guidelines for CLIL Implementation in Primary and Pre-primary Education (p. 114
-136). PROCLIL. Available at http://www.schools.ac.cy/klimakio/Themata/Anglika/teaching_
material/clil/guidelinesforclilimplementation1.pdf
Pokrivčáková, S. et al. (2015). CLIL in Foreign Language Education: e-textbook for foreign language
teachers. Nitra: Constantine the Philosopher University. 282 s. ISBN 978-80-558-0889-5

Let’s follow this thread talking about the other questions that professor Sheila asked. After doing some
research on the use of CLIL with low proficiency level students, I found out a lot of information that can
be useful. One of the strategies that called my attention the most is one called “Soft-CLIL” in which some
(parts of the) language Learning is taught with the content. In this type of CLIL, modification and
adaptations are mandatory in order to achieve better results as shown in research, where it was found
that they developed some CLIL modules “give students as well as teachers the chance to get used to
the CLIL setting and to gradually increase the demands … Topics, materials and language level can
be adapted to the students’ needs and language as well as subject proficiency” (Zink, 2016). Jonathan
asked what other issues we could consider that can support this practices in our classes, then, in this case
it would be the correct adaptation of this methodology in such a way that it meets the needs of most of
our learners.

Zink, C., (2016). Bilingual classes for all or for a selected few? CLIL with less privileged students. Freie
Universität Berlin.