Content and Language Integrated Learning: Why English teachers should do it.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an approach to language teaching

in which students learn about topics from the school curriculumwhile they learn about
language. The key word in CLIL is integration, which is why it is said that, in this approach,
students get two for one. According to Banegas (2012, p: 117), “CLIL is an approach in which
various methodologies are used to achieve a dual-focused form of instruction in language
and content.” In this paper, I will argue why English teachers should use CLIL in their lessons.
First, I will highlight the importance of content as an excuse for language learning; second, I
will explain the connection between CLIL and the school curriculum. Finally, I will explain the
meaning-focused orientation of CLIL for English lessons.

To begin with, CLIL lessons require content so that students learn language. In other
words, content is the driving force for language learning. In a traditional English class,
teachers require students to learn grammar and vocabulary items that they may or may not
find interesting. A language course, in this case, is organized according to structures. In a CLIL
course, lessons are based on contents that reflect students’ interests and needs. This means
that they will not study the present progressive but, rather, will study environmental changes.
The most important aspect is that as they are learning about environmental aspects, they are
learning the present progressive. Again, as I have commented elsewhere, the key word in CLIL
is integration. Met (1999, p: 18) describes the purposes for CLIL lessons, among which are:

 enhancing language learning by providing motivating topics to communicate about;

and
 enhancing language learning by providing meaningful, purposeful language practice
opportunities drawn from a variety of topics.

In conclusion, content in CLIL is important because it pushes learners to develop their

language competences, and this happens because there is a clear support from contentwhich
is intrinsically motivating.

Secondly, CLIL connects the English class with a school’s curriculum. Since CLIL lessons
derive ideas from other subjects, students can benefit from the fact that, in a CLIL class, they
can practice topics and language they have already studied in other courses. English teachers
can, therefore, establish a relationship between their language objectives and the objectives
of other classes. For example, an English lesson for beginners can combine the present tense
and the topic of photosynthesis; they learn key vocabulary such as chlorophyll molecules,
carbon dioxide, and oxygen, and they also learn what plants do in this process: Plants take
energy from the sun, and they absorb water through their roots . As Stryker and Leaver (1997)
argue, a CLIL course departs from subject matter, which is then connected to language-
related items. In conclusion, CLIL is a methodology that will make the English class more
relevant for students because it takes ideas or complete topics from other subjects and makes
them accessible for the English class.

Finally, English teachers should implement CLIL given the fact that lessons based on
this methodology allow learners to focus primarily on meaning. When people are interacting
with texts in a foreign language, their mind naturally focuses on understanding the messages
of such texts. In traditional English classes, students focus on the form of texts, or simply, on
the form of isolated sentences; this is not something that happens in real life. In a CLIL class,
students can watch a video about how cells in the human body work. They will most likely
want to understand how this process happens, but they will not want to see whether the
person explaining is using the present progressive correctly! As Lightbown and Spada (2001)
explain, CLIL lessons allow learners to pay attention to what language communicates:
information and ideas. All in all, CLIL encourages English teachers to plan lessons that will help
students to focus on communication, not on an accumulation of rules.

In final consideration, the arguments I have presented in favor of the implementation

of CLIL are three: the importance of content, the connection between the English class and
other subjects, and the salient focus on meaning in CLIL lessons. English teachers should look
at CLIL and explore these and other characteristics of the methodology so that they can
understand it for their own language teaching practices.

References

Banegas, D. (2012). Integrating content and language in English language teaching in

secondary education: Models, benefits, and challenges. Studies in Second Language
Learning and Teaching2 (1). 111-136

Lightbown, P. & Spada, N. (2001). How languages are learned. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Met, M. (1999).Content-based instruction: Defining terms, making decisions. NFLC Reports .

Washington, DC: The National Foreign Language Center.

Stryker, S. & Leaver, B. (1997). Content-based instruction in foreign language education:

Models and methods.Georgetown University Press.