Page 22 - ELG1705 May Issue 447

DATA

In for growing across Europe

The trend for Clil is

the

Clil WEmile by the French – has been taking European

hen the French need to invent a name for something,
you know it’s a success. Content and language
integrated learning, commonly known as Clil – or

primary and secondary schools by storm.
Many countries now require secondary schools to teach some
subjects in a foreign language (the most common is English) and
similar projects are also run at primary level.
The methodology is also one of the most debated policies in
education. There are those who see it as the solution to all language
learning problems. But there are others who doubt it is effective for
teaching the actual subject content.
A snapshot survey reveals The debate can become political at times, with language purists
getting involved in defence of mother-tongue education and
teacher training providers in the politicians accusing bilingual schools of being discriminatory.
Where do teachers stand? Some have stronger ideas than others, but
UK and Ireland are benefiting most teachers we have spoken to over the years prefer to concentrate
on the practical aspect of the issue: training or lack thereof.
from a growing number of Many teachers across Europe have taken advantage of Erasmus
plus funding for their teacher training abroad, especially for language
countries jumping on the Clil learning and Clil. We surveyed some teacher-training providers in the
UK and Ireland to identify current trends and future areas of growth.
bandwagon The general situation seems positive. Of the fourteen respondents,
eight reported that demand for Clil teacher-training courses had
increased over the past three years, five said it had stayed about the
same, and only one highlighted a decrease. What about Brexit? That
doesn’t seem to have had a significant effect yet – eleven providers
said that enrolments were still about the same, two reported a
decrease and one UK provider, Oxford International Study Centre,

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