Acronym in education: CLIL for content and language integrated learning

CLIL stands for an umbrella term in teaching and education: content and language integrated learning. CLIL started as pedagogical project implemented in foreign language learning [1]. The European Commission emphasizes CLIL's multi-facted approach, which can benefit students on various learning levels including oral communication competence, intercultural knowledge skills and development of multilingual interests and attitudes [2].

Teachers working with CLIL are not language teachers, but specialist in other disciplines such as history, geography, social studies, the arts or science. Typically, they teach their subject in their native language (mother tongue) to students for which this particular class-room language is foreign (a second language). The CLIL concept is focused on cooperative learning within a special field of study, rather than speaking and writing in the mediating language. A recent article discusses the implications of CLIL-based teaching and learning of chemistry, while chemistry lesson are held in English to students, for which English is a foreign language [3].

Keywords: learning, teaching, foreign language, classroom context

References and further reading
[1] Sonia Casal: Cooperative Learning in CLIL Contexts: Ways to improve Student's Competence in the foreign Language Classroom. Universidad Pablo de Olavide (Sevilla-Spain). Pdf.
[2] European Commission Multilingualism: Content and language integrated learning. Htm.
[3] Keith Kelly: A New Challenge for Chemistry Education. Chemistry International September-October 2010, pp. 4-7.