The effects of Content and Language Integrated Learning in monolingual communitiesa large-scale evaluation in Andalusia

Abstract

The present study consists of a large-scale evaluation of Content and Language Integrated Learning within the English bilingual sections of the monolingual community of Andalusia which supersedes the limitations presented by the studies conducted thus far into the topic. To this end, it carries out a four-year longitudinal study into the effects of CLIL on the English language competence, Spanish language competence, and content knowledge of those subjects taught through the foreign language of primary and secondary education students. It also determines whether such effects pervade one year after CLIL instruction is discontinued when these same secondary education students are in the first grade of Baccalaureate. Finally, it probes the students’, teachers’, and parents' satisfaction with all the curricular and organizational aspects of the CLIL programme in order to determine its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats according to the key players involved in their grassroots, bottom-up implementation.