Demand for CLIL courses increase as EFL teachers prepare for educational reforms

13 September 2011

Bell has reported a dramatic rise in the demand for content and language integrated learning (CLIL) courses for a second year running, which has increased by over 55% in the last two years.

Of the 825 teachers attending Bell Teacher Campus in Cambridge in 2011 from 54 countries, 18% opted to study content and language integrated learning programmes, these courses proving more popular than both contemporary English and technology-focused courses.

A recent survey conducted by Bell, carried out with more than 140 of these teachers, has helped to explain the growing popularity of CLIL courses and given an important insight into the challenges now faced by EFL teachers.

According to the research, 32% of the EFL teachers surveyed cited the rise of CLIL as central to current educational reforms taking place in their countries which included Spain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, France, Portugal and Switzerland.

Since its inception in the 1990s in Finland, CLIL has risen in popularity throughout Europe at primary, secondary and university level, varying in degrees of implementation in each individual country.

Karoline, a teacher attending Bell Teacher Campus, explains that, in Austria, there is an "increase of CLIL methodology in primary education and many bilingual projects in upper and lower secondary". In Spain, "CLIL is being introduced in almost all schools, mostly through a 'bilingual section' where students study science and arts through English," explains Beatriz, a fellow teacher attending the campus.

Although the introduction of CLIL has been welcomed and accepted in many educational institutions, EFL teachers are facing a number of CLIL-related challenges. Isabelle from Spain who teaches technology through English at a secondary school explains: "It's difficult to bring students up to speed with vocabulary and the content of specific topics. Students start general English at the age of six in Spain but need to readjust to learning subject-specific content."

From the research carried out by Bell this year, 20% of teachers believe that their students find speaking the most difficult skill when learning English, followed by listening, pronunciation and then writing.

When contextualised within the field of CLIL, these results are supported further by the European Educational Research Association's research conducted in 2010 relating to learning subject content in English. The research identified that there are specific difficulties associated with lecture comprehension, the main issues relating to difficulties in distinguishing the meaning of words, unfamiliar vocabulary, and problems taking notes while listening to lectures.

According to this research, these issues stem partly from the students' English proficiency, but also from the lecturers' English proficiency and lecturing skills. David Graddol's English Next, commissioned by the British Council in 2006, ascertains that "CLIL is difficult to implement unless the subject teachers are themselves bilingual. Teaching curriculum subjects through the medium of English means that teachers must convey not only the subject content and disciplinary language but also the practical problem-solving, negotiations, discussions and classroom management in ways that characterise disciplinary pedagogic practices."

Other challenges relate to the availability of suitable and up-to-date teaching materials as Angela from Spain raises succinctly, "The rise of CLIL has two sides: on the one hand, children learn English and the subject but on the other hand there are not enough prepared teachers."

Andreas Baernthaler, CLIL Head of Department at 'Center fuer Berufsbezogene Sprachen' in Austria, stated in a onestopenglish.com interview that he feels, "the main problem for teachers is finding suitable materials. For those who don't have a language teaching background, there is the added challenge of methodology and identifying the kind of elements of language teaching you'll need when doing 'real' CLIL. Many teachers try to find pre-prepared materials and if they can't find them they produce their own materials - this is where they spend most of their time."

In addition to a rise in primary and secondary school CLIL, there is also an emerging demand for CLIL courses from the university sector which comes in light of an ever-increasing number of courses taught in English at European universities, particularly in countries including Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia. Since 2003, it has been reported that such courses have tripled (University World News, 2008), with over 2,400 English-medium programmes now running.

University professor, Angelica from Germany, lectures in psychology and found the CLIL course at Bell Teacher Campus particularly valuable: "Fluency in English is the biggest challenge - to keep English to a level of fluency. If you are a teacher of psychology, it's not so much about grammatical accuracy; it's about communicating the message effectively."

The future rise of CLIL in the next 5 years, together with a vast increase in the use of technology within English language teaching, encompassing a greater emphasis on online and digital learning, mobile applications and the use of social media (the latter of which is already used by 45% of those surveyed) has been predicted by over 86% of the teachers who took part in the study.

To find out more about Bell Teacher Campus, visit www.bell-centres.com/teachers.

Ends

Media and press enquiries:

Caroline Davidson
Bell Educational Trust
Hillscross
Red Cross Lane
Cambridge, CB2 0QU
England

Telephone: +44 (0)1223 275567
Fax: +44 (0)1223 275592
E-mail: caroline.davidson@bell-worldwide.com

Notes to Editors

About Bell

Bell is a leading educational charity and one of the largest British-owned providers of English language education services. Each year, Bell helps over 100,000 students, from more than 120 countries through one of its 27 worldwide teaching centres and e-channels, primarily to learn English and other languages. Bell operates 9 centres in the UK.

The organisation also provides teacher training, educational management, consultancy and project services to international organisations, universities and governments.

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Demand for CLIL courses increase as EFL teachers prepare for educational reforms