Teachers’ background and attitudes towards CLIL in secondary education

Abstract

The ability to express and communicate appropriately in English has become an imperative requirement in society, which is typified by internationality and mobility across countries. Within this context, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) emerges in European education as an effective method to enhance and reinforce students’ competence in English and skills while covering traditional content areas. This paper presents a research study into CLIL in secondary education in Spain, specifically in the Alcalatén region, which is located in Castellón in the Valencian Community. For the evaluation of this, the first aim of the research work comprises determining whether or not any of the content subjects in the four secondary schools of the area are being delivered using English as the vehicular language. Secondly, the study also seeks to identify which are the attitudes and background of both English and content teachers of those centres in relation to CLIL. In order to do so, two types of CLIL questionnaires were distributed among the English and content teachers. Results reveal that CLIL has not been introduced in any of the four schools, even though two of them have applied it to some modules of nursery and primary education. Besides, results also indicate that both English and content teachers show a positive attitude towards the effects that CLIL could have on students, and predisposition to cooperate in its implementation. However, only a small amount of them are willing to adopt CLIL. These results are discussed and confirm previous research, which underlined the absence of preparation and resources. Finally, guidelines for further investigation are suggested.