(In)compatibility of CLIL and ESP courses at university

Abstract

This paper deals with the current coexistence of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) courses in tertiary educational settings in the Basque Country. The University of the Basque Country (UBC) is immersed in an ongoing process of internationalization and, consequently, its language teachers are witnessing an unstoppable process of Anglicization. At present, and presumably in the medium and long term, institutional decisions will continue to support CLIL in preference to ESP. In order to analyse this process within the UBC, quantitative data about these two linguistic approaches are gathered and compared with data from 2005. A questionnaire aimed at gathering the opinions of engineering students who currently take both types of courses is also used as a source of qualitative data. The main conclusion of this exploratory study is that both types of courses seem to be compatible. However, language teachers, English-medium content teachers and students are facing a tough challenge, since neither of the two types of course is a panacea.