Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language: CLIL and Immersion Comparison

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to understand how English can be taught as a foreign (FL) or second language (L2) focusing on two different teaching approaches which are CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and Immersion. The research starts explaining some language learning perspectives and some teaching methods applied before CLIL and immersion appeared, even though, a few of them are still used nowadays. However, CLIL and immersion are taught for specific goals, thus there is a need to know not only the positive but also the negative points as well as other factors that affect these approaches. Apart from describing the two programs, some factors dealing with them will be mentioned and explained. In the classroom there are at least three relevant parts when learning a language: the teacher, students and material. They definitely have to be adapted depending on the program used. CLIL and immersion are going to be compared and analysed in order to explain which one is the best approach to use dealing with the aspects that affect English teaching and the situation encountered. Furthermore, one example about CLIL and another about immersion are held at the end of the dissertation to make clearer the similarities and differences among them.