Teaching Music through English: a CLIL Initiative

Abstract

Over the past years, there has been a growing interest in the teaching and learning of several languages in an attempt to generate a multilingual education, particularly in Europe. In response to the demands of our globalised society, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) emerged in the 1990s as an approach that allows students to learn the contents of a subject in a foreign language, thereby improving their competence in the target language. In fact, CLIL practices have been developed in Spain in the last few decades in regions like Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia or the Valencian Community. It is in this area where the new Plurilingualism decree that has been passed may have an effect in the teaching curriculum of educational institutions. This paper presents a research study on education in which CLIL is applied to Secondary Education since it is carried out at IES Ribalta, a high school set in the city of Castellón. The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, to examine whether students value positively their Music lessons in English. On the other hand, to check how many students would enrol CLIL programmes and what subjects they would like to course. To achieve those goals, materials adapted to their level of proficiency and a final questionnaire have been designed. Results indicate that students are satisfied with this proposal. Not only did they enjoy being exposed to English in these Music lessons, but a considerable number of students would like to take a CLIL programme in the near future. Finally, some limitations, final remarks and ideas for further research are suggested.