CLIL in the curriculum: A pedagogical design for the History subject in secondary education

Abstract

Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a widely used approach in the educational field which is applied to content subjects. This approach involves a dual focus that attempts to improve students’ language level and content at the same time. ​The goal of this study is to elaborate a whole term CLIL proposal for secondary education, more specifically, in the History subject. This study provides a theoretical revision on the different CLIL features: the 4 C’s (content, communication, culture and cognition), Bloom’s Taxonomy, ​s​ caffolding, translanguaging and BICS (Basic Interactive Communicative Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency). Additionally, the organisation of the curriculum has also been revised to show the possibilities it offers to create a CLIL proposal. The aim of this proposal is to integrate the CLIL features in the units created, focusing particularly on the 4 C’s and Scaffolding, relating the contents taught to the contents included in the curriculum. With this proposal it is intended that students improve their level of English at the same time they develop content knowledge and critical thinking skills.