AICLE a través de las lenguas: resultados de la investigación en dos comunidades bilingües

Abstract

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) seems to be fully accepted as the preferred approach at present to promote multilingualism in Europe. Spain has also followed this trend, although the way it has been implemented varies depending on the community involved, whether monolingual or bilingual, since in the latter case the foreign language, usually English, adds to two previous languages. The aim of this paper is to carry out a comparison of the linguistic competence attained in two bilingual communities, namely the Basque Country and Catalonia, two settings where we find both educational approaches: on the one hand, a traditional English as a Foreign Language (non-CLIL) strand and, on the other, the CLIL strand. More precisely, we will analyse the written competence that secondary students reach in these two communities when different variables are considered. Firstly, we will compare the educational approach followed in the communities (CLIL versus non-CLIL) and, secondly, we will analyse the influence of the number of hours of instruction in two different age groups. Our results demonstrate that the amount of instruction has an important bearing on written competence, irrespective of the approach followed in the classroom.