An Insight into CLIL in the Canary Islands Autonomous Community: Key Aspects and Students’ Achievements

Abstract

The intent of this preliminary research was to gain insights into the implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in The Canary Islands Autonomous Community, where since 2004-2005 many primary and secondary schools have been gradually adopting this methodology in the classroom. Hardly any research has focused attention on this context. This study attempts to fills this void in the literature by examining three different issues. Firstly, CLIL learners’ performance in the English test in the University Admission Examination was compared with the performance of their non-CLIL counterparts; secondly, the variety of content-subjects taught through the medium of English was examined; and finally, attention was centered on the number of academic courses with any CLIL subject that the participants in the study had had. First year university learners from three different degrees who had been enrolled in English as a foreign language instruction (EFL) and CLIL completed a questionnaire designed ad hoc. These learners belonged to the first and second generation of CLIL instruction. The data gathered corroborate previous findings and identify some of the features of CLIL instruction in its first decade of existence in this region. The chapter concludes with several implications for research and practice.