L’AICLE a les aules catalanes: estat de la qüestió

Abstract

In 1994, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) appeared in Europe as an educational approach that mixed content and language. For the first time, these two concepts were not treated separately and the same amount of importance was given to both of them. In Catalonia, where there has always been a Catalan immersion programme, teachers also started to place an emphasis on cognitive processes in order/nto develop multilingual students. Their main goal was to offer their students the possibility to learn languages in different contexts and not only in linguistic classes. Thus, in order to help Catalan schools to integrate CLIL classes, since 1999 the Departament d’Ensenyament de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Education ministry) has offered several programmes such as Orator, PELE, PILE and GEP. All educational centers in Catalonia can take part in them and, 17 years later, it is important to see the current state of the issue. To do so, this project goes over the background of CLIL and it focuses specifically on CLIL in Catalonia: its arrival, its current situation and its implementation. Moreover, with the purpose to show CLIL continuity in Catalonia it presents data about teachers’ participation in the programmes mentioned. Last but not least, there is a section to analyse the acceptance of CLIL in Catalan classrooms through qualitative surveys. These ones have been answered by teachers, students and families, and the results are very positives. Finally, as there is no database collecting the number of all schools implementing CLIL in Catalonia one of the suggestions for future research is to create one so as to show the growing trend. Hence, we can say that CLIL is a successful educational approach in Catalonia and we should ensure that all pupils continue to receive an education of this kind.