In an attempt to explore the effects of different kinds of English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
learning contexts, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has been at the centre of
FL acquisition research over the past decade. Studies have focused on the features and gains
this setting brings, whether content is learnt at the same level of success as when taught in the
learners’ L1, and whether that L1 is negatively affected by CLIL. However, to our knowledge,
very little attention has ...
In an attempt to explore the effects of different kinds of English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
learning contexts, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has been at the centre of
FL acquisition research over the past decade. Studies have focused on the features and gains
this setting brings, whether content is learnt at the same level of success as when taught in the
learners’ L1, and whether that L1 is negatively affected by CLIL. However, to our knowledge,
very little attention has been brought to how the seniority of the programme affects learner
progress in the target language. This study aims to fill such a gap in the understanding that the
programme will have developed and improved in terms of quality of exposure and interaction,
and that learners’ EFL performance will be higher. To do that, we measured the efficacy of a
long-standing CLIL programme in Barcelona twelve years after it was launched and examined
the reading, writing, and lexico-grammatical abilities of CLIL EFL learners aged 8, 11, and
14 compared with results obtained by learners measured at the onset of the programme in
2005. The results showed that the quality of the programme has increased over the last decade,
guaranteeing a higher level of EFL student proficiency when raw scores are considered, but not
in terms of linguistic gains, in which only improvement in older students’ grammar and reading
skills can be observed.
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