One generation after the bilingual turn: Results from a large-scale CLIL teachers' survey

Abstract

The bilingual turn required education systems to undergo structural changes in order to adapt to the new situations. These adjustments included better language training for teachers, the adoption of alternative teaching methods, the increased use of ICT and self-designed materials, the curricular integration of content and language and the creation of competence-based assessment guidelines. In order to evaluate the depth of this transformation and the actual effect that it had on students and schools, a sustained observation covering a sufficiently wide timespan needed to be performed.

Two decades after the inception of bilingual education in Andalusia—Southern Spain—, this paper will describe the configuration of the Bilingual Program as perceived by the change agents: the school teachers. L1 Spanish teachers, L2 teachers and content teachers adopted different practices and therefore hold slightly divergent opinions. Nevertheless, there exists a consensus on the general benefits of CLIL bilingual education. Drawing from their perceptions, which will be presented for each of the above-mentioned aspects, this paper will counter the most recurrent criticisms that CLIL education meets.