Measuring Intercultural Learning through CLIL

Abstract

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) —endorsed by the European Commission since 1996— constitutes the official approach to bilingual education in Spain. Intercultural learning (IL) is one of the four defining Cs in CLIL, though the literature has consistently described it as the weakest implementation area. This paper analyses the opinions of 76 Spanish secondary education students about IL through their bilingual curriculum. Their viewpoints clearly suggest that IL comes from two main sources: native assistants; and exchange programmes. These data were contrasted with the views of school principals and bilingual coordinators, who declared that both of these valuable ‘resources’ for IL are scarce due to administrative difficulties and lack of budget. Our conclusions reveal how improving these areas can lead not only to improved scores but also to a better implementation of the intercultural axis in CLIL, if the goal consists in educating 21st century citizens.