Does CLIL promoteintercultural sensitivity?

Abstract

Abstract Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) refers to the teaching of non-linguistic subjects through an additional language. Culture is considered as one of the corner stones of CLIL pedagogy. There is currently little research that explores the role of culture or intercultural sensitivity in CLIL, however. The present study investigates to what extent two different educational contexts (CLIL and non-CLIL) influence students’ level of intercultural sensitivity, using the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Chen & Starosta, 2000). The sample consists of 177 secondary grammar school students from 2 CLIL schools (n = 98) and 2 non-CLIL / regular schools (n = 79). The results show that intercultural sensitivity is not as self-evident as one may expect in a CLIL setting. Some other factors come into play, i.e. gender, language background and school grade.