2 CLIL approach to languages

3. Facilitate the exchange of students (sometimes teachers).

4. Promote the international mobility of the labor workforce in Europe and the world.

If only two out of them had to remain, numbers 1 and 4 would probably be chosen. Most parents want their children to be fluent in English not only because it means an enlargement of their cultural background but mainly due to the increase in employment opportunities it renders. This is why in any BEP an official certification is also expected by families and School managers as a result of the project.

2 CLIL APPROACH TO LANGUAGES.

Together with the extension of bilingual education a new way of teaching English has emerged. The acronym CLIL stands for Content and Language Integrated Learning and was coined by David Marsh in 1994 (Johnson, 2014). It is a recent way of teaching English and other subjects not only is Spain but all over the world (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010). It is becoming more and more popular in schools with a BEP: some institutions and publishing houses design teacher courses on CLIL, school principals use it as a magnet for demand and Education Authorities begin to mention it as a new efficient approach for BEPs. But, what do we mean by CLIL?

The European Commission in its well-known 1995 white paper on education (European Comission, 1995) stated that it was necessary for students to finish school time being proficient in two European languages. In achieving this goal, the report suggests that secondary school pupils should study certain subjects in the first foreign language learned. Since then, the use of a foreign language to teach school subjects has not stopped increasing. It is considered a powerful way to improve learning and proficiency in a foreign language.

The term ‘Content and Language Integrated Learning’ was adopted in 1994 in European countries (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010). It is not just another fashion doomed to pass by leaving no trace. On the contrary, using another language to teach and enhance opportunities dates back to the Sumerian times, continued throughout history in classic Greece and Rome and so on to our times (Mehisto, Marsh, & Frigols, 2008): In European medieval times, learning through a second language (Latin) was customary and there was no other way to get into University (Illanes & Saranyana, 1996) (Dhondt, 1972). Despite this, in recent years CLIL is being introduced and showed off as innovative; and in fact it is new up to a certain point and in some sense. If innovation means using new methods for improving learning, CLIL is fairly considered as new tool. And it is simple and complex at the same time.

There are three main different models for CLIL to be implemented in schools: language-led, subjectled and partial inversion, as shown in the following table, taken from Bentley (2010):