Jhon Alexander Estrada Hincapié

CLIL in Colombia: challenges and opportunities

CLIL is an innovative approach for language learning that promotes the integration of
content and subject matter of the curricula of schools with the effective and meaningful use
of the four language skills: reading, listening, writing, and speaking. The main idea of the
CLIL methodology is that students learn about math, science, social studies, geography,
etc., using the L2 language. Therefore, students are learning the target language while they
are exploring school content and achieving the curriculum’ learning goals. It is important to
highlight the following four key aspects of CLIL teaching: Content, communication,
cognition, and culture. First, as it was said before, content plays a key role in the CLIL
approach. When content is delivered in the target language on a regular basis, as an
inherent part of the curriculum, it can make the acquisition of the language more natural
and spontaneous for the learners. Second, CLIL is connected to the communicative
approach as it promotes the use of the additional language for communicative purposes
rather than focusing on grammatical structures. Third, in this approach, it is a must to work
on students’ high-order thinking skills. Learning occurs when learners can comprehend,
analyze, categorize, etc., therefore, in a CLIL oriented classroom students must develop
these abilities when doing tasks in different subjects. Fourth, culture is a key element in the
CLIL approach. For example, the content delivered in the social studies class is an
opportunity to learn about other cultures as well as to recognize the values and traditions of
their own people and costumes.

The aforementioned characteristics of the CLIL approach set some relevant challenges for
Colombian bilingual education. The first challenge is about the lack of teachers’ expertise
to implement efficiently the CLIL principles in the classroom. Most language teachers have
a little experience and training in the use of the CLIL approach. Therefore, planning is
time-consuming and difficult as well as the development of tasks that integrate language
and content is not always effective. The second challenge is about the possible
implementation of CLIL in Colombian public institutions. It is a fact that this approach is
not a realistic option in public schools because they have a lot of problems in terms of
resources, materials, infrastructure, lack of proficient English teachers, and so on; thus, it
makes the gap between private and public bilingualism learning bigger. The last challenge,
it is the lack of awareness and knowledge among the administrative stakeholders about the
use of the CLIL approach. The administrative staff at schools who are in charge of setting
up the curriculum and buying the materials to implement the CLIL approach are not usually
conscious about the context and their teachers’ experience using the CLIL methodology, so
it can create a learning environment in which the institution’s learning outcomes are not in
alignment with the classroom reality.

However, these challenges can be seen as opportunities to make improvements in the

Colombian bilingual education. First, language programs in universities should include
CLIL in their curricula to prepare pre-service teachers in the effective use of this approach.
Pre-service teachers can work on different CLIL principles by doing their practicum in
diverse settings. It is an approach that demands real practice and a lot of training to be
implemented in an effective way. Second, this content and language approach can create
small CLIL learning communities among student teachers in universities. Then, they can be
bigger as they share with other national and international communities. Third, the use of
ICTs in education is increasing and it can make easier and more dynamic the integration of
content and language in the classroom. There are a lot of tools, resources, and educational
platforms available on internet that provide teachers more options to present and explain
content as well as students have different ways to show what they have learned.

Considering the previous information, I can list three main conclusions. The CLIL
approach has solid principles that can improve bilingual education in Colombia. It works on
content and language at the same making the learning experience more meaningful, natural,
and diverse as the target language is a medium to learn about the content that is normally
included in the curriculum. Another conclusion that is connected to previous one is the
implementation of CLIL in the classroom. Its effective use depends on the training,
knowledge, and experience of teachers to do their best in classes with this approach. It also
needs the awareness and support of the administrative stakeholders as well as some
educational policies that help teachers to be prepared. Finally, the CLIL methodology is not
static and lineal, but it is flexible and depends on the students’ needs, classroom reality, and
innovations in terms of ICT’s and use of the language. Therefore, the teachers who really
want to implement this approach in the classroom, must be continuously evolving and
reflecting on their teaching practice.