An Analytical Framework of Language Integration in L2 Content-based Courses: The European Dimension

This paper looks into the Content and Language-Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach as one gaining new ground for L2 teaching in compulsory education. It briefly discusses its operationalisation in a seemingly monolingual region–Andalusia, southern Spain–where content-based instruction, drawing on European recommendations, has been adopted in primary and secondary education for L2 teaching. This leads to an examination of the challenges faced in putting together an official integrated content and language curriculum in such a context, and reviews the dangers of content and language integration, particularly the potential for complications in one of its components–namely the linguistic side of the curriculum. The article includes clear guidelines on how to identify, make salient and work through linguistic items of the L2 based on task-based principles. Such a framework, split into three different stages, allows for academic language exploration, identification of primary and secondary linguistic items and selected language practice.