Integration or immersion? A comparative study at the tertiary level

Abstract

The implementation of new degrees in the Spanish university system as a result of the process of adaptation to the European Space of Higher Education (ESHE) will bring significant changes in the learning of foreign languages at this level. Different methodological approaches such as foreign linguistic immersion in the content classroom or Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) might be used as a compensatory curricular strategy for the learning of foreign languages in the implementation of the new university degrees. The present article reports on research conducted at the School of Psychology of the University of Granada (Spain) where these two methodological approaches were contrasted for an assessment of their efficiency with regards to the specific learning purposes indicated above. The results obtained show the academic convenience of the implementation of CLIL methodology as a compensation strategy for the loss of courses on English for Specific Purposes at the tertiary level.

Language and Teaching Methodology Features of CLIL in University Classrooms: A Research Synthesis

“…They include studies on vocabulary development (Carloni, 2012), learning styles (Fernandez-Santiago, 2011), language proficiency (Klimova, 2013), language skills (Chostelidou & Griva, 2014;Hellekjaer, 2010;Hewitt, 2011;Jackson, 2012) and pragmatic competence (Moore & Dooly, 2010;Smit, 2010). Approximately, 46% of the studies observed professors' pragmatic competence (Braga Riera & Dominguez Romero, 2010;Dafouz E. , 2007;Dafouz Milne & Nuñez Perucha, 2010;Dafouz & Sanchez Garcia, 2013;Thogersen, 2013;Torres Martinez, 2013), language proficiency (Morgado & Coelho, 2013), vocabulary development (Watanabe, 2013) and teaching methodology (Fernandez-Santiago, 2011;González & Barbero, 2013 Ljosland, 2010;Smit, 2007Smit, , 2010 and language proficiency (Hou, 2013). From this analysis, it seems that research has given more importance to the role instructors play in CLIL classrooms as they are also users of the foreign language, in this case English.…”