A new age has dawned in additional language teaching methodology which directly reflects wider changes in the world. In the corresponding sea-change in educational philosophy, Cont

A new age has dawned in additional language teaching methodology which directly reflects wider changes in the world. In the corresponding sea-change in educational philosophy, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) presents an opportunity and a threat to accepted language teaching practice. As with immersion, formal language instruction remains integral to most CLIL models. But for this to be synchronous to subject teaching through an additional language, curricular and methodological adjustment is often required.

The ways in which content and language are integrated influence decision-making on how each is handled within the model. For example, this may be through language-learning preparation before the CLIL course, language learning embedded in the CLIL course, or language learning parallel to the CLIL course.

A useful starting point is to consider the content of learning. The concept of what constitutes content in a CLIL context is much more flexible than selecting a discipline from a traditional school curriculum such as geography, music, biology or physics. Whilst curricular subjects such as these might be appropriate for some CLIL programmes, contextual variables such as teacher availability, language support, age of learners and the social demands of the learning environment may mean that a different choice of content is more appropriate. In other words: what exactly is meant by ‘content’ in CLIL will depend on the context of the learning institution.

However, the crucial point here is that, no matter whether issues concerning the content or the language are more dominant at a given point, neither must be subsumed or the interrelationship between the two ignored.

(COYLE, Do; HOOD, Philip; MARSH, David. 2010. Adaptado)

In the first sentence of the text “A new age has dawned in additional language teaching methodology”, the expression in bold letters is a figure of speech named