CLIL’s Role in Facilitating Intercultural Learning

Abstract

Alongside the globalisation phenomenon, many European countries have already situated their educational practice in existing multilingual contexts. The multilingualism policies of the European Union provided an ideal backdrop to the development of integrative approaches such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and, as a result, the term CLIL was coined in 1996 through sustained interest and pedagogical activity in the field of bilingual education across Europe. CLIL environments can also facilitate the promotion of intercultural communicative competence as described in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. In addition, as culture seems to be one of the five dimensions of CLIL provision, it is essential to discuss and consider the incorporation of an intercultural perspective in CLIL. The integrative nature of CLIL gives an opportunity for a simultaneous combination of foreign language learning, content subject learning and intercultural learning.