CLIL and Educational Level: A Longitudinal Study on the Impact of CLIL on Language Outcomes

Abstract

This article reports on a longitudinal study carried out with 1,033 CLIL students and 991 EFL learners in 53 public, private, and charter schools across 12 Spanish provinces into the effects of CLIL on foreign language achievement (grammar, vocabulary, reading, listening, and speaking). The evolution of the bilingual and non-bilingual strands, which were matched on a pre-test in terms of English level, verbal intelligence and motivation , from Primary Education to Compulsory Secondary Education to Baccalaureate is traced through the administration of post-and delayed post-tests. In addition to these inter-group comparisons, intragroup development is also examined to determine the evolution of both the CLIL and the non-CLIL students across educational levels in terms of the linguistic components and skills. Finally, discriminant analyses are performed with all the intervening variables of the study (motivation, verbal intelligence, extramural exposure to English, setting, and socioeconomic status) in order to determine whether CLIL is truly responsible for the differences ascertained or whether other variables account for a greater proportion of the variance.