The Effects of CLIL on Subject Matter Learning: The Case of Science in Primary and Secondary Education

Abstract

This chapter focuses on an under-researched topic in relation to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL): the effects of bilingual programmes on content learning. It was carried out with a total of ten schools (in Primary and Secondary Education) and 318 students in public bilingual and charter non-bilingual schools in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Students’ performance in the subjects of Science in Primary Education and Natural Science in Compulsory Secondary Education is compared across schools in order to provide data on the important issue of whether CLIL programmes are watering down subject matter learning or promoting it as successfully as in monolingual streams. Factor and discriminant analyses are performed with the type of school and educational level variables 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. The statistical analysis confirms the positive effects of CLIL on content subject learning, showing that bilingually educated students outperform monolingually educated ones at both educational stages, although this difference is clearly significant when finishing their Secondary Education studies. The results also provide some clear-cut differences in terms of type of school and educational level, as public bilingual schools only outperform charter non-bilingual schools only at the end of Compulsory Secondary Education, which suggests the long-term effects of CLIL on subject matter learning.