A Review of European Research on Content and Language Integrated Learning

Abstract

Introduction. Subjects’ integration in formal teaching can play an important role in addressing the issue of authentic and meaningful learning as opposed to rote memorisation. Content and language integrated learning has been the subject of educational studies for three decades. The scope of research is broad, and from the primary focus on foreign language performance, it has been slowly extended to the impact of Content and language integrated learning on content and mother tongue. The purpose of the research is to summarize selected research articles on Content and language integrated learning application and to estimate its summary average effect on content development in a group of students aged 10‒16. Materials and Methods. The article presents the systematic review of the studies published in the Web of Science database in the last decade (2010–2020) and surveys the selected empirical studies that focus on the impact of Content and language integrated learning implementation on the content subjects at primary and secondary schools. Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis. Data from six studies were also statistically evaluated using Comprehensive meta analysis and RevMan software, and the synthesis is presented in the Results and Discussion parts. Results. Based on the 16 discussed studies’ results, Content and language integrated learning intervention produces positive added value; however, the statistical meta-analysis showed no statistically significant differences between the Content and language integrated learning and non-CLIL groups in their content knowledge and the results favouring non-CLIL groups. As the groups’ size differed in terms of absolute value, the pooled standard deviation was used to reflect the sample sizes and standard deviation were averaged with more weight given to the larger sample groups. Discussion and Conclusion. The practical significance and prospects of the study lie in pointing out the benefits of Content and language integrated learning and stressing the importance of its inclusion in teacher training study programmes along with the development of pre-service teachers’ creativity, critical thinking and ability to create their materials.