Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL): Dual Objective, Dual Gain?

Background: An emerging trend has been observed in the number of schools offering Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs, where academic content is taught through a foreign language. The studies exploring the impact of CLIL programs on content learning are scarce and produce inconsistent results.Aims: The current study examines the acquisition of academic content learned in a foreign language in CLIL education, when pupils are tested in the main school language.Sample: The sample consisted of 725 sixth grade primary and twelfth grade secondary education pupils enrolled in CLIL and in non-CLIL, in French-speaking Belgium.Methods: Content learning was examined by collecting the end-of-curriculum official external evaluations for the participants. The external evaluation for primary pupils focused on mathematics, history and geography, sciences, and French, while it focused on history and French for secondary pupils. The particularity of these evaluations is that they are identical for all schools in French-speaking Belgium.Results: Although academic subjects are instructed in a foreign, non-dominant language (i.e., English or Dutch), CLIL pupils successfully achieve their school curriculum (just like non-CLIL pupils do) and are able to acquire content in a foreign language, even though the assessment takes place in the main school language (i.e., French). These results remained stable even when controlling for cognitive and demographic confounding variables.Conclusion: CLIL pupils do not seem to be at a disadvantage for the acquisition of academic content, compared to non-CLIL pupils.