The Potential of CLIL For Intercultural Development: A Case Study of Andalusian Bilingual Schools

Language and Intercultural Communication
ISSN: 1470-8477 (Print) 1747-759X (Online) Journal homepage: http://nca.tandfonline.com/loi/rmli20
The potential of CLIL for intercultural

development: a case study of Andalusian bilingual
schools
María del Carmen Méndez García
To cite this article: María del Carmen Méndez García (2012) The potential of CLIL for intercultural
development: a case study of Andalusian bilingual schools, Language and Intercultural
Communication, 12:3, 196-213, DOI: 10.1080/14708477.2012.667417
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2012.667417
Published online: 27 Jul 2012.
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Language and Intercultural Communication
Vol. 12, No. 3, August 2012, 196213
The potential of CLIL for intercultural development: a case study of

Andalusian bilingual schools
Marı́a del Carmen Méndez Garcı́a*
Universidad de Jaén, Departamento de Filologı́a Inglesa, Paraje Las Lagunillas s/n, Jaén 23071,
Spain
The most outstanding overhaul in educational policies in Spanish monolingual

communities has been the widespread implementation of Content and Language
Downloaded by [University of Coruna] at 03:33 05 October 2017
Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes. This article delves into the supposedly
indissoluble relationship between CLIL and intercultural communicative compe-
tence. Using as a basis a case study on CLIL primary and secondary school
teachers’ and students’ perceptions, this study questions whether bilingual
programmes in Andalusia provide learners with the necessary competences to
cope efficiently with otherness. Findings show that CLIL presents an apparent
potential for the development of crucial intercultural attitudes, the vital
development of critical cultural awareness, and, finally, action-taking as a
sophisticated outcome of both assessments.
Los cambios más importantes en polı́tica educativa de las comunidades

autónomas españolas monolingües ha sido la implantación paulatina de los
programas de Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenidos y Lengua Extranjera
(AICLE). Este artı́culo examina la relación entre AICLE y la competencia
intercultural. Partiendo de un estudio de casos sobre las percepciones del
alumnado y del profesorado AICLE de Primaria y Secundaria en Andalucı́a el
artı́culo cuestiona si dichos programas dotan al alumnado de la competencia
intercultural necesaria. Los datos demuestran que AICLE tiene un gran potencial
para el desarrollo de actitudes interculturales claves, de la conciencia cultural
crı́tica y, finalmente, de la competencia de orientación para la acción, una
competencia compleja que es fruto de ambas.
Keywords: foreign language education; intercultural awareness; intercultural
learning; language policy; intercultural communication
Introduction
A primarily monolingual area, Andalusia began to move towards an explicit
plurilingual language policy in the late 1990s, even though the cornerstones of
bilingual education were not published until 2005 in the Plan de fomento del
plurilingüismo (henceforth, The Plan) (Junta de Andalucı́a, 2005). The number of
schools involved in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes
in Andalusia has grown exponentially: from 18 pilot FrenchSpanish and 8 German
Spanish programmes in 1998, to more than 694 primary and secondary schools in
2010: 90% EnglishSpanish, 8% FrenchSpanish and 2% GermanSpanish pro-
grammes (Segovia et al., 2010). In the last decade, Andalusians have witnessed an
*Email: cmendez@ujaen.es
ISSN 1470-8477 print/ISSN 1747-759X online

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Language and Intercultural Communication 197
unprecedented overhaul in the conception and teaching of languages that has shaken
educational policies and educational practices from their very foundations.
The design of The Plan was triggered, among other factors, by individuals’
underachievement in foreign languages after many years (813) of foreign language
learning in compulsory pre-university schooling. The Plan draws on the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) (Council of Europe,
2001), which affirms that plurilingualism and intercultural communication are
inexorably intertwined given that plurilingualism is credited with holding the key to
intercultural understanding. This humanistic perspective will be the major focus of
this article.
CLIL in Andalusia and intercultural education

Contextual background
With the exception of coastal areas and tourist cities like Seville or Granada, a large
percentage of the population of Andalusia consists of monolingual Spanish speakers
with limited chances of using foreign languages regularly. Consequently, the
plurilingual programme has been enforced under the premise that augmenting
learners’ exposure to foreign languages will stimulate the development of more
skilled and competent citizens.
In order for schools to be granted the status and funding as bilingual or CLIL
institutions, a particular primary and a secondary school have to present a joint
project which ensures that CLIL education in Spanish and in the foreign language
(English, French or German) is guaranteed throughout all the stages of compulsory
education (ages 616). In general, most schools are able to extend CLIL education to
one or two groups per grade. CLIL groups, at least in the initial phase of
implementation of The Plan, were formed on a voluntary basis and, frequently,
the decision of enrolling children and teenagers in bilingual programmes was taken
by parents with qualifications in higher education (Bruton, 2011). This is why Bruton
distinguishes between CLIL streamed classes vs. non-CLIL streamed ones, an
argument which is strongly rejected by Lorenzo, Casal, and Moore (2009).
The minimum number of yearly courses taught through the foreign language is
one, although most schools offer three. Science is one of the commonest subjects in
primary education (Frigols Martı́n, 2008), whereas in secondary education CLIL
courses tend to belong to the social sciences, although not exclusively. Initially, the
teaching time allocated to the foreign language in each of the CLIL disciplines was a
third of the total amount of the lessons, a percentage that is being progressively
augmented. Together with language teachers and especially language assistants
content teachers implement a team teaching approach.
For the time being, some CLIL schools are on their way to becoming truly
plurilingual institutions given that the different courses of the curriculum are
beginning to be taught in and through Spanish, as well as a first and also a second
foreign language.
Preliminary findings in the first stages of implementation of The Plan

The limited number of schools offering bilingual teaching for more than a decade
and the large amount of schools which are progressively joining CLIL programmes
198 M.C. Méndez Garcı́a
indicate that the spread of plurilingual education in Andalusia is still in progress.

Therefore, the findings reported so far have to be interpreted with caution as the
Andalusian educational authorities themselves emphasize that this is a long-term
project.
The most comprehensive wide-ranging research on CLIL in Andalusia has been
conducted by Lorenzo et al. who, in terms of linguistic outcomes and competence
level, uphold that ‘CLIL learners were clearly outperforming their mainstream peers’
(2009, p. 9) not only in lexico-grammatical competence but also in pragmatic
efficiency probably due to the relevance of meaningful learning and authentic L2 use.
Nevertheless, Bruton (2011) questions these findings. He claims that a major
drawback in Lorenzo et al.’s conclusions is the absence of pre-test scores both for the
CLIL and for the non-CLIL sample which would probably have revealed that CLIL
and non-CLIL streams are simply dissimilar in their language proficiency, motiva-
tion and composition because CLIL groups start with a proficiency advantage and
tend to contain more motivated students who generally have parents with a higher
socio-economic and educational status. Furthermore, specifies Bruton (2011), the
data attributed to CLIL factors may not originate from CLIL itself but simply from
more funding and institutional support.
Research on learners’ opinions indicates that CLIL students are satisfied with
bilingual programmes in Andalusia, express their intention to continue studying
through CLIL and value the possibility the target language offers for obtaining a
better job position in the future (Ramos, 2007a). Pupils seem to be more motivated
towards foreign language learning and drop-out rates seem to be ‘reasonably low’
(Frigols Martı́n, 2008, p. 225).
The use of the target language in Andalusia did not initially exceed a third of the
teaching time of the subjects taught through the foreign language. Although at
present this can be considered a satisfactory starting point, the future success of
bilingual sections will probably depend on two factors. Firstly, it will depend on the
spread of CLIL to further institutions and groups within schools that are already
bilingual since most of these schools provide the organizational and human
resources necessary to offer CLIL education to only one group per grade which is
usually formed on a voluntary basis. The second factor on which the success of these
sections in Andalusia depends is the progressive increase of the teaching time in the
target language.
CLIL and the development of intercultural competence

The Plan (Junta de Andalucı́a, 2005) establishes explicit links between language
achievement and intercultural development, a second major goal of CLIL in
Andalusia: ‘Intercultural communication and acceptance of cultural differences rest
on the possibility of learning other languages’ (Junta de Andalucı́a, 2005, p. 48, my
translation). For The Plan (Junta de Andalucı́a, 2005), language learning constitutes
a privileged tool to explore the mother tongue, the learners’ culture and other
cultures, and teachers play a fundamental role as mediators between the learner’s
own and the foreign culture. Additionally, having access to foreign languages
inevitably helps individuals to become aware of the relativity of their own way of
thinking, making them reject stereotypes and be more tolerant, and fostering respect
for other people’s personal and cultural diversity. Coming into contact with
otherness at an early age leads to drawing comparisons, awakening learners’ interest
in diverse lifestyles, values, beliefs and behaviour, and forges the creation of a
harmonious identity built upon intertwined elements from personal and alien
identities. In short, foreign languages empower individuals by allowing the discovery
of a wider and richer worldview (Junta de Andalucı́a, 2005). Nonetheless, important
as they are, these humanistic goals seem to be pushed to the background in the
interest of language command.
Of the five dimensions of CLIL distinguished by Marsh, Maljers, and Hartiala
(2001) which echo Coyle’s four Cs of CLIL, communication, cognition, content
and culture the cultural dimension occupies the top position, as one of the
possibilities of CLIL is the transformation of cognitive knowledge into real
understanding. Among other things, CLIL facilitates the acquisition of knowledge
about neighbouring countries, regions and minority groups in learners’ communities.
Such as it is formulated, the cultural dimension of CLIL relates to Byram, Gribkova,
and Starkey’s (2002) definition of intercultural communicative competence as a

whole, composed of attitudes (savoir être), knowledge (savoir), skills (savoir
comprendre and savoir apprendre/faire) and critical cultural awareness (savoir
s’engager). In spite of being closely linked to plurilingualism, intercultural
competence transcends the boundaries of language skills to surface as a demanding
whole that ensures real understanding among people from different backgrounds.
CLIL in Europe serves communicative purposes and most CLIL learners’ driving
force falls within the category which Gardner and Lambert (1959) call instrumental
motivation. On referring to Schumann’s acculturation (1986) and social distance
theories (1976), Horwitz (2006) maintains that CLIL students experience a high
social distance between themselves and the speakers of the foreign language.
Accordingly, bilingual programmes in contexts such as Andalusia ‘may not give
students all the language exposure or culture competence they would need to become
native-like speakers of the new language’ (Horwitz, 2006, p. 27). Horwitz is definitely
suggesting that CLIL does not yield acculturation, as one of its shortcomings is that
it does not promote the adoption of the cultural patterns of the target community
(biculturalism) since it occurs in the learners’ own culture. Nonetheless, the spirit of
CLIL in Europe does not aim at biculturalism, acculturation or enculturation, but at
intercultural development: individuals who are able to interact with members of
other social groups any social groups in the world, not just groups from the
societies where the target language is spoken on a basis of flexibility, mutual respect
and understanding. Despite intercultural competence being one of the greatest
potentials of CLIL (Coyle, 2009), it is not ‘automatically’ inherent in it and needs
explicit attention.
Intercultural attitudinal goals are intrinsic to CLIL, ‘conveying to pupils values
of tolerance and respect vis-à-vis other cultures’ (Eurydice, 2006, p. 22). CLIL
students become familiar and in touch with other realities from early stages and this
may enhance their interest in other lifestyles and worldviews with which comparisons
and contrasts are inevitably established (Casal & Moore, 2009). CLIL contribution is
also significant in the opportunities it offers for getting to know and interacting with
other people (Ramos, 2007a), which may endorse positive attitudes towards the
target people and their culture and, consequently, increase learners’ motivation
(Pavón Vázquez & Rubio, 2010).
A further essential factor is the unequivocal focus on the learners’ own language
and culture, as both become the starting point for scaffolding the construction of the
new knowledge (Carrió-Pastor, 2009). Self-knowledge, self-acceptance and relativi-

zation of one’s values are at the heart of openness to otherness.
Goals, research questions and methodology

Goals and research questions
The main goal underlying this study is to ascertain whether CLIL programmes
impelled in Andalusia at pre-university levels boost learners’ development in
intercultural competence. In other words, this article aims at finding out whether
bilingual programmes in Andalusia provide learners with the necessary attitudes and
critical cultural awareness to allow them to interact efficiently, and on the basis of
mutual understanding, with people who are different from them. The general
research question is:
Do CLIL programmes in Andalusia foster learners’ intercultural education

and development?
Specific research questions can be formulated in the following terms:
(a) What are teachers’ views on the perceived effects of CLIL programmes on
learners’ attitudes towards otherness?
(b) What are learners’ views on the perceived effects of CLIL programmes on
their attitudes towards otherness?
(c) Do bilingual programmes provide learners with critical cultural awareness?
Instruments and participants

Casal and Moore (2009) deem that research on bilingual programmes has to go beyond
quantitative analysis and must be complemented with qualitative data. The decision to
choose qualitative methodology was inspired by the purpose of complementing
previously conducted research on CLIL in Andalusia, which has chiefly taken shape
quantitatively. The tool selected was interviews, which have the advantage of accessing
non-observable phenomena such as perceptions or attitudes and of encountering
personal experiences and viewpoints on particular phenomena from the insider’s
perspectives. The research tool opted for was semi-structured interviews because of
their intrinsic flexibility in the systematic coverage of the leading topics.
As the researcher’s institution is based in the city of Jaén, the only province
without CLIL experimental schools in 2001 and, consequently, the last Andalusian
province to establish pilot bilingual sections, it was concluded that the schools in the
province of Jaén would be the focal point of this study. The criterion employed for
the selection of the primary and the secondary schools of this case study was
seniority in the programme. French and German projects had been set up
experimentally before the publication of The Plan. The most experienced schools
happen to be the primary school ‘San José de Calasanz’ and the secondary school
‘Sierra Mágina’ located in Mancha Real (a village of 10,000 inhabitants 19
kilometres away from the city of Jaén). Both these schools are coordinated
institutions offering the first bilingual programme, FrenchSpanish in this case,
within the province of Jaén from 2002 to 2003. They have therefore constituted a
reference point for the implementation of further bilingual programmes in this

southern area.
The premise the researcher started from was that carrying out the study on a
FrenchSpanish, EnglishSpanish or GermanSpanish programme would not alter
the core results as the focus was not on attainment in a particular language, but on
the effect of CLIL on intercultural development, a global competence, irrespective of
the foreign language taken.
A combination of individual and focus group interviews was put into effect from
2007 to 2010, usually in June, at the end of the academic year, when teachers and the
researcher were more readily available. In general, teachers were interviewed
individually or, exceptionally, in pairs, since out of their eagerness to provide the
researcher with broader and more reliable data they expressed their interest in
sharing the interview with another colleague (interviews 3, 4 and 6 below). All in all,
15 language assistants, teachers of linguistic and non-linguistic subjects belonging to
all the departments involved in the programme were interviewed. Their experience in
the CLIL programme ranged from one year (language assistants) to five or more
years (teachers who joined the programme in its early stages):
Primary school ‘Almadén’:1

k T1. One language assistant of French (female, F)
Primary school ‘San José de Calasanz’:

k T3. Two language assistants of French (F)
k T4. Two content teachers: Music (F) and PE (male, M)
k T5. One content teacher: Science (F)
k T6. Two language teachers of French (F and M)
Secondary school ‘Sierra Mágina’:

k T2. One language assistant of French (F)
k T7. One language teacher of French (F)
k T8. One language teacher of French (F)
k T9. One content teacher: Geography and History (M)
k T10. One content teacher: Economy (F)
k T11. One content teacher: Music (F)
k T12. One content teacher: Physics and Chemistry (M)
As for learners, and bearing in mind their psychological development and

maturity, focus group interviews were chosen because the author assumed that they
would feel more relaxed and confident in groups and would not be so intimidated by
her presence. Observing the maximum variation sampling principle, institutions were
requested to make a selection of five to six learners with unequal performance from
the highest courses of primary and compulsory secondary education, the most veteran
learners in the programme. Hence, two focal group interviews were carried out:
Primary school:
k S1. Four boys and three girls. Sixth year of primary education (age 12)
Secondary school:
k S2. Two boys and three girls. Fourth year of secondary education (age 16)
Interviews with students took, on average, 2025 minutes, whereas some interviews
with teachers were considerably longer (up to 55 minutes).
Data collection, transcription and analysis

Interviews were recorded and conducted in the relaxing atmosphere of the seminar,
classroom or department where teachers and learners had agreed to meet the
researcher. They consisted of an introduction to the study, a few initial questions,
content and verification questions and some concluding questions. Ideally,
qualitative research has to be extended until the saturation point has been reached.
After the whole process the researcher had certainly obtained empirical confidence
that the point of saturation had been reached.
The collection of oral data was followed by the written transcription of the whole
conversations, rather than their partial, edited or interpretative version. One of the
commonest methods of data analysis in qualitative research was observed: grounded
theory or constant comparison, an inductive approach through which categories,
instead of being pre-established in advance, arise as data analysis progresses.
Theories based on data were verified to determine major emergent themes and to
generate an inductive theory that explains the relationship between CLIL and
intercultural development.
For the sake of consistency and precision, the author was especially meticulous
about validating the results with the information sources and this was achieved by
means of two explicit lines of action: the verification of relevant data provided by
each interviewee with him/herself through probing questions at the end of each
interview, and the checking of key issues brought up by informants with other
informants either to corroborate findings or to detect divergent patterns.
Findings and discussion

The interviews yielded a huge amount of information on essential dimensions of
intercultural communicative competence. This section revolves around three areas of
particular interest: attitudes, critical cultural awareness and action-taking.
Attitudes
Positive attitudes towards the foreign language correlate with high L2 achievement
(Lasagabaster & Sierra, 2009). CLIL is said to foment positive attitudes towards other
languages and cultures (Ramos, 2007b), especially towards the foreign language of the
CLIL programme, and towards the learning of content subjects (Reilly & Medrano,
2009). The data unquestionably supports the assertion about the promotion of
positive attitudes towards foreign languages and cultures. Indeed, T5 states:
Bilingual groups? In general, their attitude is rather positive. They wish to know more
about people, to study, to get to know new things.
Positive attitudes towards otherness are the basis for intercultural development
(Carrió-Pastor, 2009). In the sample, students themselves acknowledge being pleased
to participate in the programme and seem to be aware of the benefits of CLIL. S2
affirms:
Apart from learning the language, we have also learnt about French culture. We have
also learnt to speak in French, for example, in other areas.
Teachers’ views are even more categorical as most of them have had previous
experience in other schools and/or teach CLIL and non-CLIL groups in the same
school, being able to draw comparisons between diverse contexts. The terms they use
to refer to their CLIL learners’ attitudes towards the target language and the
culture(s) associated to it are, among others, interest, curiosity, receptiveness,
tolerance, openness, open-mindedness, respect and value, change of attitude, positive
attitudes, acceptance and tolerance. The teachers comment:
Tolerance, acceptance, interest, curiosity. They are always asking questions. They are
very tolerant. They are open to everything, to French culture. It is my first year in a
plurilingual institution. Children in non-CLIL schools are not motivated they are not
tolerant, they do not accept the culture of other countries, they do not accept other
customs, timetables, rhythms, and they even criticise them. And here, they do not
criticise anything, they are used to it, they see it as normal. (T6)
In general, there is a sort of openness, a greater receptiveness towards what comes from
other places in general, if compared with non-CLIL groups. This capacity they have of
assimilating what comes from abroad and of not being narrow-minded. (T9)
They are more open-minded (T10)
Of course, they display a higher degree of interest (T11)
Interestingly, this general adoption of positive attitudes in CLIL students is

closely related to knowledge about otherness (Byram, Barret, Ipgrave, Jackson, &
Méndez Garcı́a, 2009), to awareness raising of other lifestyles and frames of mind. In
this sense, respect surfaces as a by-product of CLIL as a natural setting for a gradual
deepening familiarity with otherness. On this issue, T6 and T4 make the following
remarks:
There is plenty of respect for French culture, tradition, people.
Children learn to respect when they get to know different people, different customs; to
respect all that surrounds us we need to know that it exists. They value French culture
by simply getting to know it.
CLIL students are reported to present evident gains in key attitudinal and
psychological processes. On the one hand, the data proves the hypothesis that
familiarity with otherness leads to positive attitudes and increased motivation (Pavón
Vázquez & Rubio, 2010). On the other hand, learners seem to be more alert, more
mature and more prone to autonomous thinking (Arnold, 2011) than their non-
bilingual counterparts who are defined as being initially more narrow-minded, more
afraid of failure, uncertainty and ridicule, and who may tend to exhibit blinkered
attitudes. As a consequence, non-CLIL learners seem to find some difficulties in
tolerating ambiguous situations, situations that do not fall within their familiar
contexts or situations which they may find ‘unpleasant and threatening’ (Byram et
al., 2009, p. 24), whereas in CLIL children tolerance for ambiguity (Glaser,
Guilherme, Méndez Garcı́a, & Mughan, 2007) is plainly coupled with the learning
process and is dealt with ‘constructively’ (Byram et al., 2009, p. 24). Confirming
these ideas, T9 and T10 claim:
[The programme] is helping them mature and think more autonomously.
CLIL learners, in general, are much more open, they question things more frequently,
they are not narrow-minded; non-CLIL students tend to be more narrow-minded, there
is some rejection, probably out of fear of the unknown and fear of failure.
All these factors may stem from CLIL as a minimizer of anxiety. With its reduced
attention to linguistic forms, learners feel more self-confident (Arnold, 2011) and are
able to lower their affective filter (Lasagabaster & Sierra, 2009), which may have a
direct effect on their attitudinal stance towards the foreign language, people and
otherness.
The data corroborate that CLIL learners in primary and secondary schools in
Andalusia tend to be more prone to an early development of positive intercultural
attitudes than non-CLIL groups. They seem to show essential intercultural attitudes
such as respect for otherness, curiosity and openness, they seem to be able to
‘suspend belief about (the ‘‘naturalness’’ of) one’s own culture and to believe in (the
‘‘naturalness’’ of) other cultures’ (Byram et al., 2009, p. 23) and they seem to
understand that their cultural patterns are not the only ones or the naturally correct
ones. Perhaps, if these intercultural attitudes emerge progressively and as an intrinsic
outcome of CLIL’s constant exposure to other languages and lifestyles, learners may
incessantly feel the need to implement the intercultural skill of ‘unlearning’ (Byram
et al., 2009), taking for granted values, beliefs, knowledge and practices and
‘relearning’ new ones (Glaser et al., 2007) given that their own and alien cultural
patterns interweave into their everyday school situations. Interestingly, this may
likewise account for the learners’ lack of preconceived ideas about the target culture
and its members. T6 states:
They do not have preconceived ideas.
These findings have to be interpreted as CLIL group tendencies which are by no

means applicable to all group members. Indeed, motivated students are to be found
both in CLIL and non-CLIL groups, and evidently not every single member of a
CLIL group succeeds, as the low rate of drop-outs shows (Frigols Martı́n, 2008). T8
explains:
Interest is the interest each of them may have to access a bilingual section. We also see
some learners that do not show any interest and there is nothing they can do but drop
out as they keep failing non-linguistic subjects.
It is noteworthy, however, that CLIL groups tend to manifest their predisposition

and their willingness to learn and this seems to correspond with parents’ decisions to
voluntarily enrol their children and, as mentioned above, most of these parents hold
higher education qualifications (Bruton, 2011). Indeed, research indicates that even
though social class or socio-economic background is a relevant parameter in
language learning, ‘the educational level of parents has a more significant influence
on their FL success’ (Lasagabaster & Sierra, 2009, p. 6). T1 and T6 observe:
Here students are all ready to learn.
More than half of the parents have had access to higher education.
Studies conducted on foreign language learning and age point to a certain

weariness in learners’ motivation as the number of years studying the foreign
language as a subject increases, with learners’ enthusiasm declining significantly
more among boys (Lasagabaster & Sierra, 2009). In this research, age appears to be
of the utmost importance. Without exception, primary school teachers agree that
children are immensely receptive and open to otherness, a major piece of data
supported by secondary school teachers:
What I can tell you is that the younger they are, the more receptive they are and,
moreover, they exhibit a more positive attitude towards the language and culture. They
take in everything that comes from other places. (T7)
There seems to be a decline in positive attitudes as learners reach the end of

secondary education. It seems that, the way they have been enforced in Andalusia,
CLIL programmes in the post-compulsory education two-year cycle prior to

university entrance (Bachillerato) may yield some type of regression, a highly
significant factor in the school in question. T7 laments:
It has been a complete regression. Even in their attitude towards the language, the
French culture [. . .] They do not want to take part in the exchanges.
One possible reason could be the proximity of the University Entrance

Examination which, so far, exclusively assesses grammar, vocabulary and written
language comprehension and expression. There is no doubt that this has a backwash
effect on all the disciplines. Teachers and learners are fully aware that they need to
concentrate on language-related issues and may decide to leave aside, consciously or
unconsciously, other basic elements such as culture. A second aspect having a direct
bearing is that CLIL learners have been studying and progressing together for years.
However, in Bachillerato they are no longer assigned to their own homogenous group
because, due to the wide range of optional subjects at their disposal, they need to
merge with other non-CLIL groups.
Without the comfort of the CLIL group the effects on learners’ identities, positive
attitudes and willingness to learn seem to be almost devastating. This carries
fundamental implications for all the agents involved in the enforcement of CLIL
education in Andalusia because, unless measures are taken to guarantee that CLIL
groups proceed together, at least partially, during Bachillerato, all the language and
attitudinal benefits of years of exposure to CLIL run the risk of disappearing into
thin air, producing confusion, laxity and even rootlessness in learners. T7 continues
in this vein:
It has been a total and dreadful regression, even in their attitude towards the language.
The academic achievement of CLIL learners was perceptibly higher than in the other
groups, there were fewer discipline problems. Now they do not want to do anything,
anything at all.
This may respond to an apparent lack of confirmation. For León Moruno

(2011) whereas confirmation fosters positive feelings and raises self-esteem,
deconfirmation begets negative and devastating feelings on individuals’ self-image.
And this phenomenon is well-attuned to CLIL learners in the last year of secondary
education as they themselves acknowledge that in the school they hold a special
status, probably not because they see themselves different from the rest, but because
non-CLIL students see them differently. Group ascription seems to be of great
importance for CLIL students. The joint efforts made to express themselves by
means of an unstable communication tool, a tool that unifies their educational
activity, and their constant cooperation contribute to the creation of strong group
bonds. CLIL learners’ in-group identities and foundations are solid and problems
are likely to emerge when they dissolve in post-compulsory education. A2
comments:
People say that we are more important, that we are self-important, that we seem to be
the spoilt children of the school. As we do have more lessons in French we are treated in
a different way; so they say. But we do not think so; we are just the same.
Not only students, but teachers themselves (T7, T9) affirm feeling bewildered
with their learners’ disorientation. Unless the conditions are met for a certain
continuity of CLIL programmes in post-obligatory secondary education, the
previous positive attitudes towards the foreign language, the content language and
otherness that CLIL is reported to give way to may decline or even disappear as age
increases and conditions change.
Critical cultural awareness

Critical cultural awareness (Byram et al., 2002) appears to be one of the most
relevant components of intercultural competence because it allows individuals to
question and evaluate their own culture and other cultures, pondering each of them
and going beyond the limits of the mother culture. Even though most of the teachers
interviewed acknowledge that the youth of their learners corresponds with a not yet
mature way of thinking, the CLIL programme could be beneficial for the
development of critical thought. This proves Lasagabaster and Sierra’s hypothesis
that, by strengthening learners’ skills to process input, CLIL ‘prepares them for
higher-level thinking skills, and enhances cognitive development’ (2009, p. 14). In
fact, T9 points out:
You can sometimes find that, indeed, learners are more critical [. . .] I do not mean that
in the other classes there are no critical students; there are always students who are more
mature or more critical. But I think that the programme is helping them mature and
think more autonomously. This is noticeable from years 34 [ages 1516].
Critical cultural awareness rests on an awareness of the self and the other (Glaser
et al., 2007), a profound reflexive process on one’s upbringing and viewpoint. In the
sample, some teachers find it hard to ascertain whether CLIL leads learners to assess
their personal inventory. T1 and T8 answered in the following way:
I don’t know.
No because of learners’ own maturity, not because [the programme] does not give way
to this, which of course it does. But, I think that the students we work with have not
reached the necessary intellectual maturity.
Nonetheless, the vast majority of interviewees maintain that CLIL teaching

favours learners’ assessment and reflection on their own social constructs. Other
teachers stated the contrary to T1 and T8:
They give more importance to their own customs and traditions, don’t they? And to
their own environment; they reflect on their customs and traditions and their own way
of thinking, which is as respectable as in any other country. (T4)
I think so because they get to know different things. Of course, I think that this opens
their mind. (T5)
For critical cultural awareness the evaluation of one’s own motives, values and
behaviour, or awareness of the self is coupled with awareness or finding out about the
other (Glaser et al., 2007). Approaching other cultural patterns is a matter of
assimilating them into the already existing categories, and this is why comparison
and contrast play a fundamental role facilitating the recognition of commonalities
and differences. The teachers interviewed prove this by saying that:
There is analysis and comparison. Their curiosity leads them often to compare. Above
all, when there are traditions or things that coincide they attract their attention even
more. (T6)
They compare French and Spanish culture. This allows us to reflect, to ask ourselves
questions. The programme has to allow them to ask questions, to reflect, to compare,
and all this is enriching. (T11)
Even though they do not have the age to be aware of it or to show it, we have perceived a
change in their mentality. I think they are not fully aware of it. (T9)
The subject of History and Geography provides a revealing insight into how
comparison and contrast can take place in lessons. Whereas in non-CLIL education
the emphasis is usually laid on Spain, CLIL has the potential to allow the
incorporation of a fresh perspective on the same fact or feature. T9 deems that the
shift in the historical and geographical framework entails some type of cognitive
conflict or disorientation that challenges the pervading ideas and approaches
fomented so far by society and the curriculum. A highly illustrative example to
deconstruct knowledge and to challenge learners’ mental schemes is the use of
upside-down world maps:
Instead of studying the Romanization of Hispania we study Romanization in Gallia.

The geographical framework shifts. In Spanish textbooks the focus is exclusively on the
Romanization of Hispania. It is a different point of view.
The idea that there are other ways of representing the Earth is an excellent starting
point. Students become clearly disoriented. The different perspectives discovered in this
new material allow us to change the conceptions, schemes, fixed ideas that we have
fabricated from the University and make them evolve thanks to the CLIL programme.
Interestingly, teachers believe that learners are not fully aware that they are
developing certain critical cultural awareness. Nevertheless, in the interviews
conducted with learners, both primary and secondary school children evince a clear
awareness of the differences, which in the case of secondary school students is

positively affected by the participation in the exchange with a French institution:
Both cultures are different: timetables, food . . . (S1)
When they eat, the different timetable . . . The food is weird, their timetable is hard to get
used to at the beginning, but you manage to get used to it after 4 or 5 days. (S2)
You miss things that you did not think you would miss. The fountains, in France there
are no fountains, you walk along the streets and you have to buy a bottle of water. (S2)
There are also things you could do without [in Spain]; they are very clean there; there
are no pieces of paper on the street. And when you come back here everything is very
dirty. (S2)
In an inland part of Spain where it is not uncommon to hear people say that there
is no need to go abroad as Spain is diverse, has excellent beaches, wonderful
mountains and ski resorts, historical cities and monuments of all ages, and a world-
acclaimed gastronomy, apparently simple or banal statements on aspects such as the
lack of cleanliness in some Spanish towns constitute a huge step forward in the
critical appreciation of learners’ own reality, and this appraisal is further balanced by
learners’ acknowledgement of the value of their own assumed cultural elements, such
as fountains. It is evident that learners have reached some level of critical cultural
awareness, as their teachers themselves had observed. Some form of ethnocentrism
(Byram et al., 2009) still remains, as the categorization of French food as ‘weird’
indicates. T2 comments:
When I was explaining the rhythm of the day in France some said that their own rhythm
was not the best one, that perhaps things could be done in a different way. Timetables,
food . . . They are used to cooking with olive oil here and when I tell them about cooking
with butter at the beginning they say ‘cooking everything with butter, that is disgusting!’
And then I brought them a dessert with butter and they told me ‘French people use
butter and food can also be very good’.
Learners seem to be developing the intercultural competence of perspective-

taking (Glaser et al., 2007), which refers to the capacity to see things from different
stances and which rests on flexibility, decentring, open-mindedness and coping with
ambiguity. All these intercultural attitudes are closely linked to critical cultural
awareness. The expression of the factors learners miss from their own culture and
those they would simply change in it, and the realization that taken-for-granted
cultural practices and the interpretation of events are by no means universal reveal
the critical cultural awareness they have reached. The CLIL programme seems to be
paramount in this respect as S2 affirms:
We see the contents from more points of view. We analyse history from the Spanish and
the French perspective. The teacher extracts the material from French books. Every-
thing is the same but each person thinks in a different way. (S2)
This double perspective of the respective communities, the combination of the

insider’s and the outsider’s points of view that the CLIL programme has the
possibility of incorporating in linguistic and non-linguistic areas is essential for
reinforcing critical cultural awareness. The presentation of facts and events from
diverse, divergent and sometimes even contradictory points of view facilitates
flexibility, decentring, coping with ambiguity and questioning the naturalness of
one’s own culture (Byram et al., 2009). T9 and T10 ratify these ideas:
Once something has permeated, more things can leak into the same gap. This little door
that is progressively opening is letting many more things in apart from the specific
contents, in this case, French and France and ‘Francophonie’. What is mainly reinforced
is respect towards what is different from us, and learners respect and value it, that our
things are not the only good ones, that other things are also good.
They have to question that things do not have to be in one particular way or
unidirectional, but that there exist other options. They may accept them or not, or they
may be to their liking or not, but at least they see that there are other ways of life, other
ways of thinking that are not only their own.
The aforementioned arguments disclose the significance of CLIL for the

development of critical cultural awareness and, in this sense, curiosity appears as a
crucial constituent. Interviewees uphold that CLIL learners display a perceptible
willingness to approach and enhance their knowledge of the target culture in its
entirety, for instance, by appreciating what children of their own age do (T4), by
requesting the language assistant to bring along material which represents French
cultural manifestations, or even by bringing up, in the classroom, any piece of news
concerning France they may have heard of or they have read about at home (T6):
Students are curious to see what [French] children of their own age are like, what they
do. (T4)
Learners ask the language assistant many questions about France, anything, and they
ask her to bring posters, typical things, films, etc. from France. [. . .] Learners are
updated on everything: they recognise pictures taken from France or tell us whether
there is something about France on the news. It is not only a matter of knowledge, but
also of attitude. Children are curious about French culture and respect their customs,
traditions and lifestyle. (T6)
In a nutshell, the reported curiosity and interest in otherness exhibited by CLIL

students impel them to surpass the limits of their own cultural background and
upbringing, spurring them on to reflect on the ups and downs of different cultures
and cultural patterns, which is in essence what critical cultural awareness consists of:
I think that CLIL learners are much more interested in otherness and are much more
curious about it. They know how to provide me with their own viewpoints by reflecting,
not just by directly rejecting; they ponder why they think some aspects are better in one
particular culture and do not simply express unwarranted statements that reproduce
their cultural upbringing. (T2)
Action-orientation, action-taking
Probably the ultimate manifestation of intercultural development is action-taking
and participation in society: ‘action orientation is the willingness to undertake some
activity alone or with others as a consequence of reflection with the aim of making a
contribution to the common good’ (Byram et al., 2009, p. 25). Intercultural citizens
are able to take action whenever needed as a result of putting their intercultural
competence into practice.
Interculturally competent individuals are capable of acting in conflictive or
difficult situations; for instance, in the case of migration, they may decide not only to
cope with diversity and accept otherness but, even more revealing, CLIL learners
may strive to act as cultural mediators (Byram et al., 2002), a complex intercultural
skill. T9 comments:
Last year we had a Moroccan girl. The Headmaster thought that, as her Spanish was
very basic and her French was very good, she would join the CLIL group and, of course,
she was one more of them from the very first moment. The communication in French
among them allowed this girl to catch up. It is true that she was an exemplary student, a
model student, and she got integrated immediately. There is another student who has
the same problem and who is isolated, partly because it seems that he is not willing to
make a big effort to learn Spanish and partly because Spanish students perhaps see him
as different.
Integration emerges as a bidirectional process that requires willingness on the

part of all agents and the development of the intercultural competences of action-
orientation and action-taking which CLIL groups seem to be liable to exhibit. Unless
prepared for otherness, the great danger in coping with diversity, particularly in
adolescence when attitudes of openness and curiosity are likely to ebb, is that
difference may be seen as a barrier and therefore, as a hindrance for action-taking
rather than as a source of mutual enrichment. Along these lines, T10 remarks that
CLIL groups evince a distinct set of skills for communicating with and integrating
students from other cultural backgrounds:
I can see in CLIL students a special communication capacity and, above all, an
approximation skill towards children from other cultures, and I am not only referring to
exchanges. For instance, we have Maghrebi children that have accessed the school
during the last olive oil harvest seasons and the Spanish students that try to approach
them are chiefly CLIL girls rather than boys.
This last quotation complies with Lasagabaster and Sierra’s assertion (2009) that
women are more interested in foreign languages and cultures than men and show
more positive attitudes towards them. CLIL in Andalusia seems to encourage the all-
important intercultural capacity of empathy. In comparison with tolerance, empathy
does not only entail a passive acceptance of otherness but true understanding and
change of perspective. This feeling of concern for others (Glaser et al., 2007) leads to
a certain degree of personal and emotional identification, identification evidenced in
the above examples.
Conclusion
Together with language and content teachers, three factors seem to underlie the
intercultural development contemplated in this article: parents’ involvement in the
programme, language assistants and the possibility of learners’ participation in
exchanges. Together they seem to be paving the way to European citizens who are
truly prepared for intercultural contact. In this respect, the quotations above bear
witness to the relevance of the language assistant as the embodiment of otherness

and as a pivotal figure bridging the target and learners’ cultures and urging learners
to question cultural orientations and practices in each of them. The exchange
programme has been reported to benefit students and teachers taking part in it,
teachers and learners outside the programme and the whole school in general, as it
seems to leave a powerful trace on the different agents who experience, learn from
and accept otherness as an enjoyable and enriching phenomenon. Parents have
played a vital role (T12) in the primary and the secondary schools, not only in the
interest they have expressed in the programme and in their wholehearted support of
the teaching staff, but also in the language and culture profiles they exhibit. CLIL
learners’ parents tend towards a European orientation and demonstrate an express
interest in foreign languages and cultures, parental views which represent a
privileged point of departure for learners’ development of intercultural commu-
nicative competence. As T6 and T7 declare:
Parents are highly interested and involved in the CLIL programme.
Parents have played an all-important role. They have always been available and have
always supported us. They have put all their trust in us and this has had a direct effect
on learners’ performance. Parents tend to be interested in foreign languages and cultures
and in providing their children with a different and more European-bound type of
education.
CLIL programmes can unquestionably contribute to individuals’ global

education and to their intercultural development, making otherness an inherent
part of the official and the hidden curriculum. This study seems to tally with the
hypothesis that CLIL fosters positive attitudes and a feel-good attitude among
students (Lasagabaster & Sierra, 2009), giving way to the elemental intercultural
attitudes of interest, curiosity, receptiveness, tolerance, openness, open-mindedness,
respect and value, acceptance and tolerance. Additionally, CLIL presents an
enormous potential to help individuals question long-assumed aspects, acknowl-
edge complexity in their own and in other societies, and accept that things are not
unidirectional. CLIL endows them with the ability to confront challenge and the
awareness that life is not black and white (Reilly & Medrano, 2009). In short,
CLIL may yield critical cultural awareness. Furthermore, the communicative skills
CLIL favours may be transformed into intercultural communicative skills and
action-taking processes in two essential aspects. FrenchSpanish programmes can
certainly foment contact with migrants from French-speaking countries, such as
those of the Maghreb, lessening the effect of culture shock on both sides and on
the basis of a common language. These communication skills may turn into
meditation skills, helping learners make the most of their linguistic, cultural and
intercultural learning in the CLIL programme and leading to action-taking.
As an answer to the main research question guiding this article it is pertinent to
quote the words of one interviewee when asked whether CLIL groups are better
prepared than non-CLIL groups for intercultural communication:
I think that they are not only better, but much better prepared. (T9)
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express her sincerest gratitude to the Educational Authorities in the
Delegación de Educación de Jaén and to the Primary Schools ‘Almadén’, ‘San José de
Calasanz’ and the Secondary School ‘Sierra Mágina’, to their headmasters, the language
assistants, the linguistic and non-linguistic area teachers and the learners for their willingness
to participate in this study and for sharing their insightful views on the CLIL programme with
her.
Note
1. Before proceeding to the case study of the primary and secondary schools, the research
tool, the semi-structured interview, was piloted in a different but similar school. For the
sake of validity and reliability, the bilingual FrenchSpanish primary school ‘Almadén’,
located in the city of Jaén and which had joined the programme immediately after the
publication of The Plan, was chosen. The significant data obtained were not discarded.
Notes on contributor
Dr. Marı́a del Carmen Méndez Garcı́a is a senior lecturer at the Department of English
Philology, University of Jaén (Spain), where she teaches linguistics and ELT methodology at
undergraduate and postgraduate level. She has participated in international projects on
intercultural competence and is the author and co-author of publications in the intercultural
field such as Intercultural Competence for Professional Mobility or The Intercultural
Dynamics of Multicultural Working. From 2006 she has been cooperating with the Language
Policy Division of the Council of Europe in the development of the Autobiography of
Intercultural Encounters. Her recent research interests fall within the scope of CLIL in
Andalusia and intercultural development.
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Language and Intercultural Communication

ISSN: 1470-8477 (Print) 1747-759X (Online) Journal homepage: http://nca.tandfonline.com/loi/rmli20

The potential of CLIL for intercultural

María del Carmen Méndez García

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2012.667417

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The potential of CLIL for intercultural development: a case study of

The most outstanding overhaul in educational policies in Spanish monolingual

Los cambios más importantes en polı́tica educativa de las comunidades

ISSN 1470-8477 print/ISSN 1747-759X online

CLIL in Andalusia and intercultural education

Preliminary findings in the first stages of implementation of The Plan

indicate that the spread of plurilingual education in Andalusia is still in progress.

CLIL and the development of intercultural competence

and Starkey’s (2002) definition of intercultural communicative competence as a

new knowledge (Carrió-Pastor, 2009). Self-knowledge, self-acceptance and relativi-

Goals, research questions and methodology

 Do CLIL programmes in Andalusia foster learners’ intercultural education

Specific research questions can be formulated in the following terms:

Instruments and participants

reference point for the implementation of further bilingual programmes in this

 Primary school ‘Almadén’:1

 Primary school ‘San José de Calasanz’:

k T4. Two content teachers: Music (F) and PE (male, M)

k T5. One content teacher: Science (F)

k T6. Two language teachers of French (F and M)

 Secondary school ‘Sierra Mágina’:

k T7. One language teacher of French (F)

k T8. One language teacher of French (F)

k T9. One content teacher: Geography and History (M)

k T10. One content teacher: Economy (F)

k T11. One content teacher: Music (F)

k T12. One content teacher: Physics and Chemistry (M)

As for learners, and bearing in mind their psychological development and

Data collection, transcription and analysis

Findings and discussion

They are more open-minded (T10)

Of course, they display a higher degree of interest (T11)

Interestingly, this general adoption of positive attitudes in CLIL students is

There is plenty of respect for French culture, tradition, people.

[The programme] is helping them mature and think more autonomously.

They do not have preconceived ideas.

These findings have to be interpreted as CLIL group tendencies which are by no

It is noteworthy, however, that CLIL groups tend to manifest their predisposition

Here students are all ready to learn.

Studies conducted on foreign language learning and age point to a certain

There seems to be a decline in positive attitudes as learners reach the end of

CLIL programmes in the post-compulsory education two-year cycle prior to

One possible reason could be the proximity of the University Entrance

This may respond to an apparent lack of confirmation. For León Moruno

Critical cultural awareness

Nonetheless, the vast majority of interviewees maintain that CLIL teaching

Instead of studying the Romanization of Hispania we study Romanization in Gallia.

awareness of the differences, which in the case of secondary school students is

Both cultures are different: timetables, food . . . (S1)

Learners seem to be developing the intercultural competence of perspective-

This double perspective of the respective communities, the combination of the

Do CLIL programmes in Andalusia foster learners’ intercultural education

Primary school ‘Almadén’:1

Primary school ‘San José de Calasanz’:

Secondary school ‘Sierra Mágina’: