PROFILING EUROPEAN CLIL CLASSROOMS

RATIONALE
European CLIL is highly diverse with many different ‘types’ 1 commonplace. Although
different, such ‘types’ have much in common because the reasons for doing CLIL, what
we call the dimensions, are inter-linked in CLIL practice.
This first version of Profiling European CLIL Classrooms results from a research-driven
project which has focussed on identifying the dimensions of CLIL. It aims to be comprehensive
but not exhaustive. Just as it identifies the foundations, so it is itself, a foundation by which
to build greater understanding of the potential of CLIL.
Insight into the dimensions of CLIL practice allow us to identify the core principles of this
educational approach as it is done in very different European contexts.
There are 5 dimensions based on issues relating to culture, environment, language,
content and learning. Each of these includes a number of focus points realized differently
according to 3 major factors: age-range of learners, socio-linguistic environment,
and degree of exposure to CLIL.
The dimensions are idealized and should not be viewed as ‘standing alone’, because they
are usually heavily inter-related in CLIL practice. This means that in real-life implementation
of CLIL, it is likely that a school will wish to achieve successful outcomes in relation to
more than one dimension at the same time.
However, it is useful to distinguish the dimensions because it allows us to identify the
separate, yet inter-locking reasons why CLIL is implemented in diverse European
contexts. Just as each dimension inter-locks with others, some dimensions are more
‘transient’ than others, in that the main reason for doing CLIL in a school, or within a
class, may change over time. For example, a school might start CLIL in order to enhance
its profile and attract students, and then move onto another such as improving learners’
overall target language competence.
Profiling European CLIL Classrooms contains an introduction to the CLIL dimensions
and focuses. Inter-linked with this publication is an Internet site. The CLIL Compendium
(www.clilcompendium.com) provides a more detailed and comprehensive description
of the realization of diverse examples of European CLIL.
1 Types and models tend to be rather static descriptors of practice. The use of such terms often suggests
that an established way of doing something exists, which has been tested, and which is implemented
according to certain principles. If a system is used as a type or model, then people are likely to copy it in
order to achieve similar results.
17