One of the most important conditions needed to acquire pragmatic competence--knowing the rules of a language and how to apply them to communicate--is exposure to the target language. That is why research has concentrated on observing how this competence develops in different language learning contexts such as second language (L2), foreign language…

Background: Extensive research on massive open online courses (MOOCs) has focused on analysing learners' behavioural trace data to understand navigation and activity patterns, which are known to vary systematically across geo-cultural contexts. However, the perception of learners regarding the role of different learning design elements in…

Bilingual education programs are considered to be powerful tools used to foster the development of foreign languages, especially when focusing on language development. In Europe, the adoption of the approach known as content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has spread rapidly as one of the models that best fit the necessities of both…

With content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programs being increasingly introduced in mainstream education, the onus is now on catering to diversity and on ensuring CLIL enhances content and language learning in over- and underachievers alike. This is no mean feat, particularly considering that strong claims have been made for the lack of…

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has had such an exponential and rapid uptake across Europe that the adequacy of its grassroots implementation in certain contexts has sometimes been called into question. Concerns for a rough-and-ready realisation of CLIL due to insufficient teacher training, theoretical grounding, and practical…

One of the greatest hurdles facing CLIL implementation involves materials provision and design. In this approach to multilingual education, materials can be incorporated from authentic sources, but in practice they tend to be adaptations of existing materials, or originals designed to fit the needs of CLIL learners across the diversity of CLIL…

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL), an educational approach in which subject matter and a foreign language -- predominantly English -- are taught and learnt side by side, has developed into a very popular educational innovation in most European countries. A host of research studies have shown its benefits, and discuss favourable…

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Russia experienced a considerable lack of teachers. In this situation, foreign migrants became Russia's preferred teachers for more than a century. Foreigners were particularly welcome to teach languages and a whole range of other subjects such as history, geography, and mathematics. All teaching…

English-medium instruction (EMI) is widely believed in higher education contexts to support the internationalisation of universities, to make study programmes more accessible to international students and to enhance the international prestige of academic staff. However, the pressure on European institutions to offer subjects through English raises…

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has emerged as a response to Europe's calls for increasing plurilingualism, due to its dual-focused approach which aims to foster and consolidate both non-language subject matter and language learning. As the approach becomes more widespread, more resources become available to help teachers facing…

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes are burgeoning in European school contexts due to the widespread belief that they help to significantly improve foreign language learning while content learning is not negatively affected. However, some of its purported benefits still need to be empirically confirmed. Thus, while this…

The rapid increase of English-medium instruction (EMI) programs across Europe has raised concerns regarding the oral competencies of nonnative English speaking lecturers and the implications for the quality of teaching. Consequently, lecturers' English proficiency is under scrutiny and universities are implementing internal assessment procedures.…

The present contribution is aimed at describing one of the latest trends in the European school curricula: the teaching of subject content in a foreign language (CLIL), which is becoming more and more popular all over Europe, also bearing in mind the latest recommendations from the European Commission. Starting with a brief theoretical background…

In the last decades, the number of bilingual schools in Europe has increased significantly. Most of these schools implement Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) methodology in their teaching and, consequently, there is a demand for new and appropriate materials for each content subject taught through a foreign language: new textbooks…

Research on child English as a second language (ESL) learners has shown the benefits of task-based interaction for the use of different negotiation of meaning (NoM) strategies, which have been claimed to lead to second language learning. However, research on child interaction in foreign language settings is scarce, specifically research on a new…