CLIL, an elitist language learning approach? A background analysis of English and Dutch CLIL pupils in French-speaking Belgium

Luk Van Mensel, Benoît Galand, Philippe Hiligsmann, Laurence Mettewie

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Résumé

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) programmes are increasingly popular throughout Europe, but are sometimes accused of inducing a selection bias in the pupil population, both through selection mechanisms of the schools themselves and self- selection of the pupils (and/or their parents). As a result, the outcomes of the CLIL approach may be artificially promoted, and, at the same time, such a selection bias can contribute to an elitist education model, which arguably runs counter to the aims of the approach. This paper looks into a number of background variables of both English and Dutch CLIL learners in Francophone Belgium and compares them to their non-CLIL counterparts. Results from a logistic regression indicate that there is indeed evidence of selection: the socio-economic status of the pupils appears as the main predictor of whether a pupil is in a CLIL or a non-CLIL track, whereas other, more personal, variables such as non-verbal intelligence play a minor (or additional) role. Moreover, Dutch CLIL programmes appear to be more selective than English CLIL programmes in this context. We conclude that CLIL (and particularly Dutch CLIL) in French-speaking Belgium, although a priori open to anyone, is particularly attractive to a socially privileged public.
langue originaleAnglais
Pages (de - à)1-14
Nombre de pages14
journalLanguage, Culture and Curriculum
Volume33
Numéro de publication1
Date de mise en ligne précoce2019
Les DOIs
Etat de la publicationPublié - 2 janv. 2020

Financement

This work was supported by a Concerted Research Action grant (UCLouvain and UNamur): Grant Number ARC 14/19-061. This work was supported by a Concerted Research Action grant (ARC 14/19-061) from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Université de Namur (UNamur), awarded to Philippe Hiligsmann (spokesperson; UCLouvain), Benoît Galand (UCLouvain), Laurence Mettewie (UNamur), Fanny Meunier (UCLouvain), Arnaud Szmalec (UCLouvain) and Kristel Van Goethem (UCLouvain). We would like to thank Amélie Bulon, Audrey De Smet, Isa Hendrikx and Morgane Simonis for their assistance in the data collection, Julie Deconinck for reading previous drafts of this article, and the reviewers for their useful comments.

Bailleurs de fondsNuméro du bailleur de fonds
Arnaud Szmalec
Benoît Galand
Concerted Research ActionARC 14/19-061
Fanny Meunier
Laurence Mettewie
Université Catholique de Louvain
Université de Namur

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