Languages and the global world:
New challenges for university students
Víctor Pavón Vázquez
University of Córdoba
The context
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According to the Eurobarometer 2005, Spain holds post no. 21
among the 25 members of the European Union. (Eurobarometer
237-Wave 63.4: Europeans and Languages. European Commission. 2005.
p. 3)
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The changing face of education in the twenty-first century in our
technological, scientific and culturally diverse world
Defining International English
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The new Englishes
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Monolingualism as an exception
International English is here to stay
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Multilingualism in the linguistic landscape
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Languages in the internet (Internet World Status 2009):
English 68%, others 32%
Towards multilingualism
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The European political agenda on multilingualism
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The educational agenda in Spain (the Basque country, Catalunya
and Andalusia)
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The agenda of many families
Breaking some stereotypes
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‘Bilingual’ means two languages
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Balanced/natural bilingualism vs. functional bilingualism
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Getting rid of the preassure from native-like objectives
New challenges for university students
1. The ongoing growth of English at the University in Spain
New challenges for university students
2. Internationalisation
New challenges for university students
3. Student exchanges
New challenges for university students
4. Teaching and research materials
New challenges for university students
5. Staff mobility
New challenges for university students
6. Graduate employability
New challenges for university students
7. The market in international students
What is higher education offering?

Bilingual degrees at the undergraduate level

Master’s Degrees
How?... Content and Language Integrated Learning

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is taking English
language teaching by storm, but why? Is CLIL the new
methodological revolution, comparable to the impact that the
communicative approach had on ELT years ago?
What does CLIL mean?

“CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) advocates
assimilating the academic content of nonlinguistic subjects via a
foreign language, which simultaneously promotes the acquisition of
content knowledge and the use of the target language. It involves
a methodological style that encourages teachers and students to
use the language as a means of communication, thus promoting
language and content development in the process.” (Gerdes, T. &
Pavón, V. 2008. “Talking CLIL”, It’s for Teachers Magazine, 110: 14-17)
Basics of CLIL
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The foreign language is used as a vehicle for accessing information.
The foreign language is used for instruction and communication.
Learning the language and learning content are part of the same
process.
Development of cognitive flexibility and reflection upon the
linguistic and communicative functioning is key.
Emphasizes the promotion of additive bilingualism (Lessow-Hurley, J.
2000. The Foundations of Dual Language Instruction. 3rd edition. New York:
Longman).
Benefits

The learning of a foreign language is seen as more attractive
when we use linguistic resources that offer a means of acquiring
information.

Metalinguistic and intellectual improvement: students are forced
to use a greater variety of communication strategies.

Emphasis on the creative use of the language provides
stimulation in the learning process.
Benefits

CLIL increases of quantity and quality of exposure to the L2.

Learning the language becomes more functional and
communicative in a CLIL context.
Benefits

CLIL encourages teachers to use a ‘learning by doing’ approach,
as well as developing Multiple Intelligences.
Implementing CLIL programmes
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Consider some fundamental aspects:
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teachers’ linguistic and methodological competence;
students’ linguistic knowledge; and
the cognitive demands of the subjects involved.
The main concerns should be:
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to give some flexibility in the selection of the subjects to be
taught through the foreign language;
to progressively increase the time devoted to the instruction
through the foreign language.
Problems

Could CLIL be frustrating for a student who is good at biology but
not good at English?
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“Very often teachers experience anxiety […], which translates into
simply changing the language of instruction in class. Unfortunately,
students who are non-linguistically proficient are doomed to
academic failure when using the target language.” (Gerdes & Pavón,
2008. Talking CLIL”, It’s for Teachers Magazine, 110:17)
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