Content and language integrated learning as dynamic bilingual education in two state schools

This study intended to explore what could be seen in the implementation of a CLIL program by means of dynamic bilingual education in terms of challenges, perceptions about the existence of previous knowledge in students, and considerations regarding the implications of such implementation. The focus were the lessons carried out by nineteen English teachers and forty-three content teachers from two state schools in Pereira, Colombia and whose implementation was the second phase of a government project named CHANGE, after their professional development courses in content, language and methodology to which they attended in the first phase. The findings indicate that CLIL implementation has several challenges: first, there is a need for teachers’ to have a basic command in language and content to implement successful CLIL classes; secondly, there exists a disarticulation between language and content in terms of class objectives; finally, a misconception about the use of Spanish and English in the classroom –translanguaging- is evidenced. Additionally, students need to have previous knowledge in language in order to feel confident during the lessons, as well as previous content knowledge in Spanish in order to support the lack of proficiency in L2. Finally, the implications of CLIL implementation, according to participants’ considerations, show that resources in terms of materials and time are necessary for successful implementation; also, students react positively to these classes and they evidence linguistic and content knowledge improvement; lastly, lesson planning is used as a strategy to overcome challenges in the implementation process.