IMPLEMENTATION OF CLIL AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL: THE CASE OF LOGISTICS COURSE

The purpose of this article is to show the necessity to implement bilingual teaching at
university education. At the present time, as we are witnessing the globalization process,
university students need to master the second language skills, especially English, in order to
become competitive in a labour market. Nonetheless, the demand of modern times
development requires from students to use professional language, strictly connected with the
major of their study. English language has become an add-on to any university curricular
program, yet it came to be a tool to learn something else. It is Content and Language
Integrated Learning (CLIL), a methodology introduced by David Marsh, that views
language as a vehicle to learn through English. CLIL is a response to the global changes, to
be innovative, creative and dynamic. This innovation is entitled in methods and approaches
as CLIL entails teaching the foreign language while students learn the subject-matter. In the
given paper, the benefits of the implementation of the bilingual programs are discussed as
well as difficulties in assimilating academic content through the language process. Yet, this
paper on CLIL aims at analyzing the way Polish university lecturers and academics might
structure their lectures as well as classes and take advantage of this approach, i.e.
incorporating English as a medium of instructions, chiefly in postgraduate programs.

Full text (pdf)

[1] Dalton-Puffer, Ch., Discourse in CLIL classrooms. Amsterdam et al.: Benjamins
2007.
[2] Dalton-Puffer, Ch.; Smit, U. (eds.), Empirical perspectives on CLIL classroom
discourse. Frankfurt a. M.: Lang 2007.
[3] Deller, S. and Price C., Teaching Other Subjects through English. Oxford.
Oxford University Press 2007.
[4] Chun, F., Research on Implementing Bilingual Teaching of Logistics Engineering
laboratory course, Journal of Peking University (Philosophy and Social Science
Edition), no.2., 2007.
[5] Fiorito, L., Teaching English for specific purposes 2005 (retrieved from
http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/teaching-english-special-puroses.html)
[6] Hellekjaer, G.O. and Wilkinson, R., CLIL in higher education 2009.. EuroCLIL,
Bulletin 7.(retrieved 2 April 2012 from the net:
http://www.euroclil.net/index.php?inhound=inhound/ulletins/bulletin7/8.htm).
[7] Kurtan, Z., Teacher training for English-medium. University of Veszprem,
Hungary. In Multilingual approaches in university education, challenges and
practices. Maastricht University. The Netherlands 2003.
[8] Marsh, D.; Wolff D. (eds.)., Diverse Contexts – Converging Goals. CLIL in
Europe 2007.
[9] Mehisto, P., Frigols, M-J, Marsh D., Uncovering CLIL. London: Macmillan
2008.
[10] Van Leeuwen, C., Feasibility of policy in university language teaching today.
In Multilingual approaches in university education. Challenges and practices.
Maastricht University. The Netherlands 2003.
[11] Wilkinson, R. and Hellekjaer, G.O., Trends in content learning through English
at universities: A critical reflection. In Multilingual approaches in university
education. Challenges and practices. Maastricht University. The Netherlands
2003.