THE ROLE OF CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING (CLIL) IN PRIMARY SCHOOL CLASSROOMS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

This article discusses the integration of content and language in CLIL and its role, as well as challenge for content-driven and language-driven teachers in primary school. Although the core element in CLIL and immersion programs is the integration of content and language, it is challenging to achieve a balance between the two to meet the dual-objective of CLIL. Research on the beliefs teachers have about CLIL and the way they understand the role of content and language in their classes is crucial to achieve that balance. By combining content knowledge and language skills, CLIL helps young learners develop bilingual or multilingual proficiencies while simultaneously fostering cognitive, cultural, and academic development.