Creating and expanding communities in the CLIL classroom

Abstract

CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) refers to learning with a dual focus, the integration of content jointly with a second language. CLIL’s fourth C-Cultures has been defined as the development of intercultural awareness, citizenship, and global understanding. It is argued, however, that C-Cultures has been neglected, and therefore requires deeper exploration. In this article, we suggest enriching it with the principles of transdisciplinarity, Social and Emotional Learning, and Service Learning. This will allow language teachers to incorporate impactful current events into their CLIL’ed classes. Such an enriched concept of C-Cultures can be a meaningful way to foster and expand a sense of community among learners. In our article, we will show how a combination of transdisciplinarity, Social and Emotional Learning, and Service Learning has led to positive learning outcomes and personal satisfaction for the stakeholders in our CLIL’ed ESP classes at Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium.