https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/77 Mon, 14 Sep 2026 21:07:23 GMT 2026-09-14T21:07:23Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/5521 The linguistic impact of a CLIL Science programme: An analysis measuring relative gains Perez-Vidal, Carmen; Roquet, Helena The present study seeks to contribute new evidence regarding the linguistic progress achieved over one academic year by Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) secondary education learners, enrolled in an English-medium Science course. It gauges the relative linguistic gains resulting from the CLIL programme in contrast with a formal instruction (FI) programme developed in the same school. Participants were followed longitudinally with a pre-test, post-test design. Tests used to elicit data were modelled on the type of tasks used both in FI and CLIL. They tapped into the productive and receptive skills of the learners. The sample included 2 groups of bilingual Catalan/Spanish participants, English being their L3 (N = 50 each). One group had FI plus CLIL in the Science course, (experimental group), the other had FI only (control group). Results obtained confirm that larger relative gains are obtained by the FI + CLIL programme, however not in all domains and to the same degree: relative higher gains accrue in reading, as expected, but not in listening. Similarly, their writing ability, and particularly so their accuracy, shows higher relative gains, and so do their lexico-grammatical abilities. In sum, in the CLIL programme analysed, reading and grammar seem to benefit the most. This work was supported by the AGENCIA UNIVERSITÀRIA DE RECERCA (AGAUR), in Catalonia, [2014 SGR 1568]; and by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [FFI2013-48640-C2-1-P]. We are grateful to the school for allowing us to collect data and to the participants, who, ultimately, made this study possible. Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/5521 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/5520 Do Productive Skills Improve in Content and Language Integrated Learning Contexts? The Case of Writing Roquet, Helena; Perez-Vidal, Carmen This study investigates the differential effects of two learning contexts, formal instruction (FI) and content and language integrated learning (CLIL), on the written production skills of intermediate-level Catalan Spanish adolescent learners of English as a foreign language. Written samples elicited through a composition at two data collection times over one academic year were quantitatively and qualitatively assessed for complexity, accuracy, and fluency and for task fulfilment, organization, grammar, and vocabulary, respectively. Based on the findings, the superiority of CLIL cannot be confirmed: although improvement in the case of the FI + CLIL group is shown, results were only significant in the domain of accuracy. Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/5520 2015-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/5505 The impact of age and exposure on EFL achievement in two learning contexts: formal instruction and formal instruction + content and language integrated learning (CLIL) Artieda, Gemma; Roquet, Helena; Nicolás-Conesa, Florentina This study investigates the role of biological age and L2 exposure on the achievement of two groups of Catalan-Spanish intermediate learners of English in secondary school (Group A, Formal Instruction (FI), N = 50; Group B, FI + CLIL, N = 50) regarding receptive and productive L2 skills as well as grammatical knowledge. Learners were matched for hours of exposure (1.330–1.400) in a first comparison, and secondly, for age (13–14 years old). When matched for number of hours of exposure, results confirmed the older learners’ advantage in FL contexts, as non-CLIL students (2 years older) significantly outperformed CLIL learners in listening comprehension and in two measures of writing: accuracy and coordination index. When matched for age, the group with extra L2 exposure (FI + CLIL) was significantly better than the non-CLIL group in reading comprehension and in several dimensions of writing: lexical richness, linguistic and communicative competence. These findings illustrate the language learning potential of a partial CLIL programme in an EFL context. A threshold of 300 CLIL hours may need to be surpassed for CLIL learners to reap the benefits of additional exposure across L2 skills. We are very grateful to Dr. Carmen Pérez-Vidal, who implemented CLIL at the school where data where gathered and supervised the larger study (Roquet Citation2011). Similarly, we would like to acknowledge the insightful comments of Dr. Carmen Muñoz and an anonymous reviewer on earlier versions of this article. Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/5505 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/5504 Adjunct instruction in higher education: examining the effects on English foreign language proficiency Roquet, Helena; Vraciu, Alexandra; Nicolás-Conesa, Florentina; Perez-Vidal, Carmen This study aims to measure the longitudinal impact of a 60-hour adjunct instruction course, involving L2 content-based teaching with a systematic focus on form, on students’ grammatical and lexical knowledge and on their receptive skills (i.e. reading and listening) in a foreign language higher education context. The participants were 52 university students enrolled in two different strands of the same Dentistry degree: an English-Medium Instruction (EMI) group, with no explicit L2 teaching/learning objectives, (n = 25) and an L1 group (n = 27) (Catalan/Spanish). In the L1 group, students had to read articles and teachers’ powerpoint presentations in the L2. Quantitative data collected by means of a battery of tests over 16 weeks indicate that adjunct instruction leads to statistically significant improvement in overall L2 language scores for all students alike. Nonetheless, results show that adjunct instruction tends to bring larger L2 grammatical improvement and significantly higher gains in receptive skills to Dentistry students who receive minimal English Foreign Language exposure (i.e. the L1 strand) than to those with massive exposure to English (i.e. the EMI strand). Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12328/5504 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z