Content and Language Integrated Learning, known as CLIL, is the teaching of non-language subjects through a foreign language. It’s an educational approach where subjects are taught through a second or foreign language, rather than the language being taught as a subject itself. The focus is on both the content of the subject being taught such as science, history, or mathematics and the language used to convey that content.

Since its inception in the 1990s, it has become extremely popular in European countries and is now part of European mainstream education. According to the 2023 Eurydice report on teaching languages at schools in Europe, CLIL programs are available in 35 European countries, at all education levels.  

However, the practice of CLIL in primary and secondary schools presents many challenges, which negatively affect the realisation of CLIL’s full potential. If CLIL is implemented well, it will help students to use at least one foreign language confidently for professional and academic purposes. This competence goes beyond using the terminology of different subjects appropriately.  

This ability encompasses both competencies in doing the subject, including acquiring relevant knowledge and using the appropriate language, and is known as bi/multilingual disciplinary literacies.

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