Becoming a Content and Language Integrated Learning Specialist: Exploring the Voices of English Language Teachers in Uruguay

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become one of the preferred approaches in many public and private second and foreign language education programmes. Therefore, language teachers must know how to teach both language and content, in combination, to deal effectively with the learning objectives CLIL programmes demand. By using a mixed approach based on surveys and interviews, perceptions regarding the needs and competencies needed to teach CLIL-based lessons were analysed. The two-year study was carried out with pre- and in- service teachers who took a yearly CLIL course related to the teaching of English through Science and Mathematics during their second and final year at a private English Teachers Training Course (TTC) in a well-known private language institution in Montevideo, Uruguay. All the participants considered that the course was highly relevant and necessary to fully understand the approach and become confident towards teaching CLIL-based courses. The chapter highlights the importance of teaching linguistic aspects as well as content for the approach to be effective.