Content and Language Integrated Learning: A Comparative Study in Northern Ireland

This chapter discusses the lessons learned from an innovative Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) intervention with 13–14-year-old language learners in three post-primary schools in Northern Ireland. For participants, the CLIL approach represented a major shift in practice: introducing new teaching and learning strategies to the classroom; raising the level of cognitive challenge, improving learner progress in oral and cross-curricular skills and redefining the content of language lessons. The intervention introduced collaborative learning and explicit strategy instruction to the language classroom, with implications for how language learning experiences are designed, delivered and assessed in lower secondary.