Book Reviews

Ana Llinares, Tom Morton & Rachel Whittaker, The Roles of Language
in CLIL, 2012. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 344 pages.
Price Paperback USD 30; Hardback USD 80. ISBN 978-0-521-15007-1
(Paperback). ISBN 978-0-521-76963-1 (Hardback)
Reviewed by David Marsh (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

Drawing on a distinct corpus of Content and Language Integrated Learning

(CLIL) classroom data, this book examines how language affects, and is affected
by, educational environments where learners study through a foreign or other-
wise additional language. The authors do this by revisiting established theoreti-
cal approaches to understanding language in educational contexts (e.g. Bernstein,
Halliday, Vygotsky), describing their inter-relatedness, and applying them to the
specific types of discourse found in the corpus data. The overall framework used
is that of systemic functional linguistics. The theoretical approach works well both
in terms of articulation of the interplay between language and content in CLIL,
and in providing the reader with practical solutions by which to enhance CLIL
learning environments.
Fundamentally the book is not about language devoid of content — the con-
tent, the subject matter, and the integration of both, features throughout the chap-
ters. Thus, it will be of interest to a broad range of educators, whether they are
specialists in languages, other subjects, or curriculum development. This is a long
book, but it is possible to focus in on certain chapters because each is clearly de-
lineated and can, to a large extent, stand alone for the reader. Overall it may be
particularly appropriate for teachers in secondary and higher education. Both of
these sectors are currently witnessing change in language of instruction in dif-
ferent countries across the world, and there is clearly a knowledge deficit about
what this means for teachers and students with respect to teaching, language and
cognition.
The book addresses a controversial and perennial problem in this field. This
relates to the question of when is CLIL actually CLIL? For a long time CLIL has
been defined as an educational approach which has dual focus aims, namely the
simultaneous learning of authentic content and the learning of language. In 2010
it was described in the European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education (ECML:
Graz) as “a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is

Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education 1:1 (2013), 159–162.  doi 10.1075/jicb.1.1.09mar
issn 2212–8433 / e-issn 2212–8441 © John Benjamins Publishing Company
160 Book Reviews

used for the learning and teaching of content and language with the objective of
promoting both content and language mastery to pre-defined levels.”
A minimalist perspective would see CLIL as an integrated approach, with
methods used revolving around the type of subject learnt, the cognitive demands,
the learners’ language competences, and the degree of linguistic complexity in-
volved in the content learning. And yet the term CLIL is widely used for any situ-
ation in which students study through the medium of a foreign or otherwise addi-
tional language. If you look at some of the criticism leveled at ‘CLIL’ in recent years
(e.g. Malaysia or Hong Kong) you will find that the negative appraisal is actually of
educational initiatives where subjects such as mathematics and science are taught
through English without explicit attention being given to content, language and
the processes of learning. These are situations which could be described as teach-
ing in a foreign language, or teaching in English, but not Content and Language
Integrated Learning (CLIL). This book is significant in articulating a fundamen-
tal difference between these contexts by describing the ways in which leveraging
of language is a main determinant in whether a teaching and learning context is
CLIL or not.
The authors state their own points of view in the Introduction with respect
to differences between what they term European CLIL and immersion. They do
this by following a line of argument that there are divergences found with respect
to language of instruction, teachers, starting age, teaching materials, language
objectives, inclusion of immigrant students, and research. Some readers might
question some of the points of view expressed in both this and other parts of the
Introduction, but this would be typical of the professional discourse of emergent
professional communities of practice.
In the chapters following the Introduction, the conceptualization of CLIL
through language is highly innovative, in that a book of this type has not been
produced earlier. And although the authors do describe CLIL as a European phe-
nomenon, this book is relevant for education in a wide range of global contexts,
particularly those where teachers and students struggle to succeed due to adverse
impact resulting from the medium of instruction such as in sub-Saharan Africa
with Afrikaans, English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
The nine chapters provide a comprehensive overview of what we have come to
understand about interaction in education, enabling a fresh look at the interplay
between languages in these special environments where the study of academic
content takes place through an additional language, and specifies practical ideas
for deepening understanding through classroom practices. Blending work from
systemic functional educational linguistics, the work of prominent academics
in other spheres, and recent work by researchers focused primarily on CLIL, the
authors adopt the three-fold distinction of language in CLIL first developed by
 Book Reviews 161

Do Coyle (see, for example, Coyle, D. et al. 2010, CLIL, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press). This involves making a distinction as described in this book
between the language of learning (language needed to express key aspects of con-
tent), language for learning (language needed to participate in tasks and activities),
and language through learning (language which emerges when CLIL students are
being stretched to think about and express meanings related to content).
One of the threads that strengthens the whole book is the continuous refer-
ence to examples from the corpus. This is particularly helpful in enabling the au-
thors to describe types of CLIL through different context-bound perspectives. The
500,000 word secondary CLIL classroom interaction corpus comprises the (La
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) UAM-CLIL corpus, which is entirely Madrid-
based, and three other corpora. The UAM-CLIL corpus has spoken and written
data from secondary level, mainly from within the social sciences, with particular
emphasis on history. These other corpora cover a range of areas and age groups,
having been collated by research projects conducted in Austria, Finland and the
Netherlands.
This innovative and timely book conceptualizes CLIL in respect to what needs
to be embedded in CLIL teaching and learning environments, and in so doing
helps articulate the boundaries which separate CLIL from other forms of practice
where languages are switched. The authors rightly argue that research in CLIL
has often been on either content or language, and that there has been a lack of
evidence-based building which straddles both. It was Carl Jung who wrote that
“the meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances:
if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” Teaching content in an additional
language to students with heterogeneous language competences in the vehicular
language, and the normal variance in motivation, competence, and cognitive skills
means that the environment is transformed with prerequisite need for adaptation
of teaching and learning practice required. Using the corpus, the authors deftly
manage to ensure that whilst focusing on language there is continuous parallel
attention given to content. The flexibility afforded by the ways in which the au-
thors introduce theoretical frameworks, and the exemplification enabled through
quotes from the corpora is effective in continuously bridging language with re-
spect to authentic content.
The book is structured around three parts. These focus on the role of lan-
guage in CLIL classroom interaction, the language of academic subjects in CLIL,
and students’ language development and assessment. Part One comprises three
chapters. These focus primarily on the CLIL lesson as a communicative event and
raise important issues relating to the significance of ensuring that communication
in the environment is enriched with respect to learning, thinking, interpersonal
communication and understanding. Increasingly termed dialogic teaching and
162 Book Reviews

learning, the authors are able to increase understanding of the roles of language(s)
in CLIL and thus further enable the reader to understand when teaching in a for-
eign or otherwise additional language is CLIL, and when it is not. These chapters
also consider different registers and their impact on learning, interaction, dialogue
and the use of scaffolding to support learners. Part One might be of particular
value for content teachers not familiar with linguistics.
Part Two examines the types of language specific to academic subjects and
discourse. Two chapters focus on genres within subjects such as science, geogra-
phy, and history. These chapters could be particularly instrumental in enabling
language teachers to deepen understanding of the discourses of different subjects
within the curriculum.
Part Three comprises four chapters that focus on the learner and how they
can “use language to learn, and learn to use language.” Each chapter explores a
different dimension of the ways in which language can contribute to the develop-
ment of enriched CLIL learning environments — insights on eliciting appropriate
language use for teaching and learning, ways of providing feedback, strengthen-
ing the interplay between academic discourse and interpersonal communication,
the means for developing writing skills and, finally, assessment. This final chapter
provides a framework for formative and summative assessment which links back
to features throughout the book.
The Role of Language in CLIL is a significant contribution to the available lit-
erature on this educational phenomenon. It is important to stress that the theo-
retical bases and practical realization discussed throughout the book are not just
applicable to situations where students are required to, or otherwise opt for educa-
tion in a second, foreign or otherwise additional language. It is also relevant for
educators who need to respond to the challenges of teaching a majority language
(e.g. German in Frankfurt) to migrant students in highly linguistically diverse
classrooms.

Reviewer’s address
David Marsh
Naattiantie 67
Jyväskylä
FIN-40520
Finland
[email protected]