Relevance of CLIL in developing pedagogies for minority language teaching

In recent years there have been renewed efforts in the UK and elsewhere to identify appropriate pedagogical approaches for the teaching of minority/community/heritage languages (as distinct from both foreign and regional languages). In this chapter it is argued that CLIL may have much to contribute to the development of such pedagogies and that there is a need for research to explore models appropriate for the different contexts in which these languages are taught.

Drawing on the experience of developing an initial teacher training course for Arabic, Mandarin, Panjabi and Urdu at Goldsmiths, University of London, examples of three cross-curricular projects involving bilingual learners are presented and their impact considered in relation to language, culture and broader identity issues.