CLIL and Multilingual Writing in Primary Education

Figures

Figure 1: Summary of CLIL, immersion programmes and CBI

Figure 2: Overview of the three components and their dimensions within the taxonomy proposed for analysing communicative appropriateness in writing

Figure 3: Geographical location of the Valencian Community and the three provinces

Figure 4: Number of participants in each school

Figure 5: Participants distribution by gender

Figure 6: Participants’ L1s

Figure 7: Task design implementation

Figure 8: Total teaching hours per week of CLIL in each of the schools

Figure 9: Language exposure to all the languages in School A

Figure 10: Language exposure to all the languages in School B

Figure 11: Language exposure to all the languages in School C

Figure 12: Timeline for the data collection

Figure 13: Data collection procedure

Figure 14: Data collection timeline and the participants involved

Figure 15: Overview of the qualitative data analysis procedure

Figure 16: Overview of the intensity of CLIL programmes and language exposure to the other two official languages in the curriculum

Figure 17: Difficulties for CLIL implementation

Figure 18: Key pillars for CLIL implementation in multilingual primary education

Tables

Table 1: Content-driven and language-driven experiences (Met, 1999, p. 4)

Table 2: Principles for effective CLIL programmes, Coyle et al. (2010, p. 4)

Table 3: Alcón-Soler’s model of communicative competence (adapted from Alcón-Soler, 2000)

Table 4: Knowledge of the Catalan language among the inhabitants of the Valencian Community, in Catalan-speaking and Spanish-speaking areas (adapted from Generalitat Valenciana, 2021, p. 6)

Table 5: Pearson correlation matrix for students’ final grades in English, Spanish, and Catalan

Table 6: Summary of regression models predicting language performance

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the encouragement and generosity of many people. First and foremost, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Dr Pilar Safont and Dr Laura Portolés, as well as the LAELA research group for being a source of inspiration.

I wish to acknowledge the invaluable contribution of all the students, teachers and parents who took part in the project. I owe you more than thanks.

Special thanks go to Carlos for everything life has in store for us. GRÀCIES!

Introduction

The effectiveness of Content and Language Integrated Learning (henceforth, CLIL) in promoting multilingualism and enhancing language and content learning has been a subject of intense scrutiny in recent years (Dalton-Puffer, 2017; Ruiz de Zarobe, 2017; Hüttner, 2020; Coyle & Meyer, 2021; Dalton-Puffer, Hüttner, & Llinares, 2022; Coyle, Meyer, & Staschen-Dielmann, 2023; Otto & Cortina-Pérez, 2023). However, research has rarely addressed how CLIL functions in trilingual educational settings, where students are expected to develop communicative competence in more than two languages (Hüttner et al., 2025). Moreover, while CLIL’s dual focus on language and content is well acknowledged in theory, empirical studies often fail to reflect this balance, placing disproportionate emphasis on linguistic gains, particularly in English, without systematically examining students’ written performance across the full language curriculum. In fact, most studies have explored students’ English language proficiency (Pladevall-Ballester & Vallbona, 2016; Agustín-Llach, 2017; Coral-Mateu, Lleixà-Arribas, & Ventura, 2018), often overlooking other languages in the curriculum.

Additionally, the implementation of CLIL in multilingual educational contexts remains under-researched. In doing so, the book sheds light on the potential benefits and challenges of implementing CLIL in multilingual primary education. It focuses on three key areas: students’ cross-linguistic performance in writing, factors that influence their multilingual writing and the perceptions of students, families, and teachers regarding CLIL and multilingual education. Lastly, it proposes practical tools and pedagogical guidelines to support CLIL implementation in multilingual contexts, including assessment strategies and reflective instruments for schools and teachers. Drawing on mixed-methods research, it brings together quantitative data and qualitative insights to better understand the realities of multilingual education in the Valencian Community. As such, the findings of this book may offer valuable insights for CLIL scholars, teachers, programme directors, parents, and policymakers. To address the aforementioned objectives, as well as to respond to the stated research gaps, this book is divided into two interconnected parts.