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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Language, Culture and Diversity
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1447270
This article is part of the Research Topic CLIL Beyond the Frontiers View all articles

A systematic review of student learning outcomes in CLIL in LOTE

Provisionally accepted
Evdokia Pittas Evdokia Pittas 1*Leah Tompkins Leah Tompkins 2
  • 1 University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
  • 2 Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Madrid, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This paper aims to provide a first systematic research overview of student learning outcomes in programs teaching school subjects through languages other than English (LOTE) which are not the mother tongue of the students, according to school- or researcher-administered assessments and stakeholder perspectives, following the PRISMA statement. For brevity, we shall refer to these types of programs as CLIL in LOTE, though we have also included programs which use other labels, such as bilingual education or immersion, due to their similarities with those labeled “content and language integrated learning” (CLIL). The selected studies, published between November 1994 and December 2023, were identified through the search of SCOPUS and EBSCO. In determining which studies to include in the review, we employed the following selection criteria: (1) articles focusing on children and youth (ages 5–17 years), (2) articles focusing on CLIL programs in LOTE, (3) articles focusing on student achievement, (4) articles focusing on studies that have collected primary data, and (5) studies that used school-/researcher-administered assessments (objective) or self/hetero-reported measures (subjective). The screening of titles, abstracts and keywords left a final sample of n = 29 scientific papers, which were then read exhaustively and assessed for methodological quality. Most studies (26 of 29) addressed academic and/or linguistic outcomes, with some studies additionally addressing social/cultural outcomes, behavioral/affective outcomes, and/or (meta)cognitive outcomes. Of the learning outcomes reported, 25 (53%) were positive, five (11%) were negative, four (9%) were neutral, eight (17%) were mixed and four (9%) identified factors influencing outcomes. Theoretically, the study contributes to establishing more general theories about the specific role of CLIL in LOTE in students’ learning. Empirically, the study outlines pathways for future research on CLIL in LOTE. In practice, the study presents challenges identified by stakeholders to suggest pathways forward in CLIL teaching/learning.

    Keywords: CLIL, LOTE, bilingual education, Immersion, multilingual education, minorised linguistic varieties, educational outcomes

    Received: 11 Jun 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Pittas and Tompkins. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Evdokia Pittas, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.