Editorial: The big question - does CLIL complement or compromise ELT?

The main item on the agenda this month is the CLIL Debate. The IATEFL Conference is coming up soon in Cardiff and onestopclil has teamed up with the Guardian Weekly and onestopenglish to get us all discussing CLIL. Does it complement or compromise English Language Teaching?

We've asked two teachers - one a language specialist, one a subject specialist - to give their reactions to the theme of the debate. Lyubov Dombeva, a CLIL biology teacher in Bulgaria, offers a subject teacher's perspective. On our sister site, onestopenglish, Adrian Tennant gives us his reaction from an EFL standpoint. 

Onestopclil gives space and opportunity this month for readers to say what they think and take part in the debate. First, the panel of experts at the IATEFL CLIL Debate have put together a short questionnaire for you, the idea being that reader responses will feed into the panel discussion at the debate itself in Cardiff.

Second, we have an interactive poll running live on onestopclil on the debate question – does CLIL complement or compromise? Vote and influence the outcome!

Third, we’ll be offering regular free teaching tips and this month we start a series of tips on how to use video in your CLIL lessons. This will lead up to an article in a later issue which looks at using film and video in CLIL.

In a new addition to CLIL Teacher magazine you can find useful links to Macmillan YouTube video clips which include Macmillan asking me about CLIL materials, work and methods. There are also clips on Uncovering CLIL and other CLIL-related videos. 

And don’t forget! There is still the great lesson share competition ongoing this month where you can win a CLIL course at the Norwich Institute for Language Education in the UK! All we ask is that you write down that great lesson and send it in. You can even download lessons from previous winners for inspiration.

So, if you have an opinion about the theme of the debate, if you want to give a response to comments you read or questions from the panel, if you need space to say what you think about something you hear in Café CLIL there are lots of opportunities to do just that on onestopclil.

Get writing!

Best wishes,

Keith