Page 22 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS
Below I present the model of bilingual education implemented in Europe.
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a European variant of bilingual education modelled on two-way bilingual education. As early as 1978, the European Commission initiated the first measures to "encourage the learning of subjects in schools in more than one language" (Marsh et al., 2002, p. 51). In 1994, the new term CLIL was proposed (Marsh& Lange, 2000), which is often defined as "bilingual education" or "subject-based language teaching" (Wolff, 2003, p. 211). One of the first definitions of the term given by D. Marsh in 2001 is: "a general educational approach in which an additional language is used for teaching and learning subjects other than that language" (Marsh et al., 2001, p. 18).
CLIL therefore integrates the teaching and learning of subject content together with foreign language learning. Because language and subject content are interrelated and treated as a whole, the foreign language becomes the medium for teaching subject content (Marsh& Lange, 2000; Wolf, 2003). When CLIL programmes are used to educate students in a country where the official language is not their mother tongue, we speak of second language education (Krashen, 1982). We are then dealing with second language immersion to a greater extent than when CLIL is the basis for educational programmes in which the language used to teach the subject content is one of the modern foreign languages that the pupils also learn at school, i.e., education through a foreign language (Kramer- Möller & Catalano, 2015). In Poland and in many European countries, this type of education has taken root as a type of prestige education delivered in a foreign language, although it could also be helpful in developing school curricula for students from national minorities or migrants.
Content and language integrated education does not constitute a homogenous educational approach (Bentley, 2010, p. 6). This means that there is no single educational curriculum model to follow. In the literature we find information about different educational models. These may include a model in which subject lessons are taught mainly or partly in a foreign language and partly in Polish, and a model in which a foreign language may also be used only on special occasions (Muszyńska & Papaja, 2019, pp. 52–56). A detailed description of the various examples of this type of bilingual education in Europe and Poland can be found in the aforementioned 2019 publication. Foreign language instruction in this type of bilingual education in (supra)primary schools usually takes up to 50% of the time students spend in school. This type of bilingualism can be referred to as additive bilingualism, as it has a positive impact on pupils' language development in both their first language and a foreign or second language. This programme is based on near-natural language acquisition rather than forced learning (Mackenzie, 2012).
When we look at language education, it is useful to see what impact alternative methods in language education can have on it and how important they are in school practice. In Poland, such alternatives initially consisted of innovative methods of teaching English as a foreign language (during the introduction of compulsory English language education from primary school onwards), then came the time of bilingual education (CLIL-type integrated subject and language learning). It was considered that this way of education would make everyone bilingual, and that it was this way of education that would influence the building of tolerance towards other cultures. But what cultures are we talking about? The culture of the prestigious language in which the classes are conducted? The next question that arises is: Who will become bilingual thanks to these education programmes? Those who already know
7