Exploring CLIL contribution towards the acquisition of cross-curricular competences: a comparative study on digital competence development in CLIL

Abstract

This large-scale study compares the digital skills of CLIL and non-CLIL secondary students by means of two separate tests assessing ‘communicative digital competence’ (CLIL group, n=2,152, and non-CLIL group, n=18,093) and ‘informational digital competence’ (CLIL group, n=2,581, and non-CLIL group, n=17,553). The findings indicated that CLIL students showed significantly better digital skills than non-CLIL learners, particularly regarding communicative digital competence. This may suggest CLIL students are more familiar with the use of ICT, and that the communicative skills acquired by means of CLIL methodology based on communication, participation and interaction were transferred to digital environments. These outcomes reveal a new CLIL by-product as well as added value in a highly underexplored area in CLIL research: its effectiveness in the acquisition of key competences (in this case, digital competence), which are the major goals of compulsory education.

Keywords

• CLIL
• ICT
• digital competence
• cross-curricular competences
• secondary education