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Using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology in learning environments is one of the latest challenges for educators and education policymakers. Conversational AI brings new possibilities for alternative and innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tools, such as AI chatbots. This paper reports on field experiments with an AI chatbot and provides insights into its contribution to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). More specifically, this paper presents an experimental use case of an educational AI chatbot called AsasaraBot, designed to teach high school students cultural content in a foreign language, i.e., English or French. The content is related to the Minoan Civilization, emphasizing the characteristic figurine of the Minoan Snake Goddess. The related chatbot-based educational program has been evaluated at public and private language schools in Greece. The findings from these experiments show that the use of AI chatbot technology for interactive ICT-based learning is suitable for learning foreign languages and cultural content at the same time. The AsasaraBot AI chatbot has been designed and implemented in the context of a postgraduate project using open-source and free software.

This article explores the temporal nature of language learning in classroom settings through the lens of Conversation Analysis (CA) by drawing on video-recorded interactions from Content and Language Integrated (CLIL) classrooms. It outlines some methodological challenges that the task of documenting language learning in and as observable social interaction poses for CA studies of second language (L2) learning and proposes that learning has typically been described as either a situated activity (in cross-sectional studies) or a series of intermediate achievements (in longitudinal studies). The empirical analysis focuses on interactional instances in which students observably invoke and describe their earlier learning activities or achievements as part of some ongoing classroom activity, either in wholeclass or peer interaction. It is argued that such instances of a retrospective orientation to learning offer empirical materials for examining learning trajectories from a participant's perspective, how connections between moments and social domains separated by time and space are forged, and how resources are accumulated, recalibrated, and put to use. The focal interactions also raise conceptual implications for the ways in which learning is both situated and transferable, as well as methodological implications for how retrospection can best be rendered analytically accessible by way of a CA approach.

This study interrogates whether Augmented Reality (AR) enhances vocabulary and content acquisition within Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), situating the question in the broader debate on how immersive, multimodal technologies shape achievement and engagement. This study’s novelty lies in its direct AR-versus-print comparison in a real CLIL classroom using markerless, smartphone-based technology. Using a mixed-methods, classroom-based experiment, we drew on a convenience sample of 129 secondary students (ages 16–18), assigning them to an AR intervention (n = 64) or a print-based control (n = 65). Both cohorts received parallel instruction covering identical objectives and materials; vocabulary attainment was gauged using matched pretest and post-test measures, while engagement, attitudes, and perceived usefulness were captured through paired pre- and post-surveys and open-ended prompts. Quantitative analyses compared change scores across conditions and were complemented by qualitative summaries of learner comments. Results indicate that exposure to AR exerted a positive influence on learners’ engagement and supported learning processes, with perceptible shifts in students’ views of AR between baseline and post-intervention; nevertheless, effects were heterogeneous across instruments, items, and subgroups, suggesting that benefits accrued in a targeted rather than uniform fashion. Compared to the print-based group, students using AR demonstrated greater gains on visually supported vocabulary and content items, while other items showed no significant differences between groups. We conclude that AR constitutes a promising pedagogical resource for CLIL, capable of scaffolding vocabulary/content development and motivating participation, while the observed variability underscores the need for principled, context-sensitive integration. Future work should specify boundary conditions—such as task type, prior proficiency, cognitive load, and technology familiarity—and employ robust mixed-methods designs to determine for whom, and under which instructional circumstances, AR yields the greatest and most sustainable gains.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), widely established as a mainstream approach in ESL countries, is gaining traction in EFL contexts through selective programs and initiatives. Reflecting this trend, Vietnam’s educational reforms under the 2018 General Education Program have incorporated CLIL-informed lessons into newly adopted English textbooks, signaling a step toward integrating language and subject learning. However, the CLIL-informed lesson remains relatively new to EFL teachers in Vietnamese high schools. Surveying EFL teachers’ understandings and their teaching practices are crucial to discover their theoretical knowledge and practical application in teaching CLIL. It is essential to examine how other factors influence this relationship and identify the challenges and support teachers need in delivering these new lessons. The study employed a mixed-methods approach aimed at investigating EFL high school teachers’ understandings, teaching practices, challenges and needs when delivering CLIL-informed lessons. The study collected quantitative data from 326 participants, along with qualitative data from interviews from 6 chosen teachers. Findings revealed that with differing cognitive factors, educational backgrounds, and working circumstances, teachers demonstrated their adaptability by tailoring the lessons with their own “localized CLIL model” and expressed further support in training for maximizing CLIL benefits in harmony with other contextual constraints. These findings, under the lens of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, serve as valuable references for other EFL teachers, curriculum developers and textbook publishers in supporting the implementation and diffusion of CLIL.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of education for sustainable development (ESD) approaches in English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japanese higher education. Design/methodology/approach A content and language integrated learning (CLIL) University-level course was run over two separate semesters: the first as a lecture-based course and the second was a similar course that integrated ESD best-practice. A program effects case study was used to see if any significant changes could be measured between the separate semesters. A mixed-methods approach to data collection was used and student marks, survey results using values, beliefs and norms (VBN) model and reflection tasks were collected across the two courses. Findings A meaningful change in the ascription of responsibility and personal norms was present in the ESD best-practice course. This shows that ESD best-practice integration into language teaching has a positive impact on student environmental VBN and more research is necessary for this area. Practical implications ESD integrated into language teaching correlates positively with environmental behavior change according to the VBN-model. A new field of study is proposed, language education for sustainable development, to better integrate the disciplines of EFL and ESD. Originality/value This study is looking at the integration of ESD in language teaching and CLIL based courses in Higher Education and, at present, there are no other studies of this kind.

PurposeThe paper reports how lesson study helped to make the learning of students with limited English competencies visible in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).Design/methodology/approachThe two lesson study cycles took place in a Swiss primary school with a focus on three case pupils each with heterogeneous attainment levels in English. The research group observed how the case pupils coped with learning English integrated with art, crafts, and sports in four research lessons. Following a case study methodology, the research focussed on how the case pupils used their limited English language competencies complemented with multilingual and multimodal means to make their learning visible.FindingsThanks to the close observations of students’ learning and the detailed analysis thereof as a cooperative effort of the research group, the lesson study revealed that the case pupils used varied means to express their learning partly depending on their levels of English.Research limitations/implicationsThis small-scale case study only describes data collected from four research lessons based on a total of 12 case pupils.Originality/valueCommonly during lesson study, the students’ learning is captured through the verbal language they use. But if the research lesson takes place in a foreign language setting in which students’ language competencies are limited in expressing their learning, other languages and modes of communication must be considered. To date, there are few papers on how lesson study helps to explore learners’ use of so-called translanguaging and trans-semiotising.

Hong Kong’s ‘trilingual and biliterate’ language policy (TaB, 三語兩文 ) is almost as old as the special administrative region (SAR) itself. Through free education and language support measures in school, students are expected to be conversant in English and Putonghua in addition to Cantonese, and be able to read and understand written Chinese and English. After being implemented for over two decades, however, there are signs that most students’ language standards in Chinese and English fall short of the TaB target, as measured by the public examination results of successive generations of secondary school leavers. Designed with essentially Cantonese-dominant Hongkongers in mind, the TaB policy consists of many measures, with the ‘medium of instruction streaming policy’ introduced since September 1998 being the most controversial. Driven by the twin principles of monolingual English-medium instruction (EMI) and ‘no language mixing allowed’, secondary schools are divided into two streams. Stringent requirements must be met before a school could claim to be an EMI school. According to this ‘late immersion’ model for students aged 11–12 at secondary level, every year about 30 percent of the primary school leavers are allocated to an EMI school. Following Li ( Multilingual Hong Kong: languages, literacies and identities . Springer, Cham, 2017), this paper will first discuss why the TaB target is such a tall order for Cantonese-dominant students by reviewing the relevant literature along five inter-related dimensions: contrastive linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, cognitive neuroscience, and instructional strategies and bilingual pedagogies. I will then examine the SAR government’s language support measures to assess their effectiveness and explore possible alternatives. The paper will end with a number of recommendations, which together constitute an LPP (language policy and planning) roadmap for improving the chance with which the TaB policy is likely to produce more positive outcomes. (i) To re-prioritize the investment and extent of language support by strengthening the quality of language input at the key stages of learning from age 3–9, which in curriculum terms correspond with K1–P3; (ii) To use Cantonese as the medium of instruction for teaching all subjects except English and Putonghua as separate subjects at preschool (K1–K3, age 3–6); (iii) To explore the possibility of implementing total immersion in Putonghua for three years at lower primary level (P1–P3, age 6–9); (iv) To abandon the ‘maximum exposure, no mixing’ dogma in secondary education and to encourage basic and action research in bilingual pedagogies and instructional strategies informed by Content-and-language integrated learning (CLIL); (v) To attract academically bright and linguistically gifted students to receive professional training and be prepared and committed for a career in language teaching; and (vi) To encourage civil servants of various government offices, schoolteachers, and university staff to initiate a ‘speak English/Putonghua where we can’ campaign. For these policy measures to be successfully implemented and bear fruit, apart from careful planning, there ought to be strong leadership from within the government and the education sector, plus mechanisms for coordinating concerted actions on the part of various groups of stakeholders, notably teachers, school principals, educationalists, and experts of language teaching and learning in academia.

Learning foreign languages is a process of acquiring authentic contents in cultural contexts. In this respect, bilingual programs provide an effective connection between content-based studies and linguistic activities. The European umbrella term CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) not only comprises the aims and objectives of a sustainable format of teaching foreign languages but also the priority of content over language, in other words: language follows content, as in the Bauhaus precept form follows function. But in order to effectively integrate content and language, a comprehensive pedagogical approach is needed that goes beyond existing curricula and guidebooks. Bernd Klewitz aims at establishing the CLIL methodology by linking content requirements of subject areas, especially those in the social sciences, with linguistic building blocks and tools. The integrative methodology of bilingual programs extends to the study of literature, traditionally a domain of language tuition, but thought to be a seminal part of CLIL as well. The building blocks and language tools presented in this volume focus on learning foreign languages in cultural contexts, aims, and objectives of CLIL, parameters of an integrated bilingual teaching strategy, dimensions of bilingual learning, elements of a CLIL concept, Literary CLIL, CLIL tools and strategies, modules with worked examples, challenges, and desiderata, and a comprehensive glossary. Each section is completed with an interactive part of review, reflection, and practice.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is increasingly adopted globally, including in Taiwan’s educational initiatives, yet challenges remain in implementing effective CLIL practices, such as pedagogy and curriculum design. This study investigated the effectiveness of multimodal task designs, combining hands-on learning with poster presentations, in enhancing oral communicative competence within CLIL contexts. Employing a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design with a comparative case study framework, the study assessed English oral communicative competence in four intact fourth-grade Taiwanese CLIL Social Studies classes. The hands-on learning group (EG, n = 40) engaged in activities like Chinese Dumpling Making, Bird’s Nest Building, and Succulent Pot Designing, while the non-hands-on learning group (CG, n = 34) used traditional worksheets on the same topics. Both groups proceeded to poster presentations within their multimodal task design, where students’ oral communicative competence was assessed using rubrics developed based on Coyle’s 4Cs dimensions, focusing on Content, Communication, and Cognition. Additionally, students’ cultural knowledge related to the hands-on topics was evaluated through written tests. To complement the quantitative data, qualitative data from self-reported reflections and video recordings documenting interventions were collected for the assessment of oral communicative competence within a CLIL framework. Results demonstrate that integrating hands-on activities significantly enhanced procedural content, communication (i.e., sentence complexity, pronunciation accuracy for target vocabulary, presentation fluency), and cognitive abilities, confirming the efficacy of multimodal learning approaches in fostering linguistic and cognitive engagement. Post-test comparisons show the EG’s superiority in cultural knowledge acquisition across all three hands-on topics. Student reflections endorsed the enrichment of learning experiences through multimodal task design. Video analysis of both groups’ interventions revealed that despite significant engagement and autonomy, EG students commonly utilized general English rather than target vocabulary, a pattern similar to that observed in the CG. These findings highlight the potential of diverse modalities in CLIL to enhance English content learning and oral skills, shaping future pedagogy and language strategies in Taiwan. The study also emphasizes the role of embodied learning, the interplay between physical actions and cognitive processes, to facilitate deeper understanding and engagement with subject matter within CLIL settings.

Subject knowledge, also known as domain knowledge or thematic knowledge in translation studies (TS), is universally recognized as a constituent element of translator competence. However, there is a dearth of empirical exploration into its instruction in translation classroom, especially from translation students’ perspective. Inspired by CLIL (content-language integrated learning) in L2 learning and relevant discussions in TS, this study proposes STIL (subject-translation integrated learning) as a novel approach to translation instruction characterized by integration of a systematic in-depth instruction of subject knowledge with translation instruction on course level. It then explores students’ perception of the proposed approach as it is implemented in an MTI (Master of Translation and Interpreting) course specialized in translation of classical texts in economics. The results show: (1) STIL is generally preferred by the participants to other approaches to translation instruction that they have been exposed to; (2) STIL, if well-designed and carried out, could produce positive cognitive and affective outcomes with both subject-learning and translation-learning through a forced and facilitated engagement with the texts.