If lexis be the food of communication, speak on! CLIL. A language-in-progress, hands-on approach. Engineers or bricoleurs?

What follows is informed by my experience as tutor to a group of senior-secondary schools teachers taking part in a project aimed at helping them design and implement a science and technology CLIL course to be imparted through the medium of L2, in this case English. The tutorials were inspired principally on the Lexical Approach (Lewis, 1993; 1997; 2000) and the workshop sessions, besides some theoretical discussions, consisted in simulating the strategies and techniques the teachers would apply during the lessons with their students. Given the central role played by the language competence as a prerequisite for the implementation of the CLIL project, the didactic approach adopted – and described here – was based mainly on lexis and its dynamic, creative exploitation. The dual purpose of this methodological choice was that of helping teachers make up for their want of linguistic mastery when seeking to enable their students to carry out the disciplinary activities foreseen while developing and/or consolidating their L2 competence