Content and Language Integrated Learning toward proficiency: an analysis of its potential in a public bilingual education programme in Rio de Janeiro

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an approach that has been adopted in various countries around the globe, mainly as a strategy to host immigrants immersed in a foreign school. In Brazil, it has been implemented with different purposes, as an immersion programme for local students. However, not much is known about this adaptation, especially as an education policy. Hence, this paper aims to investigate CLIL as an English teaching approach in Brazil. Specifically, we analyse its implementation in a public school in Rio de Janeiro, focusing on (i) whether integrating language and content can be considered a relevant factor in the proficiency of the students and (ii) which other pedagogical aspects of the bilingual programme students considered significant for their learning process. We do so investigating students’ beliefs on the approach through a semi-structured interview. The interviews were guided by ten questions concerning their experience while learning English, more specifically in the context of High School. Through the students’ answers we were able to identify as main factors for their proficiency: (a) the importance of CLIL for language input exposure and vocabulary enhancement and (b) other noteworthy pedagogical aspects, namely: use of English for communicative purposes, the friendly English speaking environment and teacher-student rapport