Using a genre-based approach to integrating content and language in CLIL

This chapter proposes that a genre-based pedagogy could provide at least a partial framework for a language curriculum in CLIL. It starts from the idea that an important aspect of learning an academic subject is that of being a user of the different text types or genres through which the subject knowledge is construed. In a genre-based pedagogy, teachers and students jointly construct content knowledge along with the textual and linguistic forms in which it is packaged, thus linking the oral discourse through which knowledge is construed with the written genres which students may have to produce. Such an approach is particularly relevant for CLIL, as it provides a way of genuinely integrating content and language instruction. The chapter provides examples from secondary CLIL history lessons, but it is argued that a genre-based approach can be suitable across subject areas, and is compatible with the 4 Cs perspective on CLIL.