Clil approach and reading comprehension

Abstract

The following research aimed to evaluate the influence of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in reading comprehension. A group of 23 third-grade elementary students from Unidad Educativa Bilingüe “CEBI” was the selected population of this study. In addition, this was a quantitative and pre-experimental research. It involved the application of a pre and post-test using the reading and writing section of the Cambridge Movers test. Furthermore, Science was the chosen subject to study content during a treatment of 10 sessions. In order to develop students’ reading comprehension strategies, many pre, while, and post-reading activities were planned. As a result, students made progress, moving from an average of 2,05 points out of 10 to an overall score of 5,45 points over 10 marks as well. Also, these data showed a normal distribution; thus, the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test was used to find out the significance level between the variables, using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. In conclusion, third-graders’ reading comprehension level improved after the implementation of the CLIL approach. Students were able to apply different reading comprehension strategies, where reading for gist, reading for specific information, and inferring were predominant. Therefore, students could develop literal and inferential comprehension of texts. On the other hand, evaluative comprehension was still challenging for learners because it involved the application of summarizing and critical reading strategies.