From Cultural Awareness to Scientific Citizenship: Implementing Content and Language Integrated Learning Projects to Connect Environmental Science and English in a State School in Colombia

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an educational approach that integrates language learning with content teaching of subjects such as science. The CLIL approach regards culture a core component, however, science teachers often struggle to integrate a cultural component in their lessons. This study describes a pedagogical intervention using CLIL in a state school in Bogotá, Colombia. The first cycle of an action research project was implemented over the course of 1 year with 50 students (aged 15-19 years) and their teacher. Students used technology-enhanced CLIL-based environmental learning projects to integrate content (science) and a vehicular language (English). Questionnaires, a teacher's journal, artefacts, and interviews were used to collect data. The findings show students' positive perceptions of CLIL and highlight the value of explicitly considering a cultural component in science lessons, framed through a lens of scientific citizenship. Implications for CLIL and science education are discussed.