Challenges and opportunities of CLIL at a Mexican higher education context

Maria del Rocio Dominguez and Jitka Crhová, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, México;      Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a research project that addresses the implementation of CLIL as a strategy for internationalization in a Mexican higher education context. The opinions of 38 university teachers from different fields about the implementation of CLIL were gathered using a mixed methods approach using a questionnaire with open and close questions including a likert scale to identify agreement and disagreement. The results of this research showed that this group of professors has a good command of English and use it in their daily academic literacy practices since they employ materials in this language for their professional development and in their classes. They perceived CLIL as a need for their academic context since they think it will improve their teaching competence and the education offered by the institution. They think CLIL will allow the formation of competent professionals who will have the opportunity to expand their competences when acquiring English language skills, leading the institution towards internationalization, which is seen a desirable goal. They also identified some limitations such as the level of English of students and teachers, the training of teachers and the lack of an institutional plan for the implementation for this pedagogical method.

Key words: Learning English in higher education, Content and Language Integrated Learning, Language teaching methodology. Teaching English in Mexican universities.