Biodata

Biodata: Senior Lecturer in English Philology and Academic Director for Language Policy at University of Cantabria. He teaches in Degrees, port-graduate courses in English Phonetics, Bilingualism and Acquisition of Second languages. He has taught courses of Teacher training about the teaching of pronunciation in foreign languages (English and Spanish). He was teacher at University of Zagreb and University of Iowa.

He has participated in 16 regional, national and international research projects, and he is currently the principal researcher of the project called Bilingual Teaching and Learning in Cantabria: From Primary to Tertiary Education. His research has been focused in the teaching and learning of pronunciation of English as a foreign language and, from a decade, in the acquisition of English in CLIL contexts. His works have been published in  prestigious international journals (International Journal of Multilingualism, ITL Journal of Applied Linguistics, Educational Media International, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Canadian Modern Language Journal, European Journal of Applied Linguistics, or Language Teaching Research). In 2012, he received the award to “experienced researches” from Spanish Society for Applied Linguistics (AESLA) by the co-edition of the book “Content and Foreign Language Integrated Learning: Contributions to Multilingualism in European Contexts. Until 2017, he has been coordinator of the panel Language Teaching and Acquisition of Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies (AEDEAN).

Oral Language Outcomes in CLIL: Any Pronunciation Advantage?

Much has been published on the benefits of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs for target language development. The research conducted so far analysing general proficiency seems to indicate that bilingual programs are associated with better outcomes, this being typically true of oral skills too. However, when specific areas of language are examined, the CLIL advantage does not always emerge. The CLIL studies which have focused on the acquisition of the phonetic/phonological component are extremely scarce and do not clearly indicate that CLIL learners benefit as much from the CLIL experience. A thorough analysis of these investigations will better enable us to identify the literature gaps as well as the explanatory reasons for such findings. We discuss the pedagogical implications derived from the data presented and advocate for further pronunciation awareness rising in the CLIL classroom.