Abstract:

English is the most used language in those fields related to Sciences (from academy to research). The adaptation of university subjects from one language to another implies challenges to meet the needs and the difficulties of the shareholders.

In this work, we present an on-going case study of the use of CLIL in Biochemistry I of the Biology Degree at the University of Alicante, a subject within the High Academic Performance program of the Generalitat Valenciana (Grupos de Alto Rendimiento Académico –ARA).

The study has a twofold objective:
- To determine the needs and challenges of the students and professors, who use English as the vehicular language for Biochemistry I (basic Biochemistry for Biology students).
- To compare the performance of the students in the same course held in English and in Spanish.

Thus, to fulfil the first goal we have interviewed professors and carried out student surveys, whereas for the second we have gathered and compared evidence of the students’ outcomes. In so far as content learning is concerned, the findings indicate that: a) students are better at understanding the content with Spanish professors speaking in English than with native speakers, b) students’ difficulties in the subject are not due to the language, and c) students in the CLIL classes perform just as well or better than those in the regular classes held in Spanish.

We conclude that a well-planned CLIL course with competent professors, in both the content and the language, can not only provide students with benefits to progress in the subject matter and the language, but also in their internationalization.

Keywords:

CLIL, Biochemistry, English as lengua franca, teaching.