Abstract:

CLIL methodology has been applied at Slovak primary schools for more than 10 years. In Slovak context, it has been seen as an accaptable compromise between too-demanding bilingual education and a traditional approach to primary foreign language education where foreign languages are taught as individual academic subjects (rather "torn off" the everyday life) with usually questionable results.
Although no formal frames or methodological instructions have not been published by the Slovak Ministry of Education yet, the number of primary schools introducing and running CLIL has been growing rapidly. To avoid the risks of haphazard developments in applying CLIL at primary schools, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra and the Slovak Institute of Education in Bratislava started the experimental verification of effects and educational outcomes of CLIL at selected group of Slovak primary schools. The research took place at 15 elementary schools and lasted since 2008 to 2013. The research pointed out several areas that might be crucial for future desings of both initial teacher training courses and courses of continual in-practice teacher training.
So far, two Slovak universities (Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra and Zilina university) have started such teacher training courses and currently the staff involved are preparing the textbooks and e-courses.
To introduce the Slovak experience with primary CLIL in detail, the paper is structured in three main parts.
First, the author briefly sumarizes the decade-lasting Slovak experience and the current state in applying CLIL at primary schools.
Second, the paper delivers the overview results of the experimental verification of primary CLIL latest research studies conducted in 2008-2013
Finally, based on the aformentioned experience and research results, the last part of the paper puts forward key implications for training non-native teachers of English and other subjects who would be interested in applying CLIL in their everyday teaching practice.

Keywords:

CLIL, primary CLIL, teaching foreign languages to young learners, teacher training, non-native teachers of English.