A Prestigious Imposition: From Multilingualism to English Clil

Abstract

Along its history English has had to overcome many obstacles to achieve the prestige it holds today. Its submission to the Classical and other vernacular languages is a matter of the past. In spite of the omnipresence of the word multilingualism in the European legislation, English maintains its position as the first foreign language learnt. The purpose of this paper is to discern if the European linguistic policies have somehow contributed to this fact. By analysing documents issued by the European Commission as well as others it has funded, it is shown that multilingualism is actually in decay. Furthermore, considering reports on Spain and specifically the Canary Islands, it can be revealed that CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), rather than favouring multilingualism as it was once suggested by the EU, has promoted the use of English-Only in public classrooms occupied by selected students. Though it is not the objective of this paper to evaluate CLIL as method, a final concern is manifested when it might become a tool of segregation. Hence, if multilingualism needs a serious reconsideration, the use of English as a lingua franca does too.