Are Ecuadorian Universities Preparing EFL Teachers for CLIL? Sacred Versus Secret Stories

Abstract

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is a fundamental tenet in the Curriculum for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in Ecuador. There-fore, it is important to explore whether pre-service teachers have the conceptual and practical knowledge to use it. This chapter analyzes EFL teaching undergraduate and graduate programme curricula to find out if Ecuadorian pre-service teachers are being trained to enact what is established as a language teaching policy. Further-more, student teachers’ experiences in their practicum were studied to understand the realities of the classroom in terms of CLIL application. Results demonstrated that EFL future teachers neither receive CLIL training in university programmes nor are exposed to this approach in their practicum teaching. Hence, it is imperative to provide training to pre-service and in-service teachers in order to improve not only their preparation but also the students’ language learning process in the country at all educational levels.