Teachers' Code-Switching in Bilingual Primary Education: A Literary Review of its Pedagogical Functions

Introduction

In the last two decades, there has been progressive implantation of the bilingual education (henceforth, BE) program in various European countries due to the substantial evidence found proving the benefits of this educational instruction (Fortune; 2012; Genesee, 2015; Gómez-Parra et al., 2021; Salomé et al., 2022). The BE in Europe has been conducted through the teaching approach of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), according to which curricular subjects are taught via an additional language that is not the student’s mother tongue, mostly English (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010; Nikula, 2016). This dual-focused approach used for teaching both content and language has implied an adaptation of conventional didactics. Despite its difficulty, CLIL establishes that both content and language be in a (quasi-)equilibrium, i.e., subject knowledge and target language attainment must be produced jointly (Ting, 2010).

CLIL originated in the 1990s, though the acronym was not employed consistently across countries until much time later. It coincided with the proliferation of a series of European movements and language initiatives, such as EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) or LAL (Learning through an Additional Language). Therefore, CLIL is the ‘umbrella’ term that comprises all the approaches that emerged in Europe at that time advocating for the promotion of content over form in language teaching. Learning an additional language through content is thus the primary goal of the CLIL approach. The Council of Europe and the European Commission have launched since then successful initiatives to meet the challenges of CLIL in response to European needs, requesting mainly the promotion of second-language education, bilingualism, and internationalization (Darvin et al., 2020; Marsh, 2002). According to the European Commission, CLIL “has a major contribution to make to the Union’s language learning goals” (2003, p. 8), and it is the responsibility of the Member States to boost language learning to comply with those European objectives. Thanks to those initiatives, a very high share of primary school children from the EU (European Union) Member States learn English in their educational institutions as this is the main foreign language through which pupils receive bilingual instruction today (Eurostat, 2021). Hence, CLIL has entailed a notable shift from previous teaching approaches with the support of the EU institutions and the formulation of local education policies in the Member States. It has achieved the integration of learning through the English medium instruction, thus promoting bilingualism in the classroom.