What is Introductory Discipline

The chapter analyses a university model designed to integrate the study of economic disciplines and English by demonstrating how content-driven CLIL evolved from a synthesis of teaching economic disciplines in English by native speaking lecturers and English for special purposes taught by language instructors. A longitudinal action research into the effects of content and language integration ensured the development of major didactic and methodological principles implemented in a sequence of four semester courses with a dual focus on content and language. The chapter comprehensively examines the benefits arising from the introductory character of university CLIL disciplines and the two-level approach to the acquisition of academic domain-specific language skill in a collaborative interaction of all the participants aimed at knowledge construction. The model is considered an efficient intermediate stage undertaken before shifting to any form of tertiary educational context where English is used as a medium of instruction.