CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning): The bigger picture. A response to: A. Bruton. 2013. CLIL: Some of the reasons why … and why not. System 41 (2013): 587–597

This paper presents a response to “A. Bruton. 2013. CLIL: Some of the reasons why … and why not. System 41 (2013): 587–597” and engages with the claims made in this contribution. We challenge a series of assumptions made about CLIL in Bruton (2013), i.e. that it is discriminatory, that it replaces foreign language instruction and that it does (or should) constitute a uniform pedagogy. We endeavour to position local CLIL practices within a wider framework and highlight the potential of CLIL to offer complementary language learning opportunities. On a language policy level, this paper shows how CLIL can be best conceptualised as a series of local responses to the global status of English.