CLIL Sections in New English Textbooks for Grade 6 - One Recipe for All?

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), regarded as the most recent and innovative language teaching approach, has attracted massive interest in the textbook publishing market. In recent years, CLIL has started to appear as a small section incorporated into the general English textbooks across the globe. Following this trend, Vietnamese textbook writers also added a CLIL section in the newly published English textbooks for Grade 6 in 2021. This study focuses on the two textbooks “Right on!” and “i-Learn Smart World” to explore the similarities and differences between their CLIL sections in terms of Content, Cognition, Communication, and Culture - the four aspects of the 4Cs framework (Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010). Drawing from different theoretical sources, we break the abstract concepts of 4Cs into smaller and measurable components which serve as a benchmark for comparison. Findings reveal that the two CLIL sections have few commonalities but vast differences when developing each Cs aspect. The most noticeable difference can be seen in the Content and Cognition aspects. While “Right on!” offers more challenging content input and activities, “i-Learn Smart World” provide more comprehensible input and appropriate scaffolding. This uncovers that each textbook writer holds a different philosophy of CLIL and thus has different priorities when developing materials. The presentation provides implications for ESL teachers to make an informed decision regarding the CLIL materials that best suit their learners. It also paves the way for future researchers to conduct studies in this field which is still embryonic in Vietnam.