In this very first year, we have discovered the complexity of our project. The project aims to develop recommendations for implementing CLIL in Languages Other than English (LOTE) across educational stages (primary, secondary, tertiary), both in the language classroom and in other subjects. Furthermore, the project sees CLIL as a vehicle for promoting pluralistic approaches to language learning. The recommendations will be illustrated by practice examples from various contexts.

This complexity can be visualized as follows:

In this very first year, we have also discovered how innovative our project is. Our review of what has been achieved in previous CLIL projects and our study of the research literature in general has shown that the approach to build bridges across educational levels in CLIL LOTE breaks new ground. Furthermore, the connection between CLIL LOTE and pluralistic approaches to languages is hardly an established practice.

We have therefore decided to issue a questionnaire, based on Eurydice Reports from 2006 and 2017, in the beginning of 2021 in order to:

• to collect information about and challenges concerning CLIL in Languages Other than English in the ECML member states, and
• to establish a CLIL LOTE network / a collaboration with representatives from the ECML member states, who could help provide practice examples from different contexts and could either be invited to the project network meeting in 2021 or the project workshop in 2022.

In 2020, we have initiated a collaboration with associate partners in order to gain their perspectives on our work and furthermore, over the next two years, to collect scenarios and materials from different contexts.

Should you have expertise within the field of CLIL LOTE linked to transitions and/or pluralistic approaches, please contact us. We look forward to collaborating with you in this complex, innovative and highly important field!

Petra Daryai-Hansen, project coordinator

Visit the project website "CLIL in languages other than English – Successful transitions across educational stages" (available in English, French, and German): www.ecml.at/CLILLOTEtransitions