Analysing the Level of Complexity of University Students' Written Responses: A Comparison between First and Foreign Language Productions

Over the last decade, the field of foreign language teaching in Europe has been influenced by approaches that argue for the integration of language and content. The use of foreign languages as media of instruction for the teaching of non-language subjects (CLIL) has been thought to enhance students' language proficiency levels, cognitive and metacognitive development, and intercultural competence. Although there is significant EU investment in the promotion of CLIL programmes at all educational levels, there is little empirical research that upholds the benefits of CLIL. The present paper aims at contributing to CLIL research by comparing the written work of two groups of university students taking a course in School Organisation at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). One of the groups received instruction in Catalan, whereas the other did so in English. Using the SOLO taxonomy, we undertake to examine whether there are significant differences in the responses students provide to three case study assignments meant to assess their understanding and knowledge of course content.