The impact of intensity of CLIL programmes and extramural English on primary school students’ communicativeappropriateness in writing

Abstract The present study examines the impact of intensity of CLIL programmes on primary school students’ communicative appropriateness in writing. It also addresses the influence of language exposure beyond the CLIL classroom, considering two out-of-school activities: watching TV and private tuition. A total of 392 primary school students from three schools in the Valencian Community participated, representing high-intensity, medium-intensity, and low-intensity CLIL programmes. Data were collected through a written task and a questionnaire adapted from Lasagabaster and Huguet (2007) . The written task was administered during a CLIL science lesson, and data were coded using a rating scale adapted from Kuiker and Vedder (2017) and Jacob et al. (1981). Findings from the study reveal that the intensity of CLIL programmes has an impact on students’ scores in communicative appropriateness in writing. Additionally, the results show that CLIL is beneficial for both language and content learning when high and medium-intensity CLIL programmes are implemented. Moreover, it shows that Extramural English (EE), through watching TV in English and private tuition, benefits CLIL learners, especially those enrolled in low-intensity CLIL programmes. Finally, some pedagogical implications are suggested to enhance learning in CLIL contexts.