IN CONTENT LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING

Oral proficiency has been considered as every language learner's main objective. After all, speaking is considered to be the evidence that an individual is able to master a language since real and meaningful communication is achieved. Regardless of this, many Ecuadorian language classrooms, especially in high school education, tend to rely on structure and accuracy resulting in grammar-based lessons only. This situation is a main concern in Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) since educators are focusing on the content and disregarding the language component of this approach. As a result, the original purpose of teaching language through content that CLIL offers is not attained. While some people might believe that real communication is not feasible in a classroom, research states that teacher-student interaction is very similar to parent-child interaction. Therefore, this paper aims to introduce CLIL teachers to the Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) approach as a technique to ensure meaningful communication takes place in the language classroom. Different types of IRF models are presented and a clear distinction between them is explained. Moreover, the advantages and disadvantages of this approach are discussed in detail so that language teachers can fully exploit it in their own settings.