“Developments in CLIL Teacher Training: the role played by the University”,

One of the features of Reform of the Italian high school system (2009) concerns the obligation to teach at least one school subject through a foreign language in the final year in the Licei (in the Liceo Linguistico the obligation is extended to two languages and at least two school subjects as from the third year) and in the Istituti Tecnici (where the law obliges to use English). How is this aspect of the Reform going to find the schools prepared and what contribution can Universities provide to train the teachers to face the challenge? The paper explores possible areas of development in this respect. To do so, data from an investigation on the training of teachers for bilingual education (as it was then called) involving 12 European countries conducted in the period 1997-1999 are reported and set against a smaller-scale investigation involving 5 European countries conducted ten years later, in 2008 the aim of which was to ascertain how institutions were meeting the needs of CLIL teachers. Using the criteria pre-millennium and post-millennium period, the data can be read in order to see how professional development in CLIL provision has changed to meet the increase in demand and the gradual awareness of the concept as it has spread in the different European countries.