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Nowadays, it is usual to find students with very different characteristics in schools: students with different capacities, immigrant students, students with special needs or students belonging to dysfunctional families. Our responsibility as teachers is that a diversity of abilities does not become an exclusionary element for some of the students. According to experts, when we encounter students with special needs who are learning a foreign language, irrespective of their characteristics of the necessity, more importance should be given to addressing those needs than to learning the language. When analysing how bilingual education is facing this reality, it is true that CLIL is aligned with the objectives of any education initiative institutionally supported regarding equity, social cohesion, and active citizenship, at least in Europe. In theory, CLIL advocates a model of inclusion which is ideally suited to the requirements of inclusive education. However, incorporating these practices is not an easy endeavour and it seems clear that one of the major difficulties of this approach is to offer the same learning opportunities to students with different abilities and, above all, to students with special needs. In general, specific research, guidelines, and suggestions regarding how to deal with this rea lity in CLIL are not frequent, so it can be said that the area of students with special needs and capacities is still a dark zone in CLIL.
Whether you are a teacher, researcher, policy maker, or community member, this conference offers a unique opportunity to connect with others who are passionate about promoting inclusive and equitable bilingual education. We hope that you will join us for this exciting event, and that you will leave with new insights, connections, and ideas to bring back to your own community.
