The Department of Education and Employment of the Madrid Regional Government and the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid will host the II International Conference on Bilingual Teaching in Educational Institutions to be held at the Rey Juan Carlos University (Vicálvaro Campus) in Madrid on the 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd of October, 2011.

The objective of the first edition of this Conference, held in June, 2010, was the establishment of a theoretical framework, to which outstanding experts in the field of bilingualism contributed, and teachers from every educational level had the opportunity to share their experiences and knowledge.

In recent years, countries across Europe have experienced an increasing involvement in bilingual education as a way of preparing their young people for future studies, work and life in an increasingly multilingual Europe. If we consider European multilingualism as our goal, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) would be the instrument for achieving that objective. As a consequence, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has attracted great interest in recent years in Europe and, especially in Spain.

The Regional Government of Madrid has become a benchmark thanks to its solid commitment to bilingualism in educational institutions. This ambitious project began in the year 2004 and, at present, the state primary schools carrying out quality bilingual teaching number 276. This model has extended into secondary education and 64 secondary schools are currently part of Madrid’s bilingual project. These educational policies are producing outstanding results and have triggered the attention of teachers who are increasingly interested in bilingual teaching.

For all these reasons, this II International Conference on Bilingual Teaching in Educational Institutions is a step forward in the study and analysis of bilingual education, with a more practical approach, aimed at primary, secondary and university teachers, researchers and policymakers interested in bilingual education and in CLIL methodology. The key themes of this Conference are the following:

• Learning through two languages: the impact on cognitive development
• Issues on literacy development in primary and secondary education
• Enriching teaching and learning through CLIL methodology
• Creating interactive language classroom
• Teaching a second language to young learners
• The role of language teaching in secondary education
• Views on bilingual programs
• The use of ICT’s in bilingual education: learning through technology
• Teacher training and updating for bilingual education
• Perspectives on CLIL experiences
• Language acquisition in higher education
• Material design and resources for bilingual education