Asian Education Studies; Vol. 2, No. 4; 2017 ISSN 2424-8487 E-ISSN 2424-9033 Published by July Press 44 EFL Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of CLIL Nutthida Tachaiyaphum 1 & Apisak Sukying 1 1 Faculty of Education, Mahasarakham University, Mahasarakham, Thailand Correspondence: NutthidaTachaiyaphum, Faculty of Education, Mahasarakham University, Nakhonsawan Road, Ta-Lad, Muang District, Mahasarakham, 44000,Thailand. Received: December 14, 2017 Accepted: January 4, 2018 Online Published: January 8, 2018 doi:10.20849/aes.v2i4.283 URL: https://doi.org/10.20849/aes.v2i4.283 Abstract This study aims to investigate EFL pre-service teachers’ perceptions of CLIL concerning what CLIL is, what CLIL provides, what CLIL requires, who should implement CLIL, and where CLIL teachers should be trained. The participants were EFL pre-service teachers studying in the faculty of education, Mahasarakham University, Thailand. Questionnaires were used to collect the data after the introduction of CLIL. The findings revealed that most of the participants knew the notion of CLIL as they had taken the teacher training course. The majority of the participants viewed that CLIL provided the opportunities to integrate language into the content subjects. They believed that CLIL helps students develop both language skills and subject knowledge. However, it was revealed that the difficulties in CLIL implementation concerned content, a combination of culture to the lesson, and language (communication). The factors causing the difficulties were mainly related to teachers’ lack of content knowledge, students’ low English proficiency, and the difficult content interrelated to the technical vocabulary. Another factor directly related to CLIL was 4Cs integration into the lessons. It can be seen that although the EFL pre-service teachers have taken the CLIL training course, they still find CLIL difficult to apply and cannot make CLIL classes effective. The factors can be a guide to develop the CLIL training in order to produce qualified CLIL teachers. Content subject and language training, principles of 4Cs and of CLIL, as well as how to apply to the lessons should be highly emphasized in the training course. Keywords: CLIL, CLIL training, EFL, perceptions, pre-service teachers 1. Introduction Information and communication have been growing rapidly in the past decades. The world has become one big globe for people to share and make use of knowledge and information they acquire (Keyuravong, 2010). In the trend of globalization, English has been playing an important role among countries in educational, political, and social contexts. As a result, learning English has become important for learners worldwide. In Thailand, there have been many programs developed by the government and educational institutions to promote English education, for example, international schools, English curriculum, English Program (EP), Mini English Program (MEP), and International Study Programs. Currently, the English language teachers with a good command of English language, knowledge of the content of subject areas, as well as knowledge of teaching methodology are in demand. This is because English language teaching and learning in Thailand has tried not only to teach English to develop the English language skills of the learners but also to teach the subject matters through the medium of English to serve the demand of the programs developed. As a result, the MOE has set up the Strategic Plan for Reforming the English Learning Process to Accelerate National Competitive Ability (2006-2010). The plan focuses on the establishment of the English Language Institution and Training for in-service Teachers of English. In addition, Punthumasen (2007) points out that Office of the Basic Education Commission has established two training centers, namely English Language Institution and English Resource and Institutional Centre as the centers for the development of Thai teachers of English in all regions in Thailand. As having been trained EFL pre-service teachers for years, the researchers have introduced CLIL in order to help develop EFL pre-service teachers’ ability to adapt methodological approaches to CLIL learning context. The researchers view CLIL as an approach that can deal with the ongoing English language teaching situation since it is considered advantageous to both teaching and learning content and language subjects. In addition, the beneficial effects of adoption of CLIL can be seen in various aspects including the teacher aspect. They become