Abstract
The present paper accentuates the need for innovation in pedagogical theory and practice of the day. It elucidates the linguistic dilemma of the present times and identifies space for bilingualism and pluriculturalism. To make the readers acquainted with Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), the authors corroborate the detailed theoretical framework by establishing links with growing trends of cross continent migration, rising globalisation and expansion of multicultural and multiethnic contexts in the educational arena. A brief prehistory of CLIL has also been explored to justify its birth in helping out the linguists and educationists in Europe and beyond. The paper delineates the theory of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) diagrammatically employing content, cognition and communication in a linguistic culture. It explicates the various nomenclatures, dimensions, functions and the developmental stages of CLIL pedagogy at the dawn of the new millennium. After exploring the theoretical, functional and futuristic facets of CLIL, it is concluded that CLIL is an apt, economical and timely framework of bringing diverse cultures and languages closer to one another and can help build cosmopolitan identity of learners in the Knowledge Age.