Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and Language Motivation

Abstract

The demand of learning languages has been constantly increasing in the last decades. The reasons behind might be different, such as better job opportunities, getting to know new people or travelling, among others. The fact that nowadays most countries are experiencing what is known as multilingualism requires that learners need to be competent in at least one or two foreign languages. Therefore, multilingual education plays an essential role here. Traditionally, foreign languages such as English or French have been taught mostly in the foreign language classroom (EFL) in Spain. However, lately new approaches which show better results in students’ language competence are emerging, such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), an approach which combines the teaching of content subjects through a foreign language. The latter will be one of the main focuses of this dissertation but not the only one. When learning a foreign language the role affective factors play is essential and should always be highly considered. In fact, recent research in the field has shown that different values of motivation significantly interfere when it comes to the results obtained in language competence. In this work this affective factor will be explored, as well as its interaction with CLIL. As regards motivation, it has been found that there are remarkable differences between students who attend CLIL classes and those who do not. Finally, a didactic unit through different tasks is proposed, which tries to incorporate some of the most important findings in the motivation field, adapted for a fourth year of Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) physical education classroom, following a CLIL approach.