Internal and external motivational factors in CLIL second and foreign language classrooms

Abstract

This research synthesis analyzes and discusses the relationship between Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classes and student motivation; it aims to determine the most prominent internal and external motivational factors found in CLIL second and foreign language classrooms and their impact on language performance. For this research synthesis, the procedure used for the selection of the 18 analyzed articles was thorough research in academic journals and digital databases for the most appropriate articles concerning the topic to be discussed. The analysis was divided into categories which demonstrated that there can be various factors, external and internal, that influence motivation. Most of the studies agreed that CLIL instruction had a positive influence on students’ motivation. The rest found unexpectedly disappointing results about CLIL and motivation. The research conducted has important implications in the educational field. According to the results found, it can be concluded that the number of factors that affect motivation, whether positively or negatively, is so great and varied that it is impossible to analyze them under the same criteria and that CLIL students performed better because of higher motivation. On this basis, it is recommended that further research should make more emphasis on the CLIL-motivation relationship and the factors involved in that phenomenon to improve its application in the future to have more motivated students in the classrooms; therefore, to help them achieve academic success.