Encouraging efl eighth-grade students of “Miguel Morocho” school to read for pleasure through the application of clil-based activities

Abstract

This project was intended to encourage eighth-grade English as a foreign language (EFL) students from Miguel Morocho School to read for pleasurethrough the use of Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) reading activities. The main goal was to activate relevant background knowledge in EFL students, helping to remind them of what they already knewin the subjects concerning to the first language (L1); and thus, they could transfer what they already knew fromL1 to the target language(L2). Also, students through a series ofCLIL readings activitiescould feel motivation to activate their prior knowledge of a specific topic, and this prior knowledge helped them to comprehend the content of the reading activity and transfer that content to L2. Therefore, students could link new facts to the prior knowledge and increasetheir level of reading comprehension. Finally, some students could achieve the pleasure of reading in a language that is not their mother tongue.