Why to CLIL? Effects of CLIL on reading comprehension

Abstract

This empirical study compares two forms of language instruction in secondary school students by testing English reading comprehension in two groups of students taking the second year of Compulsory Secondary Education. One group was following a CLIL programme (in addition to its EFL lessons) and the other one, which acted as a control group, was receiving conventional EFL instruction. The study aims to prove that CLIL programmes could make an important contribution to second language acquisition (SLA) regardless of the content taught. In this particular case, data analyses show that CLIL pupils have better skills in reading comprehension and are more motivated towards the target language (English in this case) than non-CLIL students.