Students' and families' attitudes and motivations to language learning and CLIL: a longitudinal study

Over the past few years, research has shown that stakeholders involved in CLIL develop positive views and attitudes alongside with higher motivation towards the foreign language (Czura, A., K. Papaja, and M. Urbaniak. 2009. Bilingual education and the emergence of CLIL in Poland. In CLIL Practice: Perspectives from the Field, ed. D. Marsh, P. Mehisto, D. Wolff, R. Aliaga, T. Asikainen, M.J. Frigols-Martín, S. Hughes, and G. Langé, 172-178. Finland: University of Jyväskylä; Doiz, A., D. Lasagabaster, and J. M Sierra. 2014. CLIL and motivation: the effect of individual and contextual variables. Language Learning Journal 42, no. 2: 209-224; Pladevall-Ballester, E. 2015. Exploring primary school CLIL perceptions in Catalonia: students', teachers' and parents' opinions and expectations. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 18, no. 1: 45-59). Although there is plenty of literature dealing with teachers' perceptions, there does, however, seem to be a need for research (1) addressing families' and students' attitudes and motivations, and (2) stretching over time. Of the few existing longitudinal studies, the one conducted by Lasagabaster and Doiz's (2017. A longitudinal study on the impact of CLIL on affective factors. Applied Linguistics 38: 688-712) suggested that motivation towards the foreign language might not be sustained in the long term. This article encompasses a two-year longitudinal quantitative study on two groups of students (n = 20 and n = 24) and their families (n = 20 and n = 24). It deals with stakeholders' attitudes and motivations towards language learning within a multilingual CLIL environment, a medium-sized rural high school in Galicia (Northern Spain). The findings reported show that both CLIL and non-CLIL students as well as their parents developed long-term positive attitudes and motivation towards language learning, although CLIL students and their parents improved their attitudes to a greater extent.