How content and language integrated learning (CLIL) affects adult learners' motivation in online classes

This study outlines the results of a survey which was carried out to investigate the effects of CLIL on adult learners’ motivation, the effects of CLIL on learners’ completion rate, and the correlation between motivation and completion rate in online settings using a questionnaire adapted from Schmidt and Watanabe (2001) and Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (IMMS) developed by Keller (2010) within the ARCS Model of Motivational Design framework. 57 Thai B1-B2 adult learners from 25-45 years old were recruited to join an 18-hour online class and randomly assigned to the experiment group (using the CLIL approach) and the control group (using the conventional lecture-based method). The questionnaire was administered twice, before and after the intervention. The data analysis indicated no statistically significant difference between the two groups in their overall score on motivation in learning in an online English course (p = 0.761). However, when examining the specific factors, the findings showed that learners in the CLIL group had greater competitiveness, cooperativeness, and motivational strength than the non-CLIL group. CLIL learners also found their CLIL class more attention-grabbing, relevant, and satisfying than their non-CLIL counterparts. In the meantime, the non-CLIL group had higher expectancy representing more self-confidence, self-assessed aptitude for language learning, and lack of anxiety. In terms of completion rate, the learners’ progress at each unit was recorded and analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U test. The learners in CLIL group recorded significantly higher completion rates than their non-CLIL cohorts (p = 0.017*, effect size = 0.32). Spearman’s Rank Correlation was used to examine the statistical relationship between adult learners’ completion rate based on their motivation. The findings indicated that learners who had higher motivation level after the course tend to be more likely to complete the online course (Spearmen’s Correlation = 0.57, p = 0.0001**). The results and discussions can be taken into consideration for all English instructors and syllabus designers to use when preparing their materials, curriculums, language programs and teaching methods for adult learners in online settings.