The effects of CLIL programmes on L2 conceptualisation and language anxiety

Abstract The present study explores whether participation in CLIL programmes has an influence on the way in which the additional language of the programme is cognitively construed, and whether these construals are associated with language anxiety. The analysis explores orientational and temperature-based metaphors as embodied representations of the additional language (English). The methodological design consisted of a cross-sectional study with a sample of 111 pre-service teachers. The instrument gathered sociodemographic data, preferred metaphorical conceptualisations of the L2, and levels of anxiety from the s-FLCAS. The results showed that CLIL learners tended to choose more positively valenced, embodied and proximity based construals of the L2 than their non-CLIL counterparts, who opted for more external or negatively valenced metaphorical constructions. These patterns were associated with language anxiety, since internal and warmer conceptualisations of the L2 were linked to lower anxiety, and they were the preferred option among CLIL learners.