The present paper shows the oportunities and difficulties of the CLIL approach in a Japanese university. The study involved 62 English-major junior students, and it identified how the soft CLIL approach affected them. From the collected data, it was clear that significant number of students expressed positive perceptions. The learners stated that their higher-order thinking skills and motivation have been improved. However, a number of students pointed out that collaborative work could negatively influence their motivation.
content and language integrated learning （CLIL)
soft CLIL
hard CLIL
higher-order thinking skills
cognitive skills