Physical Education in Bilingual Schools: Effect of the language use on students' perceptions of teaching communication and motivation

Over the last few years, the teaching of PE in English language has become frequent which could influence the perceptions that students have about this subject. In the present study the effect of a bilingual methodology, code-switching, on perceptions of teaching communication and motivation was analyzed. The sample was composed by 94 students aging from 12 to 14 (M=13,76; SD=.86). Experimental group (n=46) was formed by two classes with different bilingual programs (programa and seccion) and control group (n=47), by other two equivalent groups.After the intervention significant differences in intrinsic motivation were found in one of the experimental groups. The findings suggest that the perceptions of teaching communication do not differ between students taught completely in English and students taught through codeswitching. Educational implications of these findings are discussed.