Corpus-based activities (CBAs) have been used in FLT in recent decades, especially in countries where educational systems are well developed. However, this is not the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That is why a case study was conducted in a primary school in Bosnia and Herzegovina including 48 7th grade students divided into an experimental and a control group to investigate the effect of the use of corpus-based activities on vocabulary acquisition. In both groups blended learning methods were applied due to COVID restrictions. The aim was also to determine whether the use of CBAs had any impact on the students' motivation for participating in vocabulary learning activities. The students' results achieved in the pre- and post-tests which included new vocabulary items were analyzed and compared. The students' responses in the five-point Likert scale motivation questionnaires completed prior to and after the use of CBAs were also compared and discussed. Statistical analysis of the results confirmed that there was a positive effect of the use of CBAs on vocabulary acquisition of A1 – A2 level seventh graders, as well as on their motivation for participating in such activities. Contrary to statistically significant improvement in vocabulary acquisition, there is no statistically significant increase in the motivation to learn new vocabulary items in either of the groups, for which some possible explanations are also discussed in the paper.  Article visualizations:

<p>Reading is an extremely important language skill both in educational process and out of it.<br />Unfortunately, in many foreign language classrooms, particularly in our country, the significance of this<br />skill is not completely recognized and the most attention is still paid to grammar. Namely, reading is often<br />seen as a mere capacity of decoding written language signs and the parallel processes of reading<br />comprehension and interpretation are not sufficiently addressed. The paper deals with the several issues,<br />such as significance of reading skills, the strategies needed for their development and the strategic role of<br />the reading skill in the environment of content and language integrated learning (CLIL). Most of the<br />contemporary research done in this field of the applied linguistics highlights the role of reading skills in<br />facilitating an easier acquisition of the content matter, which is one of the focuses of the CLIL approach<br />in general.</p>

Educational approach known as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has become one of the most popular approaches in foreign language teaching, especially in countries with developed educational systems. One of its main aims is to help learners develop thinking skills through their simultaneous studying of the foreign language and the content of a particular subject. Since CLIL promotes the development of cognitive skills, many researchers and psychologists proposed a variety of techniques and activities which could be used for this purpose. Some of these techniques shall be discussed in this paper, along with the ways of applying them at different levels of education. Key words: CLIL, education, thinking skills, techniques