An in-depth investigation is currently being conducted regarding English as a Second Language (ESL) learners’ motivation and its relationship to academic performance; these learners are all undergraduate students in Malaga University, pursuing a degree on English Studies. As part of this in-depth study, a comparative analysis was made between two student cohorts: a control group and an experimental group; the research instrument used was a questionnaire. This instrument measured students’ motivation and perceptions on the subject of English linguistics. While the control group attended their usual linguistics lessons, the experimental group learners were exposed to different activities in the middle of the lessons (the so-called routine breakers in this paper). Comparison between both groups shed some light on the issue of language learners’ motivation, indicating the positive effects of attention calls and group dynamics in the classroom. Likewise, various routine breaker ideas are offered and their benefits to the learners are explained.