Introduction

Coming soon.

Scenario

Next month you are going to China to teach at a university. You have been asked to teach a course in American business methods. You don’t speak Chinese, and your students will be business majors who expect to improve their intermediate-level English language skills while learning about business also. You wonder how you will teach this course in order to teach both the content (business) and the language at the same time.

Objectives of this unit

As you work through this unit, you will:

1. Distinguish between direct language teaching and content-based language teaching.
2. Explain instructional procedures typically used in content-based language teaching.
3. Identify advantages of content-based teaching.
4. Use scaffolding to make a content lesson more comprehensible to English language learners.
5. View a video clip of an actual teacher and reflect on what you see.
6. Plan how you might apply the principles presented in this unit in your own content class with ESL/EFL learners in the future.

If you are able to understand the concepts presented in this unit you will be better able to help your students learn content in English while improving their English language skills.

The least you should know

Content-based language teaching is a very effective way to teach English to your students. It naturally integrates authentic and meaningful content with language teaching. It has been shown that if you teach English by using it in meaningful ways your students will be more motivated and they will be more successful. However, CBI is not without its challenges. One of the most important things to remember when teaching content and language at the same time is that content-based teaching requires a balance between teaching content and developing students’ language skills. It is helpful to look at the following continuum.

There are different types of CBI that fall in different extremes on this line. Some Programs focus 100 % on content and others focus 100 % on form, while others lie somewhere in between. To understand where your class lays it may be helpful to understand some sample focus on form topics. Focus on form means focus on the language such as the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and etc. Focus on Content means focusing on the content of the course. So for example a biology 100 class at your local university is a focus on content class. Here are some examples of each:

• Focus on Form Teaching Topics: past tense verbs, pronunciation of specific sounds, determiners, clauses
• Focus on Content Teaching Topics: traveling, shopping, history, business, health, and government/law

Balancing Your Objectives

Choosing your objectives is important in any subject that you teach, but in content-based teaching you have even more objectives to worry about. You need to specify what your content objectives are as well as your language objectives, for instance:

Content
Content objectives would be any objective related to the subject matter you are teaching. For example, identify facts about Mother’s Day in America (culture).

Language
Your language objectives are those that deal with the vocabulary, grammar (plural 's') and pronunciation (“th” in Mother).

When choosing your language objectives remember that your language objectives should be decided on by looking at the content. You should not try to force a language objective that does not go along with your content. If you do not have your objectives clearly laid out it will be hard to balance content and language in your class.

Making your instruction comprehensible to the students

When teaching a content course to English language learners it is important to make your instruction comprehensible to the students. There are two main processes involved in making content more comprehensible.

Sheltering - Sheltering is adjusting one's speech to aid your students’ comprehensions. This would include changing the pace of your voice, emphasizing important words and using gestures to help communicate meaning. For more information on sheltering please see unit 3B, "Modifying Speech."

Scaffolding - To understand scaffolding it is helpful to think of the construction of a building. As the walls are being put up a temporary structure, called scaffolding, is put up in order to support the walls of the structure. As things progress, the scaffolding is slowly taken away. It is the same with language teaching. In CBI the load is so high that students need some extra structure or support to aid them in their learning. We need to provide support for our students by:

• Providing background information
• Scaffolding instruction
• Implementing strategies
• Using interaction

Providing Background Information

It is so important that we sequence our lessons in such a way that they are building on each other. It is hard for our students to learn all of the new vocabulary and subject matter, so we need to make sure that we are sequencing our lessons in a logical progression. Past lessons need to act as a framework to build on for our current lessons. Our schemata –or our background knowledge- can greatly affect how much we are able to comprehend. When introducing new concepts it is important to make the subject personal for your students. Try to bring the subject to their level and background knowledge.

Build background knowledge
It may be possible that your students have no background knowledge of the topic at hand. If this is the case, you need to build their background knowledge by supplying them with examples and information so they can comprehend the content. An example would be children who come from a tropical country where there is no snow, but the reading deals with snow-shoeing. How are the children supposed to have a frame of reference to understand snow-shoeing if they do not even have experience with snow itself?

Activate prior knowledge If you are learning about something that students already have some knowledge about, ask them to discuss what they already know. Have them review key concepts already learned about that subject.

Vocabulary instruction In a content course, students can often be bombarded with new vocabulary. In order to assure that they will be able to understand the content, we need to give them a good vocabulary base for each lesson. Pick words that are essential for meaning to over with students before introducing a reading, listening, or discussion. It will be much easier for them to understand if they have been exposed to the key vocabulary.

Scaffolding Instruction

Instructional scaffolding is a way of giving structure to your lessons. There are different ways that you can help structure your lessons in order to aid comprehension.

Use routines If students know what to expect they are more likely to understand. Using routines is a wonderful way of giving continuity to your lessons. An example would be to have a word of the day. Another example would be to always have the same order of activities: vocabulary, reading, listening, and then a discussion of what was read.

Model before practice We often assume that our students can complete an activity, when sometimes they may not only misunderstand the content, but misunderstand our directions. For this reason it is important to teach, then model, and then practice. If we are teaching about Venn Diagrams we first need to teach what they are, then show how to use them and then have students use them on their own. Do not assume that they can complete an activity without this structure.

Use visual aids Use visual aids whenever possible. When discussing new concepts it is important to be able to show what you are talking about. Realia, pictures, charts, diagrams, etc., can aid your students’ comprehension.

Implementing Strategies

Probably the most important way to create this structure for your students is to work on learning strategies. There are 3 types of strategies that are helpful. Metacognitive Strategies are strategies that help us to think about our thinking. Cognitive Strategies are when learners mentally or physically manipulate material or when they apply different learning techniques in learning a task. Social/Affective Strategies use interaction to aid in learning. Here are some common strategies that can be used in a content classroom.

SQP2RS This strategy can be used when reading a text or listening to a lecture. Students survey or scan the text to be read to identify the key concepts. They generate questions most likely to be answered in the reading. They predict what will happen, they read, then answer the questions and then summarize the content and what they have learned.

GIST On a transparency on the board have students pick 10 words that represent the main ideas. Write these words on the board. Now without using the text write a summary together with the class using those 10 gist words.

Graphic Organizers Graphic organizers are great ways for students to be able to classify information or new vocabulary words. Examples would be Venn Diagrams, timelines, flow charts, and semantic maps.

Text Comprehension Strategies Popular strategies that aid in text comprehension are prediction, self-questioning, monitoring, determining importance and summarizing.

Using Interaction

We have all been in a content course where all the teacher did was drone on and on while the students fell asleep. In content-based instruction, it is important to be constantly checking if your students understand. This could be done by calling on students to answer questions or other methods could be used to increase motivation and brain stimulation.

• Use pair and group work to get students involved in the learning process.
• Use competition to heighten their interest level.
• Have them work on a project that will connect what they have been learning to something concrete in the real world.

Video examples

In class we will view a video clip of a content class. This particular class was in China.

(video coming soon)

That's it. That's "the least you should know" about content-based instruction. Of course, there is much more that you will learn later.

Reflection and Responses

As you view this video clip of an EFL content class, think about each of the following questions.

1. What was especially good about this class? (What did the teachers and students do right?)
2. What teaching principles/techniques discussed earlier in this unit did you notice in this clip?
3. What adaptations could you make for the situation you are (will be) teaching in?
4. What other things might you do differently to make your lessons even better?

(Coming soon.) Write your reflections in the box provided. Then, click on the button by each box to see what other people have said after viewing and reflecting on this video clip. Also please visit the qualtrics survey for this unit to give us some feedback.

https://byu.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6YHc1g7eJf4qG9u

Where to go to learn more

Connections to other units in this program

Here are some other units in this program that relate to topics we have addressed in this unit.

1. Unit 3B: Modifying Speech
2. Unit 6 A-G: Teaching Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking and Integrated Skills

Online and other electronic resources

http://www.carla.umn.edu/cobaltt/CBI.html - This website was put together by the CoBaLTT professional development program to provide professional development for world language and immersion teachers on content-based instruction (CBI) and the use of technology to support CBI in the classroom. It is associated with the University of Minnesota. This site has links to professional papers on CBI and also gives practical uses and tips for teaching.

Print and paper-based resources

Here are some published books that have proven to be helpful resources for teaching content courses.

This volume speaks to a broad audience of teachers in training, practicing teachers, materials developers, program administrators, and teacher educators. It offers them activities on theme-based L2 courses, sheltered content-area courses, and adjunct arrangements at the university level, as well as contributions from educators working with younger learners in elementary, middle, or high schools. It includes activities for incorporating vocabulary, reading and interaction.

If you have suggestions for other resources (books, websites, etc.), please send them to TLYSK@byu.edu

Additional References

Coming soon.