CONTENTBASED INSTRUCTION What is contentbased instruction n n
CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION
What is content-based instruction? n n Simply, it refers to an approach emphasizing learning about something rather than learning about language. Kranke: CBI is teaching of content or information with little or no direct effort to teach the language itself separately from the content being taught.
n What does ‘content’ mean in language teaching? ? ? - Content is interpreted as the use of subject matter as a vehicle for second or foreign language learning/teaching.
n n CBI emerged in 1980 s. It draws on some principles of Communicative Language Teaching.
THE ROLE OF CONTENT IN OTHER CURRICULUM DESIGNS Language across the curriculum: • A proposal for native language education • Emerged in Britain in 1970 s • It focuses on reading and writing in all subject areas “Every teacher, an English teacher”.
Immersion education: A foreign language instruction The school curriculum is taught through the medium of the foreign language “The foreign language is the vehicle for content instruction not the subject of instruction”.
GOALS OF AN IMMERSION PROGRAM 1. 2. 3. 4. Developing high proficiency in foreign language. Developing positive attitudes towards the culture and the speakers of the foreign language. Developing language skills suitable with the students’ age and ablities. Gaining the organized skills and the knowledge around the content areas of the curriculum.
Immigrant on-arrival program: For newly arrived immigrants who need language for survival Teaching real world content as a basis for survival
Programs for students with limited English proficiency: For children whose parents need on-arrival programs For children who are insufficient in language competency to participate fully in normal instruction
LANGUAGE FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (LSP) Movement for specific roles e. g. student, engineer, technician, nurse • Acquire content and real-world skills • English for Science and Technology (EST) •
APPROACH Two central principles: Ø People learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information, rather than as an end in itself. Ø Content-Based Instruction better reflects learner’s needs for learning a second language.
THEORY OF LANGUAGE Assumptions about the nature of language: n Language is text and discourse-based. n Language use draws on integrated skills. n Language is purposeful.
Ø • Language is text and discourse-based Language as a vehicle for learning content. • Centrality of linguistic entities which are longer than single sentences • Teaching focuses on how meaning and information constructed through text and discourse. • Linguistic units are not limited to the sentence level
Ø LANGUAGE USE DRAWS ON INTEGRATED SKILLS. n Activities that link the skills as they are in the real world n Grammar as a component of other skills rather than a separate diemnsion of language.
Ø LANGUAGE IS PURPOSEFUL The purpose may be academic, vocational, and social but it gives directions, shape and finally meaning to discourse and texts.
THEORY OF LEARNİNG n People learn a second language more succesfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information rather than as an end in itself.
Additional assumptions that derive from the central principles of CBI just stated: • People learn a second language most successfully when the information they are acquiring is perceived as interesting, useful, and leading to a desired goal. • Some content areas are more useful as a basis for language learning than others. • Students learn best when the instruction addresses students’ needs. • Teaching builds on the previous experience of the learners
Thanks For Listening Necdet YILMAZ Celal DOĞAN
- Slides: 18