A Voyage of Discovery: Content & Language Integrated Learning.

Jos Luis Morales

What do we mean by content?

There are many definitions of content in the literature. In this presentation we will take it to mean: any topic, theme or non-language issue of interest or importance to the learners. Genesee (1994), p3

Why use content to teach a foreign language?

1- Content provides rich avenues for meaningful and purposeful language use.

(Brinton, Snow and Wesche, 1989; Curtain and Pesola, 1994; Met, 1991).

Why use content to teach a foreign language?

2 - Children are naturally curious about the world around them.

Why use content to teach a foreign language?

3 - What the learners hear or read about a topic can later provide realistic reasons for speaking and writing about it.

1. Read and stick.

2. Listen and circle T=True or F=False

3. Choose an animal and describe it to your friend.

Why use content to teach a foreign language?

4 - Integrating content is a useful way of tapping into the learners previous knowledge.

Animals that live in the North and South Pole

What I know.

What I want to know.

Why use content to teach a foreign language?

5 - Content opportunities lead naturally to research opportunities.

Looking for relevant and reliable information. Three guiding questions:

Where (apart from the Internet) can you find relevant information about animals that live in the North Pole? If you decide to go online, what are reliable sites you can visit? Which tag words would you type for your search?

Why use content to teach a foreign language?

6 - Content and language learning integrated lessons can lead to very motivating individual or small group projects.

Logical Thinking

Personalization

Personalization

Why use content to teach a foreign language?

7 - Content opportunities can be opportunities for developing not only linguistic but also attitudinal and procedural competences.

Attitudes

Procedures

TIP 1

If possible, choose content you are familiar with and that interests you personally.

TIP 2

Choose a suitable text on a topic of interest to your learners and work out a series of related tasks about and around it.

TIP 3

Establish the lessons language goals but also encourage the children to find their own language goals.

TIP 4
Either Identify your language goals and look for a topic/text where this language appears naturally. Design tasks to exploit the topic and the language goals accordingly.

TIP 5
Or Start from an interesting written or audio text and let the content dictate to you the language goals for your lesson.

TIP 6

Identify any opportunities for searching for information on the theme of your lesson and plan how/where the learners can carry this out.

TIP 7

Identify any small group project opportunities and make sure they lead to a clear and achievable end product.

TIP 8

Dont be too hard on yourself. You need not be an expert on any given content you decide to teach.

TIP 9

Invite experts on the given content to your class. Allow the learners to share what they know with the expert and encourage them to prepare a set of questions for their guest speaker.

TIP 10

At the end of the cycle, summarize the content and the language explored in a diagram or table.

Summary
Choose content that is likely to be of interest to your learners and texts that are appropriate to their level and abilities. Establish both content and language goals. Plan activities that will help the learners explore the content and learn something useful from it (attitudes, procedures, critical thinking) Exploit opportunities for research and individual or small group projects.

References
Brinton, Donna M., Marguerite Ann Snow and Marjorie B. Wesche, 1989. Content-Based Second Language instruction. Boston: Heinle and Heinle. Curtain, H.A. and Carol Ann Pesola, 1994. Languages and Children: Making The Match. New York: Longman. Genesee, Fred, 1994. Integrating Language and Content: Lessons from Immersion. Santa Cruz, CA: National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning. Met, Myriam.,1991. Learning Language through Content: Learning Content through Language. Foreign Language Annals, 24: 281-295. All sample texts and tasks from: Morales, J.L. et al, 2010. Our Discovery Island Global American English. Harlow: Pearson.

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