Content-based instruction

Submitted by NikPeachey on 13 August, 2003 - 12:00

In recent years content-based instruction has become increasingly popular as a means of developing
linguistic ability. It has strong connections to project work, task-based learning and a holistic approach
to language instruction and has become particularly popular within the state school secondary (11 -
16 years old) education sector.
O hat is content-based instruction?
O hat does a content-based instruction lesson look like?
O hat are the advantages of content-based instruction?
O hat are the potential problems?
O onclusions

at is content-based instruction?
The focus of a I lesson is on the topic or subject matter. During the lesson students are focused on
learning about something. This could be anything that interests them from a serious science subject to
their favourite pop star or even a topical news story or film. They learn about this subject using the
language they are trying to learn, rather than their native language, as a tool for developing
knowledge and so they develop their linguistic ability in the target language. This is thought to be a
more natural way of developing language ability and one that corresponds more to the way we
originally learn our first language.

at does a content-based instruction lesson look like?
There are many ways to approach creating a I lesson. This is one possible way.
O !reparation
4 hoose a subject of interest to students.
4 ind three or four suitable sources that deal with different aspects of the subject. These could be
websites, reference books, audio or video of lectures or even real people.
O During the lesson
4 Divide the class into small groups and assign each group a small research task and a source of
information to use to help them fulfil the task.
4 Then once they have done their research they form new groups with students that used other
information sources and share and compare their information.
4 There should then be some product as the end result of this sharing of information which could take
the form of a group report or presentation of some kind.

at are te advantages of content-based instruction?
O It can make learning a language more interesting and motivating. Students can use the language to
fulfil a real purpose, which can make students both more independent and confident.
O Students can also develop a much wider knowledge of the world through I which can feed back into
improving and supporting their general educational needs.
O I is very popular among EA! (English for Academic !urposes) teachers as it helps students to
develop valuable study skills such as note taking, summarising and extracting key information from
texts.
O Taking information from different sources, re-evaluating and restructuring that information can help
students to develop very valuable thinking skills that can then be transferred to other subjects.
O The inclusion of a group work element within the framework given above can also help students to
develop their collaborative skills, which can have great social value.

at are te potential problems?
O ecause I isn't explicitly focused on language learning, some students may feel confused or may
even feel that they aren't improving their language skills. Deal with this by including some form of
language focused follow-up exercises to help draw attention to linguistic features within the materials
and consolidate any difficult vocabulary or grammar points.
O !articularly in monolingual classes, the overuse of the students' native language during parts of the
lesson can be a problem. ecause the lesson isn't explicitly focused on language practice students find
it much easier and quicker to use their mother tongue. Try sharing your rationale with students and
explain the benefits of using the target language rather than their mother tongue.
O It can be hard to find information sources and texts that lower levels can understand. Also the sharing
of information in the target language may cause great difficulties. A possible way around this at lower
levels is either to use texts in the students' native language and then get them to use the target
language for the sharing of information and end product, or to have texts in the target language, but
allow the students to present the end product in their native language. These options should reduce
the level of challenge.
O Some students may copy directly from the source texts they use to get their information. Avoid this by
designing tasks that demand students evaluate the information in some way, to draw conclusions or
actually to put it to some practical use. Having information sources that have conflicting information
can also be helpful as students have to decide which information they agree with or most believe.

Conclusions
hile I can be both challenging and demanding for the teacher and the students, it can also be
very stimulating and rewarding. The degree to which you adopt this approach may well depend on the
willingness of your students, the institution in which you work and the availability of resources within
your environment. It could be something that your school wants to consider introducing across the
curriculum or something that you experiment with just for one or two lessons. hichever you choose
to do I would advise that you try to involve other teachers within your school, particularly teachers
from other subjects. This could help you both in terms of finding sources of information and in having
the support of others in helping you to evaluate your work.
Lastly, try to involve your students. Get them to help you decide what topics and subjects the lessons
are based around and find out how they feel this kind of lessons compares to your usual lessons. In
the end they will be the measure of your success.
Nik Peacey, teacer, trainer and materials writer, Te Britis Council
6ontent ased |nstruct|on |n EFL 6ontexts
Stephen Davies
sdavies [at] miyazaki-mic.ac.jp
Miyazaki nternational College (Miyazaki, Japan)
|ntroduct|on
Content based instruction (CB) is a teaching method that emphasizes learning about
something rather than learning about language. Although CB is not new, there has
been an increased interest in it over the last ten years, particularly in the USA and
Canada where it has proven very effective in ESL immersion programs. This interest
has now spread to EFL classrooms around the world where teachers are discovering
that their students like CB and are excited to learn English this way.
at Types of 6ontent ased |nstruct|on Are Tere?
Te 8e|tered Hode|
Sheltered and adjunct CB usually occurs at universities in English L1 contexts. The
goal of teachers using sheltered and adjunct CB is to enable their ESL students to
study the same content material as regular English L1 students. Sheltered CB is called
"sheltered" because learners are given special assistance to help them understand
regular classes. Two teachers can work together to give instruction in a specific subject.
One of the teachers is a content specialist and the other an ESL specialist. They may
teach the class together or the class time may be divided between the two of them. For
example, the content specialist will give a short lecture and then the English teacher will
check that the students have understood the important words by reviewing them later.
This kind of team teaching requires teachers to work closely together to plan and
evaluate classes. t has been used successfully at the bilingual University of Ottawa,
where classes are taught in English and French, (Briton, 1989).
Te Adjunct Hode|
Adjunct classes are usually taught by ESL teachers. The aim of these classes is to
prepare students for "mainstream" classes where they will join English L1 learners.
Adjunct classes may resemble EPA or ESP classes where emphasis is placed on
acquiring specific target vocabulary; they may also feature study skills sessions to
familiarize the students with listening, note taking and skimming and scanning texts.
Some adjunct classes are taught during the summer months before regular college
classes begin, while others run concurrently with regular lessons.
Te Teme ased Hode|
Theme based CB is usually found in EFL contexts. Theme based CB can be taught by
an EFL teacher or team taught with a content specialist. The teacher(s) can create a
course of study designed to unlock and build on their own students' interests and the
content can be chosen from an enormous number of diverse topics.
ow 0oes Teme ased 6| 0|ffer from 8e|tered and Adjunct Hode|s?
Theme based CB is taught to students with TEFL scores usually in the range 350 to
500. These scores are lower than the TEFL 500 score which is often the minimum
requirement for students who want to study at universities in English L1 contexts.
Because of the lower proficiency level of these students, a standard "mainstream"
course, such as "ntroduction to Economics" will have to be redesigned if it is to be used
in a theme based EFL class. For example, complicated concepts can be made easier
to understand by using posters and charts, (Mercerize, 2000, p.108).
8y||abus 0es|gn for Teme ased 6|
ere is the syllabus for a theme based CB psychology class that team taught with a
psychologist:
O Unit 1 ntroduction to psychology
O Unit 2 Types of learning
O Unit 3 Advertising and psychological techniques
O Unit 4 Counseling
O Unit 5 Psychological illnesses
O Unit 6 Project work
Each unit took from two to three weeks to complete. The students had two classes per
week and each class lasted for two and a half hours. The syllabus that we used is
clearly different from a conventional ntroduction to Psychology class. Our aim was to
allow the students to explore various aspects of psychology rather than attempting to
give them a thorough grounding in a subject which, we believed, would have been too
difficult for them to understand at this stage. n fact one of the strengths of theme based
CB is its flexibility; teachers can create units with specific learner needs in mind. For
example, Unit 3 began with some textbook readings followed by questions and written
work. After this the students were given some advertisements to analyze and also
brought in their own examples for use in group discussions. Finally, for a small group
project, they designed their own advertisements and then presented their work to the
other class members with a rationale for why they had chosen their product and who the
target customers would be. Among the products they designed were a genetically
engineered cake tree and a time vision camera.
Hater|a|s for Teme based 6|
There are textbooks that can be used for theme based CB classes which usually
contain a variety of readings followed by vocabulary and comprehension exercises.
These can then be supplemented with additional information from the nternet,
newspapers and other sources. owever, another approach is to use specially
constructed source books which contain collections of authentic materials or simplified
versions. These can be about a particular theme such as drug use or care of the elderly,
or about more general topics. t's possible to create some really interesting classroom
materials as long as the need for comprehensibility is not forgotten.
#eadab|||ty
The Flesch-Kincaid test is one method of measuring the readability of writing. Difficulty
is assessed by analyzing sentence length and the number of syllables per word. Put
simply, short sentences containing words with few syllables are considered to be the
easiest to read. The Flesch-Kincaid test can also be used to assess the difficulty of texts
for EFL students. For students with scores below TOEFL 500, Flesh - Cinched scores
in the range 5.0- 8.0 are appropriate. (By way of comparison this paper has a Flesch-
Kincaid rating of 11.1). owever, far more detailed research needs to be done in the
area of assessing student responses to the readability of adapted materials. For
example, the Flesch-Kincaid test assumes that passive constructions are more difficult
for students to understand than active ones; however my own preliminary investigations
have shown that removing passive verbs and replacing them with active ones
does 349 necessarily make the students feel that the text is any easier to read.
ow 6an Teme ased 6| e Assessed?
A theme based CB course should have both content and language goals.
Student progress can then be assessed when classes are underway. Continuous
assessment is effective. Daily quizzes can be used to check that content information is
getting through to the students and that they are remembering important vocabulary.
Longer tests may also be given at mid-term and at the end of the term.
Journals are also a useful diagnostic tool. Students can be given time at the end of each
class to write a summary of the content of the lesson or to answer a specific question
given by the teacher. Another useful exercise is to allow the students to write freely on
any topic; teachers can then read their work and assess their progress indirectly.
Direct oral feedback during the classes can be useful as long as we are mindful of the
proficiency level of the students; it's all too easy to forget how difficult it is to speak a
foreign language in front of classmates.
8ummary
CB is an effective method of combining language and content learning. Theme based
CB works well in EFL contexts, and believe its use will increase as teachers continue
to design new syllabi in response to student needs and interests. As said at the
beginning, believe that learner motivation increases when students are learning about
something, rather than just studying language. Theme based CB is particularly
appealing in this respect because teachers can use almost any content materials that
they feel their students will enjoy. What can be better than seeing our students create
something and learn language at the same time?

The nternet TESL Journal, Vol. X, No. 2, February 2003
http://iteslj.org/

http://iteslj.org/Articles/Davies-CB.html