Job Discussion Forums

[Sirens of Cyprus]

Anybody here doing content-based instruction?

[Glenski]

You're not missing much. Most of the time, CBI courses do not have one teacher who is capable of handling the language material and the content. I'm an exception and a very rare one.

Either a content teacher and a language teacher work in tandem somehow, or the language teacher bundles the content in such a package that the students don't realize they are learning the language while they tackle the content because the content is presented in an engaging way.

If you are not capable of handling the content, let students know that up front, no matter how many times you have to repeat it. Let them know that since the material is presented in L2, you will show them how to use that, but that learning how to ask questions and give definitions for the content terms is their responsibility (with your help, of course, to provide the proper expressions).

[naturegirl321]

Happens at my uni. Not uni prep though. The teachers are either Korean or foreign, qualified in their field. Their English is variable, fluent to um, horrible.

There are plenty of students, becuase it's the only course that's offered. Has to be in English. At least in their majors.

I teach two such courses, both near the max of students. One has 14 out of 15, the other has 54 out of 60. Highly enjoy the classes since their English is really, really good. Both are optional courses, so students are motivated to be in the class and not there just because they want to be. Many are scared away on the first day due to the high level of English, at least last semester I had 18 out of the 38 who enrolled by the end.

[Mart1300]

I just did a year with content based learning at a public university but I think our content based is slightly different from what you might expect. Once students graduate from our program they are allowed to enter the university (as long as they have the grades). How we do content is based around a theme. The idea is that all the classes the students attend will be based around that theme. So in the reading/writing class, if they are reading a book about homesteaders, they will write about it, talk about it in the listening/speaking class, and in grammar class use examples from the book and vocabulary from the book. I suppose you could call it theme based but we call it content based. The idea is to reinforce what they learn from all classes and not just one class. Studies have shown this works (though you can find studies for anything) and it seems to work for our students.

[Sirens of Cyprus]

Years ago I taught elementary school with a mandated whole-language, thematic curriculum. There was no textbook, just a syllabus of weekly themes.

[HLJHLJ]

I've not come across the idea of themes as content, when I've taught content it's been exactly as it sounds, teaching my subject major in English.

The extent to which it's mainly English teaching, or mainly content teaching, varies according to the level of the students. It can be anything from straight content teaching to high levels, to essentially English teaching with an emphasis on the vocab they will need for higher level content classes once their English improves. More commonly it's been somewhere in the middle, with the course being primarily about content, but an awareness that language needs to be graded.

Often it's just a means of introducing students to Western styles of writing and studying to prepare them for future study abroad. In that case, the specifics of the content is not that important as long as it's vaguely related to their eventual area of study. It just needs to be at the right level and taught Western style so they know what to expect when they get there. This has always been at Uni level, and it's been up to the tutor to set the course content and syllabus as it's based on their area of interest.

I would be expecting something similar if I was looking at a content based higher ed ESL in the UK/USA.