Content-based Approach

There are three more approaches that make

communication central: content-based instruction, task-based instruction, and participatory approach. The difference is a matter of their focus.

 CLT lessons centered on giving students opportunities to practice using the communicative function of making predictions. In this chapter, the approaches we examine do not begin with functions or any other language items. Instead, they give priority to process over predetermined linguistic content.

 In these approaches rather than learning to use

English, students use English to learn it (Howatt, 1984:279).

 Using content from other disciplines in language

courses is not a new idea. For years, specialized language courses have included content relevant to a particular profession or academic discipline.

 The special contribution of content-based instruction

is that it integrates the learning of language with the learning of some other content, often academic subject matter. It has been observed that academic subjects provide natural content for language instruction.

 Such observations motivated the language across the curriculum movement for native English speakers in England, which was launched in the 1970s to integrate the teaching of reading and writing into all other subject areas. Of course, when students study academic subjects in a nonnative language, they will need a great deal

 of assistance in understanding subject matter texts.

Content-based instruction fits in with the other methods in this chapter where the selection and sequence of language items arise from communicative needs, not predetermined by syllabi.

Principles
The subject matter content is used for language

teaching purposes. Teaching should build on students previous experience.

 When learners perceive the relevance of their language

use, they are motivated to learn. They know that it is a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.

 The teacher scaffolds the linguistic content, i.e. helps

learners say what it is they want to say by building together with the students a complete utterance.

 Language is learned most effectively when it is used as

a medium to convey informational content of interest to the students.

 Vocabulary is easier to acquire when there are

contextual clues to help convey meaning. When they work with authentic subject matter, students need language support.

 Learners work with meaningful, cognitively

demanding language and content within the context of authentic material and tasks.

 Communicative competence involves more than using

language conversationally. It also includes the ability to read, discuss, and write about content from other fields.

 Another content-based instruction face, where

content and language instruction have been integrated, is the adjunct model. Students enroll in a regular academic course. In addition, they take a language course that is linked to the academic course.

 In shelteredlanguage instruction in a second language environment, both native speakers and non-native speakers of a particular language follow a regular academic curriculum. For classes with non-native speakers, however, sheltered instruction is geared to students developing second language proficiency.

 Sheltered-language instructors support that their students through the use of particular instructional techniques and materials. It offers the significant advantage that second language students do not have to postpone their academic study until their language control reaches a high level.

 In sum, what all modes of content-based instruction have in common is learning both specific content and related language skills. In content-based language teaching, the claim in a sense is that students get two for oneboth content knowledge and increased language proficiency (Wesche, 1993).