Through the years, content-based instruction has become increasingly more accepted as a means of developing linguistic ability. It has strong connections to project work, task-based learning and a holistic approach to language instruction. The content-based instruction focused on the topic or subject matter. Throughout the lesson students are focused on learning about something. This could be anything that interests them. 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 accepted way of developing language ability and one that corresponds more to the way we initially learn our first language.
There are many ways to move toward creating a CBI lesson. This is one possible way.
Choose a subject of importance to students. Discover three or four appropriate sources that deal with diverse aspects of the subject. These could be websites, reference books, audio or video of lectures. During the lesson, divide the class into small groups and assign each group a small research task and a source of information to use to help them accomplish the task. Then once they have done their research they form new groups with students that used other information sources and share and compare their information. 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.
The content-based instruction can make learning a language more appealing and motivating. Students can use the language to accomplish a real purpose, which can make students both more self-determining and confident. Students can also build up a much wider knowledge of the world through CBI which can feed back into improving and supporting their general educational needs.
The problem that maybe facing with CBI is that it isn’t clearly focused on language learning, some students may feel perplexed 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 concentration to linguistic features within the materials and combine any complicated vocabulary or grammar points.
It can be hard to find information sources and texts that lower levels can comprehend. Also the giving out of information in the target language may cause great difficulties. A potential way around this at lower levels is either to use texts in the students’ local language and then get them to use the target language for the sharing of information and end product, but allow the students to present the end product in their local language. These options should reduce the level of challenge.
Moreover, some students may copy directly from the source texts they use to get their information. Stay away from this by designing responsibilities that require students assess the information in some way, to draw conclusions. Having information sources that have conflicting information can also be helpful as students have to decide which information they agree with or most believe.
Despite the fact that content based instruction can be both demanding and challenging for the teacher and the students, it can also be very motivating and satisfying. The degree to which you implement this approach may well depend on the readiness of your students, the institution in which you work and the accessibility of resources within your environment. It could be something that your school wants to regard as introducing across the curriculum. Whichever you prefer to do, try to engage other teachers within your school. 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.
By: Rosie L. Basilio | Teacher III | Mariveles National High School – Poblacion | Mariveles, Bataan
