como hacer una unidad didáctica

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How to programme abilingual didactic unit

Cmo hacer una unidad didctica

Developing Thematic Units to Integrate L & C Instruction

By JoAnn Crandall

JoAnn Crandall is Professor of Education and Co-Director of the MA TESOL

Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Beginning in 1998, she will also direct

an interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Language, Literacy, and Culture. She is a former

President of TESOL, WATESOL (the Washington area affiliate), and AAAL (the American

Association for Applied Linguistics).

http://userpages.umbc.edu/~crandall/index.htm

IDENTIFY THEME OR TOPIC

IDENTIFY APPROPRIATE TEXTS TO USE OR ADAPT

IDENTIFY LANGUAGE OBJECTIVES

Vocabulary

GrammarFunctions

IDENTIFY ACADEMIC CONCEPT OBJECTIVES

IDENTIFY CRITICAL THINKING/STUDY SKILLS/STRATEGY OBJECTIVES

DEVELOP ACTIVITIES

SEQUENCE ACTIVITIES INTO A UNIT

Sample Thematic Unit Plan

Topic: Food and Nutrition

Student Profile: Beginning or Intermediate/Elementary Grade Students

Language Skills:

Listening: Listen to a story (A Very Hungry Caterpillar)

Speaking: Talk about foods (good for you/not so good)

Retell story

Write dialogue for caterpillar and act out story

Sing caterpillar song

Reading: Read language experience story

Read and sequence sentences from story (strip story)

Writing: Fill out calendar/graph of caterpillars foodsFill out own calendar of daily foods

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Make a caterpillar book and label

Content: Understand the value of different foods

Study skills/Strategies: Sequence information

Make predictions and confirm/disconfirm them

Language Objectives:Grammar: Like/dont like

On + days of the week

Past tense

Vocabulary: Days of the week, colors, fruits, other foods (pizza, cake,

ice cream), caterpillar, cocoon, butterfly

See Nottinghan unit scheme of workCo Doyle PPP presentation

For more information check Steve Darn personal Webpage

The element of Culture in Nottinghan model and the emphasis on texts, thinking skills andgraphic organizers in American models are the relevant elements of both models.

Content-Based Instruction for Language Learners

2

Do Coyle Model

Complete unit: Ancient Egypt

Students Teacher

Complete unit in PPP

Steve Darn contribution: Clil 1, Clil 2, Clil3
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by: Kathi Bailey

Special thanks to Jodi Crandall,

Anne Snow,http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/asnow/webvitae.pdf

Fredricka Stoller,http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~fls/

Bill Grabe, http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~grabe/

Ryan Dannerow

and Nancy Douglas for their valuable insights during the development of this course.

Step 1: Selecting the content domain

It is given to us , though we can in certain ways accommodate what we have to thenew curriculum (integrated curriculum)

See an example

To know more about Models of bilingual education

Step 2: An Example of Exploitability in a Topic

See this simple example

Imagine that you are working with adult students in a university, a four-year college, a communitycollege, or in an intensive English program which prepares learners to enter programs of highereducation.

One way to go about choosing the theme(s) and topics for a sustained content-based course or a theme-based course would be to discover what sorts of disciplines the students will be required to study in orderto complete their degrees.

One course that is often required in undergraduate curricula is biology. In this chapter, we will look at afew paragraphs from a biology textbook to illustrate the concept ofexploitability. The following paragraphsare taken from Biology: A Human Emphasis, by Starr, Evers and Starr (2006).

At the beginning of a chapter, the authors remind students what they have already studied:

By this point in the book, you know that a population is a group of individuals of the same species.Ecological interactions begin with characterizations of populations. We call these vital statisticsdemographics (Starr et al., 2006, p. 686).

In this introductory note, the authors provide a definition, relate this new topic to what the students havealready learned, and preview some of the information that will follow.

The chapter begins with the following paragraphs:

Characteristics of Populations

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Each population has a gene pool and an evolutionary history, as explained in

chapters 16 and 17. It also has a characteristic size, density, distribution and numberof individuals in its various age categories.

Population size is the number of individuals that potentially or actually contribute to

the gene pool. The age structure is the number of individuals in each of several agecategories. For instance, individuals are often grouped intopre-reproductive,reproductive, andpost-reproductive ages. Those in the first category have the

capacity to produce offspring when they mature. Together with the individuals inthe second category they make up the population's reproductive base.

Population density is the number of individuals in some specified area or volume of

a habitat. A habitat, remember, is the type of place where a species lives. Wecharacterize a habitat by its physical and chemical features and its particular array of

species. Population distribution is the pattern in which the individuals are

dispersed in a specified area. (Starr, Evers and Starr, 2006, p.686)

In this passage, the authors use italic font to note vocabulary that the students have encountered inearlier chapters of the textbook. The boldface words are new concepts that are being introduced for thefirst time.

If you examine the examples presented in the section Example of a reading text and its

exploitation you will find that the process is the opposite

I Focusing on vocabulary

How many different ways can we exploit this brief text to help students learn both language and biology?First, let's consider the discipline-specific vocabularyand the general academic vocabulary(Carson,2000, p. 27) that appear in this text.

Discipline-specific Vocabulary General Academic Vocabulary

age structure

densitydistribution

evolutionary history

gene poolhabitatoffspring

population densitypopulation distribution

population sizepre-reproductive, reproductive, post-reproductive

agesreproductive base

species

actually

arraycapacity

categories

characteristiccharacterizeevolution

featureshistory

patternpool

potentiallypre-X, X, and post-X phases of something

the type of X wheretogether with

As this list shows, even this brief passage is highly exploitable for the study of both discipline-specific and

general academic vocabulary in context.

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II An exercise for connecting language and content

The passage above uses the expression "together with" in the following sentence:

Together with the individuals in the second category they make up the population's

reproductive base.

This is a common syntactic pattern in academic texts. Other expressions which are used in parallelconstructions include combined with,joined with, in conjunction with,paired with, in combination with, andin tandem with.

In both reading and writing when working with this sort of phrase, it is useful to make sure studentsunderstand the additive meaning. For example, to check their understanding of both the expression andthe biology concept, students can be asked to fill in the blanks in a "conceptual formula," such as thefollowing:

Reproductive base = _______________ ages + ______________ ages

III Applying concepts by categorizing examples

Students can be asked to categorize examples using the new concepts they arestudying. Below is an example that uses population data from Canada and concepts from the biologypassage above.

Directions: Each of the following statements representspopulation size,population density, orpopulation distribution. To the right of each statement, write the name of the correct concept.

STATEMENT CONCEPT1. Canada's population in 2000 was estimated to be 30,750,100.

2. About 60% of the Canadian population is concentrated within a thin

belt of land between Windsor, Ontario and Quebec City.

3. Canada is the second largest country in the world in terms of land

area, but it only ranks 33rd in terms of population.

4. The agricultural areas in the Prairies and eastern Canada have more

people than the North, but not as many as southern Ontario or

southern Quebec.

5. Canada has an average of 3.3 people per square kilometre.

6. The population of the Yukon Territory, the Northwest Territories and

Nunavut is approximately 92,250 people.

1. population size

2. population

distribution

3. population

density

4. population

distribution

5. population

density

6. population size

*The information about Canada comes from www.atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/.

IV Follow-up tasks and applications

After doing the concept-labeling task above, students can pick a country that interests them. They canthen search the Internet and/or encyclopedias or books about their chosen country to find out about itspopulation, population distribution, and population density.

Next, students can draw maps of their chosen country and indicate the areas of greatest and leastpopulation density. Finally, they can complete charts (such as the one below) to compare the differentcountries represented by their class members' research.

Country Land Mass Population Population Density

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Canada 9,976.140 sq.km. 30,750,1003.3 people/sq.

km.

Brazil

China Egypt

Such comparisons lead naturally to practice using comparative and superlative constructions. Studentscan also use the data to draw bar charts depicting the statistics for the various countries.

Completing a diagram

This textbook is also exploitable in that it suggests tasks that students can do to help them learn thebiology content. For example, students can complete a diagram like this one about the concept of "agestructure":

Megatheme to be chosen if possible

To know more about the six Ts approach

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Threads across themesYou will recall from our earlier lesson on the Six-T's Approach that threads are links across themes thatare used to generate a sense of coherence in the curriculum. As Massie planned her Anglophone Africanliterature course, she found that certain ideas arose several times. These included the following:

apartheid

religion

modernization

colonization

the post-colonial world(Massie, 2005, p. 80)

Step 3: Materials. Criteria for selecting materials

Below are some general guidelines that can be used to inform materials selection and development:

Relevance

The first criterion for selecting materials is their relevance. Materials should be relevant to (1) the focal topic(s) ofthe subject matter discipline(s) involved, (2) the students' needs and interests, (3) the course objectives, and (4) theoverall program goals.

Exploitability

The materials should also be exploitable, which means that they are rich in opportunities to teach language throughcontent: "There should be a wide range of language functions and structures available and these should mapneatly onto the language syllabus" (Brinton et al., 2003, p. 89).

Availability and accessibility

Materials must be available and accessible. It is not useful to select the most recent DVDs on a particular topic ifyou do not have access to a DVD player. Cost to the students is also an issue in many contexts. It does no good toselect beautifully illustrated textbooks and ancillary materials if the students cannot afford to buy them.

Practicality

The materials chosen must also be practical. If using videotaped news broadcasts, PowerPoint presentations, CDs,or audio recordings involves more technology than is practical for you to deal with, the lesson can become

technologically top-heavy. Likewise, creating your own materials can be very rewarding and pedagogically sound,but it can also be very time consuming and costly.

Suitability

Materials need to be suitable in terms of the students' ages, their interests, and theirlanguage proficiency. Teachers must also be sensitive to any cultural or religiousrestrictions on topics that can and cannot be addressed in school. For example,classroom discussions of birth control or gay rights are not appropriate in all cultures andmay not be suitable in some ESL or EFL contexts.

Below are additional guidelines for selecting materials in content-based courses (Brinton, et al., 2003, p. 90):

Content authenticity: How up-to-date is the content material? Is the coverage adequate? Does

the material give students an opportunity to practice the more extensive types of reading,

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writing and listening typically required in content disciplines?

Task authenticity: Are the tasks required of students appropriate to the discipline/subject

matter? Do they promote critical thinking?

Interest level: Will the subject matter engage the students' interest?

Difficulty level: Are the materials appropriate for the proficiency level of the students? How

heavy is the lexical/semantic load? Is the length of the text appropriate? Accessibility: Do the students have the necessary background knowledge to engage the text? Is

it culturally accessible? Is the information load appropriate (i.e., not too dense)? Is the textorganized according to standard organizational patterns? Is the style/register appropriate?

Availability: What content-specific materials (e.g., readings, audio/videotaped lectures, films)

are available for use in the course? Are the materials affordable?

Packaging: Is the text visually attractive? Do layout features (e.g., typeface, color, borders)

contribute to students' comprehension of the content material?

Textual aids: Are textual aids (e.g., glosses, study questions, indices) utilized to assist students

in their comprehension and retention of the content material?

Supporting materials: Is there a teacher's guide and/or answer key available? Is there a

supplementary student workbook?

Flexibility: Does the text lend itself to the integration of skills? To information exchange

activities? Does it appeal to a variety of learning styles?

Source: Are the texts drawn from a variety of sources, thus exposing students to different texttypes (e.g., narrative, descriptive, analytic)? Are various media utilized?

Step 4: Texts in academic and non-academic setting

Authentic versus non-authentic materials

"Authentic materials, in the context of the language classroom, include oral and written texts that

occur naturally in the target language environment and that have not been created or edited

expressly for language learners"

Table 7.1: Parallel Examples of Spoken and Written Texts in an Academic Context

Spoken texts (things students listen to) Written texts (things students read)

ESL/EFL teacher speech ESL/EFL textbook units

lectures by L1 professors/researchers in thecontent area(s) (either live or recorded)

chapters from actual L1 textbooks on thecontent

an entire lecture course in the content area an entire book about the content area

presentations by guest speakers other than theprofessors or researchers

a layperson's opinions (e.g., in letters tothe editor of a newspaper)

classmates' ideas and opinions in discussions, pairand group work, etc.; debates; classmates' formal

presentations

classmates' writings (journal entries,summaries, compositions, written

summaries of group work, etc.)

role plays, plays, theatre productions texts of plays, scripts

casual conversation in general, whether the learner

is participating in the conversation or overhearingthe conversation (e.g., in a cafeteria, the hall

before class, etc.)

casual reading material whether engaged

in intentionally (e.g., pleasure reading), orat large in the environment (e.g., posters

on bulletin boards, etc.)

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Parallel spoken and written texts abound in non-academic contexts as well, as noted in Table 7.2. Manyof these can also be used for academic purposes.

Table 7.2: Parallel Examples of Spoken and Written Texts in Non-Academic Contexts

Spoken texts (things students listen to) Written texts (things students read)

radio and/or television broadcasts articles (newspapers, magazines, etc.)

factual information (e.g., recordedinformation about weather conditions,

recorded movie theatre announcements)

charts, graphs, maps, schedules, flowcharts andother pictorial representations of factual

information

discussions about personal finance topics

(e.g., conversations at the bank, making apurchase, questioning a bill, etc.)

personal financial documents (e.g., money

orders, bank statements, contracts, bills,application forms, lease agreements, etc.)

songs and poetry read aloud written poetry and song lyrics

audio information on the Internetwritten and/or pictorial and/or graph

information on the Internet

radio commercials and televisionadvertisements

print medium advertisements (newspapers,magazines, flyers, brochures)

telephone answering machine messages;

recorded telephone conversationsemails, notes, memos, personal letters

employee orientation meetings; interactionswith clients, co-workers, and employers

work-related texts such as employee manuals,

minutes of meetings, employment forms, workschedules, etc.

broadcast announcements (e.g., in airports,bus stations, stadiums, train stations, etc.)

written bulletins (e.g., about safety on the job,enrollment deadlines, etc.)

How to exploit a text

Background Knowledge and Content-Based Materials

Content schemata and formal schemata

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For learners, a simple procedure needs to be established. Following a familiar CLIL format:

Processing the text

Organisation of knowledge

Language identification

Tasks

This procedure can be seen in the examples below:

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A Brief Look At The Miniskirt A CLIL Project

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Content schemata consist of what we already know about a given topic or subject. Our content schemataallow us to connect new incoming information to our existing knowledge base. In this regard, you haveprobably noticed that it is easier to understand a reading passage or listening text about a familiar topicthan one that is unfamiliar.

Formal schemata are mental knowledge structures about the form or shape of a piece of discourse. Forinstance, we know the differences among sonnets, limericks, and haiku because we have seen theseforms of poetry before. We recognize their shapes and know their distinctive characteristics. It is ourformal schemata that enable us to recognize these forms, or genres.

Top-down and bottom-up processing strategies

When we use top-down processing strategies, we utilize our background knowledge about the contentand/or the form of an incoming text to help us understand it. Top-down strategies involve using the "bigpicture" (the context, the surrounding environment, and our awareness of culture) to help us understand

what we are reading or hearing.

When we use bottom-up processing, we focus on the small bits of information that can help usunderstand the incoming message. In language learning and use, bottom-up processing can involvelistening for specific pronunciation cues, using a familiar word to help understand a text, listening forquestion intonation, and so on.

Skilled readers and listeners actually use both bottom-up and top-down strategies to process incominginformation. You can remember the relationship between top-down and bottom-up strategies by referringto the following figure:

Figure 7.1: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Processing and the Components of Language

Bottom-Up Processing Top-Down Processing

Difficult Announcer spoke too fast and/or had anunfamiliar accent.

I don't know anything about this storyor this topic.

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Announcer used unfamiliar vocabulary.I didn't understand where this story

was happening.

Easy

Announcer used easy or common

vocabulary.

Pictures of the scene helped me

understand.

I could read the dates and numbers on the

screen.

I read about this in the newspaper.

I knew something about this story

before.

I have seen/heard this program before.

Step 5:Schema Activation and Advance Organizers

We discussed the importance of helping students utilize their background knowledge about the contentand/or form of an incoming text in order to understand it. For this reason, schema activation, is veryimportant. This involves triggering the existing knowledge structures (both content schemata and formalschemata) to help learners process new information.

Teachers can help students activate the appropriate schemata before listening andreading activities. Doing so involves using advance organizers, that is, any visual,procedural, or verbal mechanism for getting students focused on what they alreadyknow about the topic and the genre. In other words, listeners and readers can beginto organize their ideas in advance, prior to listening to and/or reading a text.

Teachers can activate schema by using a wide range of advance organizers:

Visual advance organizers include photographs, charts, graphs, titles, and headings.

In textbook chapters which start with a list of objectives, reading and checking off the objectivescan serve as an advance organizer.

Verbal mechanisms include asking questions before a reading or listening passage (e.g., "Whatdo you know about Yosemite National Park? Where is this park located?").

Procedural mechanisms include drawing a mind map about the topic, brainstorming what thereading or listening passage might be about, predictingthe three main points of a lecture, and soon.

Customizable graphic organizer templates with their corresponding thinking skills

An example of schema activation

While I was teaching EFL in Hong Kong for a year, I developed a listening activity based on a videotapeabout my school in Monterey, California. The videotape was called "Extend Your Global Reach."

Before I played the video, I first asked the students to predict what it would be about. Given only the title,the students predicted marketing or political alliances. Then I showed them the subtitle, which named theschool (The Monterey Institute of International Studies). The students guessed it was a school, and I

asked them what they thought people study there. My Hong Kong students predicted that students inMonterey probably study international relations and business (both of which are correct).

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Next, I asked them where Monterey is, and they said California, but they did not knowwhere. Then I showed them a picture of three students walking near a beach, and myEFL students were able to guess that Monterey is located on the coast of California.Then in groups they brainstormed questions to ask me about the Monterey Institutebefore we watched the video. All of these activities helped the students prepare for the

listening activity by activating the appropriate schemata.

Step 6: Types of activities

Task-based learningis an approach to defining and organizing activities. It involves specifying a"sequence of communicative tasks to be carried out in the target language" (Willis and Willis, 2001, p.173) rather than a sequence of language forms to be learned.

This approach to syllabus and lesson design is compatible with content-based instruction since manytask-based activities can be related to any given content. Such tasks can either be pedagogical tasks ortarget tasks.

Task-based curricula and content-based curricula are both examples of analytical approachesto

syllabus design. An analytical approachis one in which "the learner is presented with holistic 'chunks'

of language and is required to analyze them or break them down into their constituent parts" (Nunan,

2004, p. 11). This idea contrasts with the synthetic approachto syllabus design, in which the course

designers "break the content down into its constituent parts and introduce each part separately and

step by step"

Content-based instruction typically takes a more analytic approach. Students must analyze the languagepresented to them in texts rather than having the linguistic elements for study pre-selected by the coursedesigners. CBI courses start with the themes and topics of the subject matter selected. Texts are chosen,based on those themes and topics, and tasks are developed. In the process of doing the tasks, thelearners must analyze the language they are confronted with.

Kinds of tasks

Pedagogical tasks

Pedagogical tasks (such as a "spot the difference" in a pair-work activity using two complementarycartoons) are not likely to be done outside the language classroom. They are "created in order to 'push'learners into communicating in the target language, on the assumption that this communicative interactionwill fuel the acquisition process" (Nunan, 2001, p. 61).

Target tasks

In contrast, target tasks are things the learners probably would do outside of thelanguage classroom, such as filling out an application form, participating in a jobinterview, or using a map to find their way through a city (ibid.). These are "real life"activities which can easily be exploited in content-based language lessons.

Communicative tasks

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A communicative taskis "a piece of classroom work which involves learners in comprehending,manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is principally focused onmeaning rather than form" (Nunan, 1989, p. 10). Communicative tasks are consistent with content-basedinstruction because there are many times when students are focused on content instead of language

forms. For instance, one learner can describe her family to another, who must draw the family tree of theperson who is speaking.

Elements of a Task

The elements that make up a task are "task goals, input data, and learner procedures" (Nunan, 2004, p.40). To explore these three elements, we will revisit a topic from an earlier lesson on population size,density, and distribution (using the population of Canada as our example).

Task goals

Task goals are defined as "the general intentions behind any learning task. Goals are broadstatements about intended outcomes of participating in the task. For example, in the biologylessons on population density and distribution, the teacher might make the following goalstatement: "I want my students to understand the concepts of population size, populationdensity, and population distribution."

In order to accomplish that goal, students would first read about these three concepts in their biologytextbook and then categorize facts about Canada's population as being statements about population size,density, or distribution. Then they would locate information about these concepts as they relate todifferent countries, by using print media and by searching the Internet.

Input data in tasks

Input data are "the spoken, written and visual data that learners work with in the course of completing atask" (Nunan, 2004, p. 47). Such data can be provided by a teacher, the students, their textbook,authentic materials, Internet searches, and so on. The input data are what the students work with to carryout the task itself.

In our example above, the input data were the paragraphs from the biology textbook and the facts aboutCanada's population.

Characteristics of PopulationsPopulation size is the number of individuals that potentially or actually contribute to the gene

pool. The age structure is the number of individuals in each of several age categories. Forinstance, individuals are often grouped intopre-reproductive, reproductive, andpost-

reproductive ages. Those in the first category have the capacity to produce offspring when theymature. Together with the individuals in the second category they make up the population'sreproductive base.Population density is the number of individuals in some specified area or volume of a habitat.A habitat, remember, is the type of place where a species lives. We characterize a habitat by itsphysical and chemical features and its particular array of species. Population distribution is

the pattern in which the individuals are dispersed in a specified area. (Starr, et. al, 2006, p.686)

Directions:Each of the following statements representspopulation size,population density, orpopulation distribution. To the right of each statement, write the name of the correct concept.

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STATEMENT CONCEPT

1. Canada's population in 2000 was estimated to be

30,750,100.

2. About 60% of the Canadian population is concentratedwithin a thin belt of land between Windsor, Ontario andQuebec City.

3. Canada is the second largest country in the world in termsof land area, but it only ranks 33rd in terms of population.

4. The agricultural areas in the Prairies and eastern Canadahave more people than the North, but not as many as

southern Ontario or southern Quebec.5. Canada has an average of 3.3 people per square

kilometre.

6. The population of the Yukon Territory, the Northwest

Territories and Nunavut is approximately 92,250 people.

1. ________

2. ________

3. ________

4. ________

5. ________

6. ________

* The information

about Canada comes from www.atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/.

Country Land Mass Population Population Density

Canada 9,976.140 sq.km. 30,750,1003.3 people/sq.km.

Brazil

China

Egypt

Learner procedures

The third element of a task consists of the procedures learners follow in completing the task. Thiscomponent "specifies what learners will actually do with the input that form the point of departure for thelearning task" (Nunan, 2004, p. 52). An example would be the following steps:

1. Read the paragraphs from page 686 in your biology textbook (Starr et al., 2006, p. 686).2. Read the handout with six facts about Canada's population.3. Decide if each fact is a statement about population size, population density, or population

distribution. Write the correct concept next to each fact.4. Compare your answers with those of two of your classmates.5. With a partner, choose a country to investigate. Write your choice of country on the chart on the

bulletin board.6. When all the class members have chosen their country, use the encyclopedia or the Internet to

find the land mass (the physical size), population size, population density, and populationdistribution in that country.

7. Write your data on the chart on the bulletin board:

Exploiting tasks with follow-up tasks

There are many possible language elements and opportunities for skills practice that will arise in the

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completion of this type of task. For example, given the completed chart above, students can makestatements using comparative and superlative structures and expressions. Students can write paragraphsabout the country they researched, or write a brief essay comparing two or more countries. In doing so,they would use both the biology concepts and related target language structures. This activity relates toanother goal: Students will compare and contrast two different countries on specified criteria.

Seven Principles for Task-Based Language Teaching

Nunan (2004, pp. 35-38) discusses seven principles that underpin the use of tasks in language teaching.These principles can apply just as well to content-based instruction.

Principle 1: Scaffolding

In an earlier lesson, we defined scaffoldingas providing just enough, but not toomuch, guidance for learners so that they can accomplish tasks on their own. These

supportive mechanisms are then gradually removed as learners increase their skilland knowledge and become more confident.

The issue of scaffolding is important in choosing and using tasks. According to Nunan, "Lessons andmaterial should provide supporting frameworks within which the learning takes place" (Nunan, 2004, p.35). He adds that "at the beginning of the learning process, learners should not be expected to producelanguage that has not been introduced either explicitly or implicitly" (2004, p. 35). The key to successfultask-based learning and teaching

is knowing when to remove the scaffolding. If the scaffolding is removed prematurely, the learningprocess will 'collapse'. If it is maintained too long, the learners will not develop the independence requiredfor autonomous language use (Nunan, 2004, p. 35).

Principle 2: Task dependency

This principle is the idea that "one task should grow out of and build upon the onesthat have gone before" (Nunan, 2004, p. 35). We have seen examples of this principlein operation in earlier lessons when we considered the threads between and acrossthemes, and the transitions between and across topics, tasks, and texts (Stoller andGrabe, 1997).

So, for example, the task of comparing the population density and distribution of two or more countriesarose naturally from learning about and categorizing the Canadian demographic data.

Principle 3: Recycling

"Recycling language maximizes opportunities for learning and activates the 'organic'learning principle" (Nunan, 2004, p. 36). Recycling in content-based language lessons is therepeated introduction and use of teaching points, whether they are language elements orsubject matter concepts.

Things to be learned must be repeatedly reworked, across different lessons. This is so because if"learners will not achieve one hundred per cent mastery the first time they encounter a particular linguisticitem, then it follows that they need to be reintroduced to that over a period of time" (Nunan, 2004, p. 36).This recycling reinforces learning and "allows learners to encounter target language items in a range of

different environments, both linguistic and experiential" (Nunan, 2004, p. 36).

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Principle 4: Active learning

"Learners learn best by actively using the language they are learning" (Nunan, 2004, p. 36).This principle derives from experiential learning: the idea that students learn best by having

experiences, by "actively constructing their own knowledge rather than having it transmittedto them by the teacher" (Nunan, 2004, p. 36).

There are many implications and applications of this principle in CBI. For example, itsuggests that we should provide learners with the tools to locate information and have themseek it out themselves rather than always providing it to them.

Principle 5: Integration

"Learners should be taught in ways that make clear the relationships between linguisticform, communicative function, and semantic meaning" (Nunan, 2004, p. 37). In the

context of CBI, this principle refers to the fact that focusing solely on the formal aspectsof language is not sufficient to help students master both language and content. We canselect texts and design activities that help to combine form, functional use of thelanguage, and meaning.

Principle 6: From reproduction to creation

Learners should be encouraged to move from reproductive to creative language use"(Nunan, 2004, p. 37). This principle means that students may start with scaffoldedstructures and expressions, but move into more self-regulated generation of originaltexts.

In our example in Chapter 2, completing the chart about the various countries would belargely "reproductive" in Nunan's terms, because the learners write information they getfrom an encyclopedia or the Internet. In composing a paragraph or an essay, however, they would moveto creative language use.

Principle 7: Reflection

"Learners should be given opportunities to reflect on what they have learned and how wellthey are doing" (Nunan, 2004, p. 37). This principle can lead to report-back activities afterdoing tasks, and to the use of self-assessment tools in the classroom. Nunan states that"learners who are aware of strategies driving their learning will be better learners" (Nunan,

2004, p. 38). As teachers, we can help learners develop reflective practices.

It is helpful to keep these seven principles in mind when designing tasks as part of content-based instruction.

Visual Aids (Graphic Organizers)Venn diagrams

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Timelines ( see links to make timelines online)

Gantt charts

Mind maps

Poster presentations: It can be used as an assessment tool [ fluency and greater self-confidence,response to different learnig styles ]Trade fairs: excellent for Christmas exhibitions / songs/ food shows/ recipes/ use of brochures [ fluencyand greater self-confidence, response to different learnig styles ]

Project-based learning

Characteristics of project-based learningStoller (1997, pp. 4-5) says there are six characteristics of project work:

1. Project work focuses on content learning rather than on specific language targets.

Real-world subject matter and topics of interest to students can become central toprojects.

2. Project work is student centered, though the teacher plays a major role in offeringsupport and guidance throughout the process.

3. Project work is cooperative rather than competitive. Students can work on their own,in small groups, or as a class to complete a project, sharing resources, ideas, and

expertise along the way.4. Project work leads to the authentic integration of skills and processing of

information from varied sources, mirroring real-life tasks.5. Project work culminates in an end product (e.g., an oral presentation, a poster

session, a bulletin board display, a report, or a stage performance) that can be shared

with others, giving the project a real purpose. The value of the project, however, lies

not just in the final product but in the process of working towards the end point.

Thus, project work has both a process and product orientation, and provides studentswith opportunities to focus on fluency and accuracy at different project-work stages.

Benefits from Project work

6. Project work is potentially motivating, stimulating, empowering, and challenging. It

usually results in building student confidence, self-esteem, and autonomy as well asimproving students' language skills, content learning, and cognitive abilities.

Learning through doing

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All of these activities involve physical and/or visual products. The opportunity to create such products canappeal to different learning styles, generate new learning opportunities, and reinforce both language andconcept learning.

Step 7: Integrating the four skills , When adding interacting?Vocabulary and grammar

Integrating the four skills

Some authors emphasize the integration of all four skills in CBI courses. Most of these authors agree thatcontent-based instruction provides a natural context for practicing the four skills. For example, Owensprovides the following table which shows how the various skills are practiced in content-based courses at

the Asian University of Science and Technology in Thailand.

Table 9.1: Component Skills Correlated with Teaching Formats (from Owens, 2002, p. 49)

SKILL FORMAT

Academic listening Weekly lectures by teachers

Academic presentations Weekly oral presentations by individual students

Academic writing One term paper written by students individually

Academic reading Support for both oral and written presentations

Activities for Integrating the Four Skills in Content-Based Instruction

1. panel presentations: This activity is designed primarily for speaking and listening. We will addreading and writing components, and also discuss how to develop a student-generated test.

2. newspaper and television broadcasts: This activity focuses initially on reading and listening,but can be adapted to include speaking and writing components.

1. Panel presentations

Below is a description of a panel presentation activity (Huntley, 1999). It focuses on students learningabout the U.S. National Park system, though panel presentations canbe based on any topic.

A group of students begins by gathering information about their particular topic:

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Ask the students to plan an oral panel presentation lasting about 20 minutes based

on the information they have gathered. Explain how to give an oral presentation andhow to organize the information clearly. Stress the importance of focus in their

presentation. Students need to identify the main points they wish to include in theirpresentation and provide relevant details to support them. In the panel presentation:

One student will introduce the panelists.

Each student will be responsible for giving part of the information.

All students must be prepared to answer questions.

All students can choose to present a sample itinerary of a trip to the

national park or to describe various aspects of it, and they may includevisuals to support their main points.

All students will have approximately 1 week to prepare for this

presentation, either in or out of class.

The rest of the class take notes, ask questions, give a question for the general

test, make a summary .

(Huntley, 1999, p. 113)

Adding reading and writing

How can reading and writing be added to this activity? We can answer this question by thinking about theroles of the presenters and the listeners (realizing, of course, that students who are presenters at onepoint will be listeners for the other panelists).

Presenters would certainly read as they gather information to prepare for the panel presentation, whetherthey use print media or electronic resources. They would also write as they prepare (and proofread)handouts, create overhead projector transparencies, write on the board, or develop PowerPoint slideshows.

The students who are listeners can be encouraged or required to take notes during the presentations.Afterwards, they can ask questions of the presenters. You can also assign one student who is not apanelist to summarize the panel's main points. Such tasks give the audience members a clear purpose forlistening.

Building in a student-generated test

Another skills-integration activity is to build in a test development component. Each group of panelists

writes a set number of test questions about the information they present. The teacher should collect thesequestions before the panel presentation and listen to make sure that the answers to the questions areindeed given by the panelists. The teacher should also check that the information is clear, that the testquestions are not too picky or obscure, that the questions are clearly worded, and so on.

After all the panel presentations, the teacher incorporates the students' questions in a test of the materialthat was covered. All the students take the test, even though each student will have helped to generatesome of the test items. Then the students correct the test together in class, with the panelists providingthe correct answers to the items they wrote. In this way, students have even more opportunities forreading and writing, as well as for discussing the topics presented by the panelists. The student-generated test also helps to build test-taking skills.

3. An activity using newspaper and television news

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This activity starts with reading and listening but can be easily adapted to include speaking andwriting. The activity is called "Read It and Listen to It" (Drislane, 1999) and uses parallel news storiesfrom television and newspapers. The procedures for using this activity are listed below (adapted fromDrislane, 1999, p. 14):

1. Find a newspaper article and a corresponding story on television.

2. Prepare a vocabulary and reading comprehension worksheet for thenewspaper article.

3. Prepare a video worksheet with vocabulary and listening comprehensionquestions for the television news item.

4. Give students the newspaper article to read along with the vocabulary andthe reading comprehension worksheet for homework.

5. At the next class meeting, have the students check their reading homeworkin groups.

6. Distribute the video worksheet with the vocabulary and the listeningcomprehension questions.

7. Have the students watch the video clip of the television news story in classand complete the listening comprehension worksheet afterwards.

8. Have the students check their answers on the video worksheet in groups.

9. Do a follow-up to link both exercises, such as a general class discussion ora writing assignment to be done at home.

The reading and listening comprehension worksheets prepared by the teacher are about the specificnews stories the students read and see or hear.

The reading worksheet contains a list of WH-questions for students to answer to check theircomprehension after they read the newspaper article for homework.

The listening worksheet is used in class after they view the video clip of the television newsbroadcast.

As an alternative to preparing comprehension worksheets, if you have been working on summarizingskills, you can have the students summarize the broadcast and the article.

Practical activities for CLIL

Adding speaking and writing

The WH-questions on the worksheets can be answered by the students individually or in pairs, either inwriting or by speaking. Students can also write the answers to the questions individually and thencompare their answers orally in pairs or small groups.

If you have chalk or whiteboards in your classroom, some students can write their answers on the board,and the whole class can compare their answers to those on the board. Then you can add an accuracyfocus, during which the rest of the class helps these students correct any errors in what they wrote on theboard.

Providing evidence and predicting

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Students can be required to justify their answers with specific information from the article and/orbroadcast. Providing such evidence leads to further discussion. Afterwards, there can be a prediction taskin which students state their opinions about what will happen next as the unfolding news story evolves.The prediction task can be discussed orally in pairs or groups, or it can be written as homework.

Comparing and contrasting the two media

Students can also be encouraged to compare and contrast how the newspaper andtelevision reports presented the same topic. This can be done as a speaking or writingtask.

Academic language of comparison and contrast

Comparing and contrasting is a very typical type of writing required of students in higher education. Two

teachers at Georgia State University, Gayle Nelson and Jill Burns, have used the compare and contrastfocus and described an activity they use to help students in a sustained content course on Americanhistory. The course emphasized test-taking skills as well as content learning. One particular focus of thecourse was on writing compare and contrast essays. These authors define these terms for their studentsas follows:

Comparison is a way to show that two or more things or ideas are similar. Sometimes, when instructorsask you to compare, they want you to look at both the similarities and the differences.

Contrastis a way to show that two or more things or ideas are different (Nelson and Burns, 1999, p. 155).

These authors show how the structure of particular sentence patterns is important in writing. They say

that to show similarities, even lower-level students can focus on coordinating conjunctions, such as andorbut. Transition words are important too. These include also, similarly, and likewise. There are a number ofpredictable sentence patterns that are used to compare and contrast in writing. These include thefollowing:

Table 9.2: Sentence Patterns for Comparing and Contrasting (adapted from Nelson and Burns, 1999,p.155)

Sentence Patterns that Compare and Contrast

A and B are similarin several ways.A and B are alike in several ways.

A is similar to B in several ways.

A is like B in several ways.A is the same as B in several ways.

There are several similarities between A and B.

A, like B, A,just like B,

Not only A but also B Both A and B

A and B both A can be compared to/with B

When comparing A to/and B, we can see thatThey are quite similar.

Learners can use these sentence patterns to compare and contrast different content (e.g., the two mediapresentations of a particular story, as described above). As we saw in an earlier lesson, students can use

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the Venn diagram format as a pre-writing exercise to identify what the two items being compared have incommon and which of their characteristics are unique.

Vocabulary Building in Content-Based Instruction

Productive and receptive vocabulary

Carter says that in order to know a word, one must know it "actively and productively as well asreceptively." What is the difference?

Productive vocabularyconsists of words and expressions students can generate (produce) inspeech and writing.

Receptive vocabulary, in contrast, consists of words and expressions students can recognize andinterpret in listening and reading but may not be able to produce at will.

Collocations

In his definition, Carter also talks about the need to understand "collocationalpartners." Collocations are words which are used together so often that we recognizethem as partners in some sense of meaning. For example, everyday phrases such as"bread and butter" or "ladies and gentlemen" are collocations.

Individual words may also routinely combine with other words to form these kinds of partnerships. Forinstance, the noun "belief" is often used in combination with adjectives such as "basic," deep-rooted,""popular," and "strong" but not with the adjective "heavy."

Content-obligatory and content-compatible language

Notice that most of the American models are used for students in post secondary levels

In many CBI courses, it is important to distinguish between what Snow, Met, and Genesee (1989) termcontent-obligatoryand content-compatible language.

Content-obligatory language is the "language essential to an understanding of content material"(Snow et al., 1989, p. 201). It includes vocabulary, grammar and functions.

Content-compatible language is "language that can be taught naturally within the context of aparticular subject matter and that students require additional practice with" (ibid.). Such languageis not absolutely necessary for successful learning of the particular content but can be usefullyand naturally contextualized within it (ibid., p. 206).

Other authors (Donley and Reppen (2001, p. 7) discuss discipline-specific vocabulary(such as "igneous,"

"sedimentary," and "metamorphic" in geology) and more general academic vocabulary(such as "acquire,""content," and "exhibit"). These ideas are the vocabulary parallels to content-obligatory and content-compatible language.

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Some areas glossary can be found at: http://esl.fis.edu/learners/index.htm

As mentioned in an earlier lesson, in classes taught by content teachers (e.g., biology), the discipline-specific vocabulary will often be explained and exemplified. However, such teachers may assume that allthe students in their classes (including the English language learners) are familiar with the generalacademic vocabulary.

Thus, it is important for language teachers to make sure that learners are familiar with the key academicvocabulary they will encounter, in both their content-based language courses or mainstream contentcourses.

A useful tool for identifying high-frequency academic vocabulary is Coxhead's Academic Word List(2000). For more information about this tool, see the Supplementary Material section at the end of thislesson.

Supplementary Material

The Academic Word Listhttp://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/research/awl/index.htmlFor more information about Coxhead's New Academic Word List,visit the site above. Teachers and materials developers can use thislist to help students learn general academic vocabulary. This toolwas developed through a corpus-based search of approximately 3.5million words of academic texts from "28 subject areas organized

into 7 general areas within each of four disciplines: arts, commerce,law and science" (2000, p. 216).

Twenty-eight specific subject areas were searched, includingeducation, history, accounting, biology, computer science, and anumber of others.

Coxhead's academic word list is divided into ten sublists in order ofdecreasing frequency of occurrence. That is, the word families insublist 1 occur in 3.6 % of the corpus, those in sublist 2 in 1.8 % ofthe corpus, those in sublist 3 in 1.2 % of the corpus, and so on. Thissublist arrangement lets teachers to see which vocabulary is mostimportant in terms of frequency.

School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies:Paul Nation's Vocabulary Programshttp://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/about/software.aspxPaul Nation has developed software that allows one to compare thewords used in a given text against a number of high-frequency wordlists in English. For more information and for a detailed explanationof how to run these programs, visit the site above.

Two very useful resources for dealing with vocabulary: Select the academic vocabulary for

you in accordance with an AWL and provide gap fill exercise at a mouse click

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Notes:Academic vocabulary identified by the AWL Highlighter at Nottingham University:http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/awlhighlighter.htmGap fill adapted from that generated by the AWL Gapmaker at NottinghamUniversity: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/awlgapmaker.htm
http://esl.fis.edu/learners/index.htmhttp://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/research/awl/index.htmlhttp://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/about/software.aspxhttp://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/about/software.aspxhttp://esl.fis.edu/learners/index.htmhttp://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/research/awl/index.htmlhttp://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/about/software.aspxhttp://www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/about/software.aspx


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An example of vocabulary in an authentic text

As you read this text, consider the vocabulary that might be challenging for ESL/EFL students. Also, lookfor any collocations that may appear. Think about which of these words and phrases are content-obligatory (discipline-specific) and which are content-compatible (more general academic Englishvocabulary).

Like nonliving things, all organisms are made of building blocks called atoms. At the next level are

molecules. Life's unique properties emerge when certain kinds of molecules are organized into cells. These"molecules of life" are complex carbohydrates, complex fats, and other lipids, proteins, DNA, and RNA. The

cell is the smallest unit of organization with the capacity to survive and reproduce on its own, given rawmaterials, energy inputs, information encoded in its DNA, and suitable conditions in its environment.

At the next level of organization are multi-celled organisms made of specialized interdependent cells, oftenorganized as tissues, organs, and organ systems. A higher level of organization is the population, a group of

single-celled or multi-celled individuals of the same species occupying a specified area. A school of fish is apopulation, as are all of the single-celled amoebas in an isolated lake.

Next comes the community, all populations of all species occupying one area. Its extent depends on the areaspecified. It might be the Red Sea, an underwater cave, or a forest in South America. It might even be a

community of tiny organisms that live, reproduce, and die quickly inside the cupped petals of a flower.

At the next level of organization is the ecosystem, or a community living together with its physical and

chemical environment. Finally, the biosphere is the highest level of life. It encompasses all regions of theearth's crust, waters, and atmosphere in which organisms live.

Note that the terms which are content-compatible are not limited to the field of biology. Notice, too, that inthe passage there are at least four collocations. These are phrases that occur together often, in manydifferent contexts. Teachers can help students to recognize collocations and be aware of them in theirreading and listening.

Content-

Obligatory(Discipline-

Specific Vocabulary)

Content-

Compatible(General

Academic Vocabulary)

Collocations

biosphere

cell

community

ecosystem

multi-celledorganism

population

conditions

encompass

energy

environment

extent

individuals

information

level

materials

occupy

organize

building blocks

complexcarbohydrates

raw materials

school of fish

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properties

specialize

Processing hierarchical Concepts

Figure 9.2: Using a Concentric Circle Diagram to Record Definitions and Depict Relationships

Steve Darn example on vocabulary

Focussing on Grammar

In CBI instead of having a pre-set grammar syllabus or a pre-determined list of vocabulary items, thegrammar and vocabulary to be learned come out of the content material. This fact presents someinteresting challenges for teachers and students using content-based curricula.

When to focus on grammar

One choice that a teacher must make is whether to provide grammar instruction before learnersdeal with the content or to help learners with the grammar structures after they haveencountered them while listening and reading. There are pros and cons to both.

For example, some learners prefer to have the rules first and then see examples. Others prefer to workwith examples and then be told the rule. Still others prefer to work from examples and derive the rulesthemselves (often with the teacher's guidance). Instructors need to decide what is most appropriate forthe given situation and group of learners they are working with.

A Sample Unit Integrating the Four Skills, Grammar, and Vocabulary

In the final chapter of this lesson, we will combine the ideas presented in Chapters 1-4 and sketch out thegoals for a unit of instruction based on the biology textbook cited earlier (Starr et al., 2006).

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Let's imagine that this unit we are working on is part of a sustained content course or a linked (adjunct)course on biology for ESL or EFL students. Using the Six-T's Approach (Stoller and Grabe, 1997), we canidentify biology as the macro-theme, living organisms as the theme, and the hierarchy of living organismsas the topic.

Figure 9.3: A Theme and Topic in a Content-Based Course on Biology

Let's look at the kinds of tasks and transitions which could be developed with this topic.

Goals and activities of the biology unit

The goals of Unit 1 and some of the activities used to accomplish those goals are listd below:

1. Students will read and comprehend the first chapter ("Invitation to Biology") in their biologytextbook (Starr et al., 2006).

2. Students will understand the relationships among cells, multi-celled organisms, populations,communities, ecosystems, and the biosphere.3. Students will apply their understanding of these relationships to an ecosystem of their own

choosing.4. In groups of three or four, students will choose an ecosystem and prepare a panel presentation

about the organisms living in that ecosystem.5. Individual students within the groups will each draft a composition (using vocabulary from the

biology chapter) comparing and contrasting two living entities in the ecosystem chosen by thegroup. They will describe the entity and explain its place within the ecosystem.

6. Students will use library resources and the Internet to locate information for their panelpresentation and writing assignment. Resources must include at least one journal, magazine ornewspaper article, one radio or television program, and one source from a website.

7. Students will peer review their group mates' draft compositions.

8. Students will increase their receptive and productive use of the biology vocabulary presented inthis chapter.9. During the panel presentations, students will speak from notes based on their composition (rather

than reading it aloud).10. Students will increase their receptive and productive use of the other academic vocabulary items

presented in this chapter.

11. Students will review subject-verb agreement in present tense verbs to increase their accuracywith the third-person singulars marker.

12. Students will revise their compositions based on feedback from their group mates, their listeners,and the teacher after the panel presentations.

If the class you are teaching meets two hours twice per week for a total of eight hours of class time, theunit described above would probably take two weeks to complete. Some of these goals (e.g., researching

the topic, drafting the composition, revising the composition) would take place outside of class. The goalscan be trimmed or expanded depending on the curriculum and the time available.

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Developing a grammar focus

Let's revisit the text once more and take a different grammar point. In reading this text and focusing on theverbs used, you will see how important the verb to be is in this passage. Most of the verb forms are in the

present tense. Second language acquisition research has shown (and teachers are well aware) thatsubject-verb agreement, and especially attaching the third-person singular-s to present tense verbs, arelearned very late in English.

Before having my students peer review their compositions, I would have them complete the diagramshown in Chapter 3. In addition, if time permitted, I would include the student-generated test idea, sincetaking tests in their content subject areas is a very important skill for academically oriented students.

I would also have the class do an accuracy-oriented activity in which learners had to choose the correctform of the verb, as shown in the passage below. The verb forms in question are presented inparentheses and highlighted in green.

Like nonliving things, all organisms (is / are) made of building blocks called atoms. At the next level (is / are)molecules. Life's unique properties (emerge / emerges)when certain kinds of molecules (is / are)organizedinto cells. These "molecules of life" ( is / are) complex carbohydrates, complex fats, and other lipids, proteins,

DNA, and RNA. The cell (is / are) the smallest unit of organization with the capacity to (survive / survives)and (reproduce / reproduces) on its own, given raw materials, energy inputs, information encoded in its DNA,

and suitable conditions in its environment.

At the next level of organization (is / are) multi-celled organisms made of specialized interdependent cells,

often organized as tissues, organs, and organ systems. A higher level of organization (is / are) the population,a group of single-celled or multi-celled individuals of the same species occupying a specified area. A school

of fish (is / are) a population, as (is / are) all of the single-celled amoebas in an isolated lake.

Next (come / comes) the community, all populations of all species occupying one area. Its extent (depend /depends) on the area specified. It might be the Red Sea, an underwater cave, or a forest in South America. It

might even be a community of tiny organisms that (live /lives), (reproduce / reproduces), and (die / dies)quickly inside the cupped petals of a flower.

At the next level of organization (is / are) the ecosystem, or a community living together with its physical and

chemical environment. Finally, the biosphere (is / are) the highest level of life. It (encompass / encompasses)all regions of the earth's crust, waters, and atmosphere in which organisms (live / lives).

Working individually, students would read the passage and cross out the incorrect form of each verb.Then they would compare their answers with their peers. In revising and proofreading their owncompositions, they would be asked to pay special attention to subject-verb agreement.

As you can see from this brief description, this unit combines speaking, listening, reading, and writing witha focus on vocabulary and grammar. It utilizes and reinforces the biology subject matter while developinglearners' English abilities.

( See the example applied to our situation done as Unit 9 assignment)

Step 8: Proficiency and Language Learners. Describinglanguage proficiency: The SIOP Model

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Proficiency and Language Learners

Describing language proficiency

The concept ofproficiencycombines fluency and accuracy. Proficient second language learners are ableto speak, listen, read, and write confidently in the new language over a range of topics, with native-likespeed and pauses, and using native-like rules of correctness.

Proficient language learners may have developed their skills through formal instruction. Others may haveacquired them through living in the target culture, being raised bilingually, or some combination of these.

The SIOP model of language proficiency

Five stages of language proficiency are described in the SIOP model (the Sheltered InstructionObservation Protocol) by Echevarria, Vogt, and Short (2004). These authors build on ideas from Krashenand Terrell (1983) and describe proficiency as follows:

Preproduction

: Students at this stage are not ready to produce much language. They primarily communicate withgestures and actions. They are absorbing the new language and developing receptive vocabulary.

Early production

: Students at this level speak using one or two words or short phrases. Their receptive vocabulary isdeveloping; they understand approximately one thousand words. Students can answer "who," "what," and"where" questions with limited expression.

Speech emergence

: Students speak in longer phrases and complete sentences. However, they may experience frustration atnot being able to express completely what they know. Although the number of errors they makeincreases, they can communicate ideas and the quantity of speech they produce increases.

Intermediate fluency

: Students may appear to be fluent; they engage in conversation and produce connected narrative. Errorsare usually of style or usage. Lessons continue to expand receptive vocabulary and activities develophigher levels of language use in content areas. Students at this level are able to communicate effectively.

Advanced fluency

: Students communicate very effectively, orally and in writing, in social and academic settings (Echevarriaet al., 2004, p. 224).

The ACTFL guidelines

Another widely used description of various proficiency levels comes from ACTFL (the American Council ofTeachers of Foreign Languages), a professional organization for language teachers. The guidelines are

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available for speaking and writing. For both of these skills, there are descriptors for learners at thefollowing levels:

Novice (Low, Mid, and High)

Intermediate (Low, Mid, and High)

Advanced (Low, Mid, and High)

Superior

The Council of Europe levels

Another way of describing language proficiency is found in the Common European Framework forReference (CEFR) used by the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE). The descriptors saywhat learners should be able to do in the four skills at each level:

Council of Europe Levels Description

C2 (ALTE 5)The capacity to deal with material which is academic or cognitivelydemanding, and to use language to good effect at a level of performance

which may in certain respects be more advanced than that of a native speaker.

C1 (ALTE 4)

The ability to communicate with the emphasis on how well it is done, in

terms of appropriacy, sensitivity and the capacity to deal with unfamiliartopics.

B2 (ALTE 3) The capacity to achieve most goals and express oneself on a range of topics.

B1 (ALTE 2)The ability to express oneself in a limited way in familiar situations and to

deal in a general way with non-routine information.

A2 (ALTE 1)An ability to deal with simple, straightforward information and begin toexpress oneself in familiar contexts.

A1 (ALTE Breakthrough) A basic ability to communicate and exchange information in a simple way.

Retrieved from http://www.alte.org/further_info/framework_english.pdf on November 28, 2006. Alsopublished in Appendix D of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning,Teaching, Assessment pp 249-50. Cambridge University Press (c) 2001 ALTE.

As you can see, there are various ways to describe learners' proficiency. Keeping in mind thesestatements about what learners can do will help us develop appropriate materials and activities forstudents in content-based courses.

Understanding Scaffolding in Content-Based Instruction

To continue this lesson, we will consider two important concepts from sociocultural theory: the zone ofproximal development and scaffolding. Both are related to providing appropriate lessons and activities forstudents at various proficiency levels.

The zone of proximal development

When learners have mastered a skill and can use it confidently and independently, their use of that skillbecomes self-regulated. According to van Lier, "beyond that there is a range of knowledge and skillswhich the person can only access with someone's assistance" (van Lier, 1996, p.190). The skills andknowledge that have not yet been fully learned but are within reach constitute the zone of proximaldevelopment (ZPD) (ibid., pp.190-191).

Working in the ZPD

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There are actually multiple layers of ability in the zone of proximal development in any given learner atone time. For instance, a learner may be quite fluent in conversational English but more limited inacademic English. Or a learner may have good pronunciation but have limited listening comprehension.At a more micro-level, a learner may be mastering English negation but still be struggling with question

formation.

The challenge for a teacher is to be aware of a student's current level of development on any particularissue and start there. In fact, van Lier cautions, "anything outside the circle of proximal development issimply beyond reach and not (yet) available for learning" (ibid.).

The help learners need when they are working within the ZPD does not necessarily have to come fromthe teacher alone. Learners can also work productively by

1. getting help from more capable peers,2. interacting with peers,3. helping less capable peers, and

4. tapping their own inner resources (ibid., p. 193).

In this framework, "a learner's zone of self-regulated action can be expanded in a number of differentways, not only through the assistance of teachers or other experts" (van Lier, 1996, p.193).

We will now turn to a discussion of appropriate assistance, or scaffolding.

Revisiting the concept of scaffolding

In an earlier lesson, we learned that scaffoldingconsists of processes in which "assistance is providedfrom person to person such that an interlocutor is enabled to do something she or he might not have been

able to do otherwise" (Ohta, 2000, p. 52).

The scaffolding image is useful because a scaffold is intentionally temporary: When the building has beenconstructed, painted, or repaired, the scaffold is removed. This idea is key. Scaffolding is not doing a taskforlearners. Instead, it is helping them to do the task themselves, withdrawing the support as theygradually gain more independent mastery.

Scaffolding Strategies for Language Teachers

The central challenge (and benefit) of content-based instruction is making sure thatstudents learn both the language and the subject matter. Doing so involvesadjusting how we talk to learners, how we prepare listening and reading materials,and how we support subject-matter learning through a range of techniques.

Several authors have discussed scaffolding, but Echevarria, et al. (2004) do so inthe context of content-based instruction with a focus on learning strategies.According to these authors, teachers can use three types of scaffolding strategies to help languagelearners:

verbal scaffolding

procedural scaffolding

instructio

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