Adjunct language instruction and schema theory

Megawati Omar and Darmarajah Nadarajah, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam

megawatiomar@yahoo.com

This paper is a combination of Megawati Omar’s PhD thesis and Darmarajah’s Master’s
thesis.

Abstract:

This paper focuses on the concept that Adjunct Language Instruction (ALI) functions
effectively when the teaching conduct, preferred materials and materials matching the
learners' proficiency act as contributing factors in the effectiveness of ALI as shown by
the ALI model produced by Ref [14]. This objective of this paper is to highlight Schema
Theory as an additional factor which helps learners in an ALI class to write reports.
Possessing relevant schema helps in the understanding of the content. We propose that
the ALI factors (Teaching conduct, Preference for materials and Proficiency), are
necessary conditions which would activate learners' content schema and aid
understanding of a given task. The notion that ALI factors which rekindles relevant
schema are important considerations when planning a lesson. Likewise, language
teaching also can be enhanced effectively if content from core course subjects such as
physics, are used as basis for writing in the English language lesson.

I. Introduction
This paper suggests that Schema Theory contributes to the effectiveness of Adjunct
Language Instruction (ALI), one of the three Content-based Instruction (CBI) models.
CBI is primarily the coordination of the learning of language and subject matter used in
teaching a second language; a collaboration of content learning with language teaching,
which can be interdisciplinary. It is well documented as one of the effective ways to
teach other languages [1][2][3][4][5]

Published in: Science and Social Research (CSSR), 2010 International Conference on

Date of Conference: 5-7 Dec. 2010
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 27 May 2011
ISBN Information:
DOI: 10.1109/CSSR.2010.5773790

The full text can be purchased from IEEE Xplore at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5773790/?

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