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TDIP201 – 209140111106
FOCUS 3 – SUMMARY

Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2nd Ed.).
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Chapter 17

Background

+ Content refers to the substance or subject matter that we learn or communicate through language rather than
the language used to convey it.

+ Content-Based Instruction (CBI) refers to an approach to second language teaching in which teaching is
organized around the content or information that students will acquire, rather than around a linguistic or other
type of syllabus.

Approach

CBI is grounded on the following two central principles:

1. People learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring
information, rather than as an end itself.
2. CBI better reflects learners’ needs for leaning a second language.

Theory of language

A number of assumptions about the nature of language underlie CBI.

+ Language is text- and discourse-based

- CBI addresses the role of language as a vehicle for learning content.  implies the centrality of linguistic
entities longer than single sentences, because the focus of teaching is how meaning and information are
communicated and constructed through texts and discourse.

+ Language use draws on integrated skills

- CBI views language use as involving several skills together. In a content-based class, students are often
involved in activities that link the skills, because this is how the skills are generally involved in the real world.

+ Language is purposeful

- Language is used for specific purposes. The purpose may be academic, vocational, social or recreational but it
gives direction, shape, and ultimately meaning to discourse and texts.

Theory of learning
CBI stands in contrast to traditional approaches to language teaching in which language form is the primary
focus of the syllabus and of classroom teaching. Additional assumptions that derive from the core principles of
CBI:
+ People learn a second language most successfully when the information they are acquiring is perceived as
interesting, useful, and leading to a desired goal.

+ Some content areas are more useful as a basis for language learning than others.

+ Students learn best when instruction addresses students’ needs.

+ Teaching builds on the previous experience of the learners.

Design

Objectives

In CBI, language learning is typically considered incidental to the learning of content. Thus the objectives in a
typical CBI course are stated as objectives of the content course.

An example of objectives in CBI comes from the theme-based Intensive Language Course:

1. to activate and develop existing English language skills

2. to acquire learning skills and strategies that could be applied in future language development opportunities
3. to develop general academic skills applicable to university studies in all subject areas
4. to broaden students’ understanding of English-speaking peoples

Types of learning and teaching activites

Stoller (1997) provides a list of activites classified according to their instructional focus. The classification
categories she proposes are:

- language skills improvement

- vocabulary building
- discourse organization
- communicative interaction
- study skills
- synthesis of content materials and grammar

Learner roles

+ One goal of CBI is for learners to become autonomous so that they come to “understand their own learning
process and… take charge of their own learning from the very start.”

+ Most CBI courses anticipate that students will support each other in collaborative modes of learning.

+ Learners are expected to be active interpreters of input, willing to tolerate uncertainty along the path of
learning, willing to explore alternative learning strategies, and willing to seek multiple interpretations of oral
and written texts.

+ Learners themselves may be sources of content and joint participants in the selection of topics and activites.

The role of teachers

+ “Instructors must be more than just good language teachers. They must be knowledgeable in the subject
matter and able to elicit that knowledge from their students.”
+ Stryker and Leaver suggest the following essential skills for any CBI instructor:

1. Varying the format of classroom instruction

2. Using group work and team-building techniques
3. Organizing jigsaw reading arrangements
4. Defining the background knowledge and language skills required for student success
5. Helping students develop coping strategies
6. Using process approaches to writing
7. Using appropriate error correction techniques
8. Developing and maintaining high levels of student esteem

The role of materials

+ Materials that facilitate language learning are the materials that are used typically with the subject matter of
the content course.

+ Comprehensibility is as critical as authenticity.

+ CBI courses are often “characterized by a heavy use of instructional media to further enrich the context
provided by authentic readings selected to form the core of the thematic unit.”

Contemporary models of content-based instruction

Courses at the university level

Several different approaches to CBI have been developed at the university level.

+ Theme-based language instruction: a language course in which the syllabus is organized around themes or
topics such as “pollution” or “women’s rights.”

+ Sheltered content instruction: refers to content courses taught in the second language by a content area
specialist, to a group of ESL learners who have been grouped together for this purpose.

+ Adjunct language instruction: students are enrolled in two linked courses, one a content course and one a
language course, with both courses sharing the same content base and complementing each other in terms of
mutually coordinated assignments.

+ Team-teach approach: two examples: one focuses on lecture comprehension and the writing of examination
questions in fields such as transportation and plant biology; another is from a polytechnic program in Singapore:
an English-for-occupational-purposes writing course was designed to prepare students for writing tasks they
might have to carry out in future jobs in building maintenance and management.

+ Skills-based approach: characterized by a focus on a specific academic skill area; students write in a variety of
forms to demonstrate understanding of the subject matter and to extend their knowledge to new areas; writing is
integrated with reading, listening and discussion.

Courses at the elementary and secondary level

+ Theme-based approach: students complete theme-based modules that are designed to facilitate their entry into
the regular subject-areas classroom.

+ Adjunct approach: focused on preparing students to make the transition to learning science through English.
Courses in private language institutes

Theme-based courses: a set of themes might be selected as the basis for a semester’s work, and each theme used
as the basis for 6 or more hours of work in which the for skills and grammar are taught drawing on the central
theme.

Procedure

+ No specific techniques or activities are associated with it.

+ Teaching materials and activities are selected according to the extent to which they match the type of program
it is.

+ Stryker and Leaver (1997) describe a typical sequence of classroom procedures in a content-based lesson:

- Preliminary preparation: Students read reference materials regarding U.S. immigration laws and an extract.

1. Linguistic analysis: discussion of grammar and vocabulary based on students’ analysis of oral presentations
done the day before.
2. Preparation for film: activities previewing vocabulary in the film, including a vocabulary worksheet.
3. Viewing a segment of the movie.
4. Discussion of the film: the teacher leads a discussion of the film.
5. Discussion of the reading.
6. Videotaped interview: students see a short interview in which immigration matters are discussed.
7. Discussion: a discussion of immigration reform.
8. Preparation of articles: students are given time to read related articles and prepare a class presentation.
9. Presentation of articles: students make presentations, which may be taped so that they can later listen for self-
correction.
10. Wrap- up discussion.

Cenoz, J. (2015). Content-based instruction and content language integrated learning: the same or
different? Language, Culture and Curriculum, 28(1), 8-24.

What is CBI?

+ Brinton, Snow, and Wesche (1989) defines CBI as ‘the concurrent study of language and subject matter, with
the form and sequence of language presentation dictated by content material’.

+ Stoller (2008) considers that CBI is ‘an umbrella term’ for approaches that combine language and content
learning aims even if there are differences in the emphasis placed on language and content.

+ There are alternative forms of CBI depending on the educational level, the organization of the curriculum and
the relative emphasis on language or content. CBI can take place at all educational levels: preschool, primary,
secondary or higher education levels.
+ In all cases, the aims of the programme combine the learning of curricular content and language learning.

What is CLIL?

+ Coyle, Hood, and Marsh (2010) defines CLIL as ‘… a dual-focused educational approach in which an
additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language’.

+ The definition of CLIL refers to ‘an additional’ language and not only to English and this could be any
language other than the first language, including foreign, second or minority languages.

+ CLIL can take place at different educational levels in preschool, primary school, secondary school and higher
education. Regarding its role in the curriculum, it can refer to teaching one or more subjects through the
medium of the L2 and it can also refer to just content-based themes in language programmes.

+ Massler, Stotz, and Queisser (2014) differentiate two types of CLIL: type A CLIL in subject lessons and type
B CLIL language lessons.

- Massler et al. (2014) consider that type A, which also includes immersion, takes place when learning aims are
based on the content of the academic subject taught through the medium of a foreign language and assessment
is mainly based on content.
- Type B refers to programmes in which foreign language instruction is thematically based and content from
other school subjects is used in the language class. In this case the aims and assessment focus on the foreign
language.
- Massler et al. (2014) also refer to a C type as a full integration of content and language ‘shown in the pupils’
timetable as a subject of its own’ but consider that this is a ‘rare phenomenon’.

Essential and accidental properties of CBI and CLIL

The diversity and dynamics of CBI/ CLIL

+ CBI/CLIL refers to a variety of pedagogical programmes and their study has been approached from different
theoretical and methodological perspectives. Both CBI and CLIL have been referred to as umbrella terms:

+ Content-based instruction (CBI) is an umbrella term referring to instructional approaches that make a dual,
though not necessarily equal, commitment to language and content-learning objectives.

+ CLIL is an umbrella term covering a dozen or more educational approaches (e.g. immersion, bilingual
education, multilingual education, language showers and enriched language programmes).

The implementation of CBI and CLIL takes different forms. The educational aims of specific schools and
societies and the sociolinguistic situation can affect the implementation of different forms.

One of the most widespread CBI/CLIL programmes is immersion, which has been referred to as ‘the
quintessential model of content-based L2 instruction’.

+ Immersion requires the use of the additional language for at least 50% of academic instruction in primary
school or at least for several years in the curriculum. Other core features of immersion were identified by Swain
and Johnson some years ago:

(1) The L2 is the medium of instruction.

(2) The curriculum is the same as for L1.
(3) Overt support exists for the L1.
(4) The programme aims for additive bilingualism.
(5) Exposure to the L2 mainly in the classroom.
(6) Students enter with similar levels of L2.
(7) The teachers are bilingual.
(8) The classroom culture is that of the L1.

CBI/CLIL is a complex phenomenon that involves language and content-learning, affects the whole curriculum
and takes place in different parts of the world.

Differences in essential and accidental properties

The diversity of CBI/CLIL programmes and approaches in its research, the dynamics of these programmes and
the preference for one or the other label in different contexts have motivated some scholars to insist on the
uniqueness of CLIL.

+ ‘although CLIL’s origins in Europe might make it historically unique, this does not necessarily make it
pedagogically unique’

+ The differences between the CBI and CLIL are contextual rather than defining differences.

Essential properties

The most essential property of CBI/CLIL is the integration of language and content. The basic idea behind the
integration of content and language is that languages are not learned first and then used but that they are learned
by being used.

Medium of instruction

No CBI/CLIL refers to programmes in which the majority language, which is the L1 of most students, is used
as the medium of instruction and additional languages (second, foreign) are taught as school subjects without
any special attention to the integration of language and content.

Language aims

Another essential feature of CBI/CLIL programmes is that they aim at multilingualism. This is in contrast with
transitional programmes that aim at replacing one language by another and result in monolingualism.

+ CBI/CLIL aims at developing both the majority language and additional language(s).

Societal and educational aims

CBI/CLIL aims at pluralism and enrichment and not at assimilation. The idea is that by becoming multilingual
students will be able to communicate with other people, to get a better understanding of other cultures, to be
better prepared for the job market and, in some cases, to contribute to the development of minority languages.

Typical type of child

Most CBI/CLIL programmes are aimed at children who have the majority language as L1 rather than minority
L1 children. Nowadays, CBI/CLIL programmes cannot be expected to have homogeneous classes with only
speakers of the majority language.
Accidental properties

Target language

+ Scholars associated with CBI do not seem to have problems applying the term CBI to programmes with
content taught through minority, second and foreign languages.

+ However, other scholars consider that CLIL can only be used for languages such as English, French or
German or for foreign but not second languages.

Native vs. non-native teachers

+ CBI/CLIL has as its main essential property to integrate language and curricular content and this is done in
most cases by using an additional language as the language of instruction.

+ Teachers in CBI/CLIL tend to be the school teachers in the schools where the programmes are implemented.
CBI/CLIL teachers are content teachers except in the cases of weak CBI/CLIL programmes in which the
language teacher follows a content-oriented language syllabus.

+ In most cases, teachers are multilingual and are proficient in both the majority language and the additional
language(s).

Starting age

Another feature associated with CLIL by some scholars is that the implementation of CLIL usually takes place
in secondary education after learners have already acquired literacy skills in their first language. The level at
which CBI/CLIL is introduced cannot possibly be an essential or defining feature of CLIL because there are
CBI/CLIL programmes starting in preschool, primary school, secondary school and even higher education.

Origin

Although learning through the medium of a second or additional language has existed for many centuries, the
origin of CBI is often associated with the first French-medium immersion programmes in Canada in the 1960s
and the origin of CLIL is linked to the use of English-medium instruction in Europe in the 1990s.

+ Over the years, CBI has attracted scholars from different disciplines, while CLIL is more closely linked to
scholars working on English language teaching and second language acquisition.

+ However, both CBI and CLIL research can generally be placed within the field of applied linguistics and
some theoretical frameworks, which are influenced by the research traditions of specific contexts, may be used
more often in some countries than in others.

+ The theoretical approach taken by the researchers and the methodology used do not define the type of
programme analysed and cannot be considered essential characteristics of CBI/CLIL.