ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING THROUGH CONTENT

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING THROUGH CONTENT

Ying Nie, Alice

:Most linguists will agree that the natural process of language development does not happen in isolation but through a process of understanding the socio-cultural surroundings. Traditionally, second language education is taught in isolation where the focus was on grammar. Research has since found that language is learned most effectively for communication and purposeful social interactions. The merging of purposeful meaning with language allows for the student grasp onto a tangible topic not only helping to further language development but also cognitive development. Cummins discusses this idea of content language learning by separating language tasks as either context reduced or context embedded. Context reduced tasks lacks meaning for communication and is not cognitively challenging. On the other hand, context embedded tasks provides meaning for communication and requires in depth analysis. Merging content with language education requires students to not only learn the content information but to develop Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). The academic application of the language being learned makes the language useful and applicable allowing for greater retention of the language. Past research has also shown that English Language Learners lack native like proficiencies due to the over emphases on grammar. In order for content language education to work, content cannot supersede language goals. Language functions such as grammar, vocabulary, and writing are taught alongside content in a way that makes sense for that topic.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2011-05

16