ENG513 Final Term Notes

Lecture: 21

It is the teaching of content or information in the language being learned with little or no direct effort to teach the language separately from the content being taught.

Principles of Content-Based Instruction

1. Content-Based Instruction better reflects learners' needs for learning a second language
2. People learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information, rather than mastering the language for its own sake.

Assumptions of Content-Based Instruction

1. Language is purposeful

Role of language as a vehicle for learning content entails the centrality of linguistic entities longer than single sentences, because the focus of teaching is how meanings are constructed and communicated through texts and discourse.

2. Language is text and discourse-based

In a content-based class, students are often involved in activities that link the skills. Hence, students might read and take notes, listen and write a summary, or respond orally.

3. Language use draws on integrated skills

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

4. Students learn best when instruction addresses students' needs

5. Teaching builds on the previous experience of the learners

Student goals of an immersion program include

(1) Developing a high level of proficiency in the FL

(2) Developing positive attitudes toward foreign language speakers and their culture(s)

(3) Developing English language skills commensurate with expectations for a student's age and abilities

(4) Gaining designated skills and knowledge in the content areas of the curriculum

Immigrant On-Arrival Programs - focus on the newly arrived immigrants in a country and their need for survival. Such learners typically need to learn how to deal with differing kinds of real-world content as a basis for social survival.

Students with Limited English Proficiency (SLEP) programs – these are governmentally mandated programs to serve especially those children whose parents might be served by the on-arrival programs, but more generally designed to provide in-class instruction to those whose language competence is insufficient to participate fully in normal school instruction.

Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) - a movement that seeks to serve the language needs of learners who need language in order to carry out specific roles (e.g., student, engineer, technician, and nurse) rather than master the language for its own sake.

LSP/EST subfields

ESP (English for Specific Purposes) EOP (English for Occupational Purposes) EAP (English for Academic Purposes)

Types of Learning and Teaching Activities: CBI

Building Language skills Building Vocabulary Discourse organization Communicative interaction Synthesis of content materials and grammar

Skills for any CBI instructor

Varying the format of classroom instruction Using group work techniques Using process approaches to writing Using appropriate error correction techniques Maintaining high levels of student esteem

Lecture: 22

Assumptions of Task-based instruction

The focus is on process rather than product. Learners learn language by interacting communicatively and purposefully Basic elements are purposeful activities and tasks Activities and tasks of a task-based syllabus are sequenced according to difficulty Activities and tasks can be either: those that learners might need to achieve in real life; those that have a pedagogical purpose specific to the classroom

Difficulty of a task depends on a range of factors

Previous experience Complexity of the task Language required The degree of support available

Task-based training identified several key areas of concern

Analysis of real-world task-use situations The translation of these into teaching tasks descriptions The detailed design of instructional tasks The sequencing of instructional tasks in classroom training

Four major categories of team performance function

1. Orientation functions (processes for generating and distributing information necessary to task accomplishment to team members)
2. Organizational functions (processes necessary for members to coordinate actions necessary for task performance)
3. Adaptation functions (processes occurring as team members adapt their performance to each other to complete the task).
4. Motivational functions (defining team objectives and "energizing the group" to complete the task)

Academic tasks are defined as having four important dimensions

The products students are asked to produce The operations they are required to use in order to produce these products The cognitive operations required The accountability system involved

Task types in TBLT

1. Diagrams and formations
2. Drawing
3. Clock faces
4. Monthly calendar
5. Maps -

Sequencing of tasks in TBLT

Honeyfield offers the following considerations:

Motivation Input text Time allowed Output required Language items Skills, both macro-skills and sub skills World knowledge Role of teachers and learners Learning styles

A language learning task can be regarded as a springboard for learning work. In a broad sense, it is a structured plan for the provision of opportunities for the refinement of knowledge and capabilities entailed in a new language and its use during communication.

Six task types built on more or less traditional knowledge hierarchies

1. Listing
2. Ordering and sorting
3. Comparing
4. Problem solving
5. Sharing personal experiences
6. Creative tasks

Classification of tasks according to the type of interaction

1. Jigsaw tasks: These involve learners combining different pieces of information to form a whole
2. Information-gap tasks: One student or group of students has one set of information and another student or group has a complementary set of information. They must negotiate and find out what the other party's information is in order to complete an activity.
3. Problem-solving tasks: Students are given a problem and a set of information. They must arrive at a solution to the problem. There is generally a single resolution of the outcome
4. Decision-making tasks: Students are given a problem for which there are a number of possible outcomes and they must choose one through negotiation and discussion
5. Opinion exchange tasks: Learners engage in discussion and exchange of ideas