Chapter 10

Content-based Instruction

Textbook:
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2011). Techniques and Principles
in Language Teaching. (3rd ed.). Oxford University
Press.
Background
 Howatt (1984) notes that there are two versions of the Communicative
Approach: a strong version and a weak version.

 The weak version, which we illustrated in the previous chapter, provided with
a great deal of practice in learning the forms.

 The strong version of the Communicative Approach goes beyond giving

students opportunities to practice communication. The strong version asserts
that language is acquired through communication.

 The weak version could be described as ‘learning to use’ English; the

strong version entails ‘using English to learn it’ (Howatt 1984: 279).

 Content-based instruction and task-based and participatory approaches

belong in the strong version category.
 Using content from other disciplines in language courses is not a new
idea.

 So, for example, the content of a language course for airline pilots is
different from one for computer technicians. This is usually thought of
as teaching a language for specific purposes.

 In an academic setting, it might be called teaching language for

academic purposes.

 The special contribution of content-based instruction (CBI) is that it is

not exclusively a language program, but instead it integrates the
learning of language with the learning of some other content.

 The content can be themes, i.e. some topic such as popular music or
sports in which students are interested. Often, the content is
academic subject matter (Brinton, Snow, and Wesche 2003).
In the European context, the name for the same instructional
approach is content and language integrated learning
(CLIL).

Marsh defines CLIL as: «… any dual-focused educational

context in which an additional language, is used as a
medium in the teaching and learning of non-language
content.» (Marsh 2002: 15)

Naturally, when students do study academic subjects in

another language, they will need a great deal of assistance
in understanding subject matter texts and in learning to
use the academic language associated with the subject.

Therefore, teachers must have clear language objectives

as well as content learning objectives for their lessons.
 WL and CBI educators embrace the ideas of Vygotsky (1978) about
the social nature of learning. As a social process, it is assumed that
learning is best served by collaboration between teacher and students
and among students.

 According to Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development (ZPD):

… the distance between the actual developmental level [of the

learner] as determined by independent problem-solving and the
level of potential development as determined through problem
solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more
capable peers. (Vygotsky 1978: 86).
 Next, the teacher tells the students that they will do a dictogloss. The
teacher reads to the students two paragraphs about Australia.

• The first time she reads them, the students are supposed to listen
for the main ideas.
• The second time she reads them, she tells the students to listen for
details.
• Following the second reading, she explains to the students that they
should reconstruct what she has read as much as they can from
memory.

 After 10 minutes, she tells them to discuss their drafts with a partner
and that the two partners should combine and edit their drafts into
one, making it as close as possible to the original.

 She then has each pair of students read their draft to the other students,
and the class votes on which version is the closest to the original.
 For homework, the students are given a description of Australia and a graphic
organizer to help them organize and recall the new information. They have to
read the description and label the major cities and points of interest on the map
and complete the items in the graphic organizer.
 Content-based Instruction: Principles
Observations Principles
1 The class is studying geography Both the content and the language are
through the target language. targets for learning.

2 The teacher asks the students what Teaching should build on students’
they know about a globe. previous experience.
3 The teacher supplies the missing The teacher scaffolds the linguistic
language when the students have content, i.e. helps learners say what it is
trouble in explaining a concept in the they want to say by building a complete
target language. utterance together with the students.
4 The teacher reads the new Language is learned most effectively when
vocabulary and then the students it is used as a medium to convey content
watch a video entitled ‘Understanding of interest to the students.
Globes.’
Observations Principles
5 The students fill in the vocabulary Vocabulary is easier to acquire when there
words in the blanks in the modified are contextual clues to help convey
cloze passage as they watch the meaning. It is important to integrate all the
video. skills, as well as vocabulary and grammar
in an authentic context.
6The teacher uses a dictogloss. It is important for students to learn the
discourse organization of academic texts.

7 For homework, the students are Graphic organizers help students develop
given a graphic organizer, which they the skills that they need to learn academic
are to label based on a descriptive content.
reading they have been given.
 Content-based Instruction: Principles
Observations Principles
6The teacher uses a dictogloss. She It is important for students to learn the
discusses its organization. discourse organization of academic texts.

7 For homework, the students are Graphic organizers help students develop
given a graphic organizer, which they the skills that they need to learn academic
are to label based on a descriptive content.
reading they have been given.
Reviewing the Techniques
Dictogloss

 In a dictogloss (Wajnryb 1990), students listen twice to a short talk or

a reading on appropriate content. The first time through, students
listen for the main idea, and then the second time they listen for
details. The students then use their notes to reformulate what has
been read. Next, they work with a partner or in a small group to
construct together the best version of what they have heard.

Graphic Organizers

 Graphic organizers are visual displays that help students to organize

and remember new information. They involve drawing or writing down
ideas and making connections. They include diagrams, tables,
columns, and webs.

 A key rationale for the use of graphic organizers in CBI is that they
facilitate recall of cognitively demanding content, enabling students to
process the content material at a deeper level and then be able to use
it for language practice.
Process Writing
 Traditionally, when teachers teach writing, they assign topics for students to
write on; perhaps they do a bit of brainstorming about the topic during a pre-
writing phase, and then have students write about the topic without
interruption. Subsequently, teachers collect and evaluate what students have
written. Such instruction is very ‘product-oriented;’ there is no involvement of
the teacher in the act or ‘process’ of writing.

 In process writing, on the other hand, students may initially brainstorm ideas
about a topic and begin writing, but then they have repeated conferences with
the teacher and the other students, during which they receive feedback on
their writing up to that point, make revisions, based on the feedback they
receive, and carry on writing.

Dialogue Journals

 It essentially involves students writing such as the students’ expressing their

feelings toward how and what they are learning, or the writing focus could be
on anything that the student wishes to communicate to the teacher.
 Question-Answer Section
1 What are the goals of teachers who use Content-based
Instruction (CBI)?

 In a CBI class, teachers want the students to master both language

and content. The content can be themes of general interest to
students.

2 What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?

 The teacher needs to set clear learning objectives for both content
and language. The teacher then creates activities to teach both,
scaffolding the language needed for study of the content.

 The students’ role is to engage actively with both content and

language, using each to learn the other.
3 What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?

 Teachers must help learners understand authentic texts. Teachers

make meaning clear through the use of visuals, realia, repeating, and
by giving a lot of examples, building on students’ previous experiences.

 Thinking skills are also taught in order to help students undertake

academic tasks. Graphic organizers are one tool used to assist this
process.

4 What is the nature of student–teacher interaction? What is the

nature of student–student interaction?

 The teacher guides student learning. She supports them by having

students pay attention to how language is used to deliver content.

 Students often work collaboratively to understand content while actively

using the language they are studying.
 Chapter 11
Task-based Language Teaching

Textbook:
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2011). Techniques and Principles
in Language Teaching. (3rd ed.). Oxford University
Press.
Background
In 1976, Wilkins distinguished between two types of
syllabi—synthetic syllabi and analytic syllabi.

Synthetic syllabi: comprise linguistic units: grammar

structures, vocabulary items, functions, etc.

The units are usually ordered logically, in a sequence from

linguistic simplicity to linguistic complexity.

Analytic syllabi: are organised in terms of the purposes

for which people are learning language and the kinds of
language performance that are necessary to meet those
purposes.
Other communicative tasks can be designed in
such a way that they encourage students to notice
a particular target language feature, possibly by
means of
input enhancement, such as using boldface
type for a particular structure in a reading
passage or

input flooding, which means using particular

vocabulary items or grammar structures with
great frequency in the input.
Tasks are meaningful, and in doing them, students need to
communicate. Tasks have a clear outcome.

An example of a task in a task-based syllabus is for

students to plan an itinerary for a trip. Students work in
small groups with a train schedule. They are given certain
destinations to include, and they have to decide on the
most direct route to travel by train—the one that will take
the least amount of travel time.

As the students seek to complete the task, they have to

work to understand each other and to express their own
thoughts.
 Task-based Language Teaching: Principles
Observations Principles
1 The teacher tells the class that they The class activities have a perceived
are going to complete a timetable. purpose and a clear outcome.

2 The teacher begins by having the A pre-task

class help him to fill out a class is a helpful way to have students see the
schedule. This is done through whole logic involved in what they are being asked
class interaction. to do.
It will also allow the language necessary
to complete the task to come into play.
3 The teacher first has the students The teacher breaks down into smaller
label the time periods and then the steps the logical thinking process
days. necessary to complete the task.
Observations Principles
4 The teacher asks the students if a The teacher needs to seek ways of
particular answer is right. knowing how involved the students are
in the process, so he can make
adjustments.
5 The teacher asks, ‘What about Here he switched from an abbreviated
Saturday? Do we have school on Wh-question to a yes/no question. This
Saturday?’ switch is a natural strategy that proficient
speakers use when interacting with less
proficient speakers inside and outside of
the classroom.
6 The students reply, ‘Weekend.’ The The teacher supplies the correct target
teacher responds, ‘Yes. Saturday is on form by reformulating or recasting what
the weekend. Saturday’s a weekend the students have said.
day.’
7 The students then do the task in This jigsaw task, where students have to
groups, following the teacher’s piece together information they need to
instructions. complete a task, gives them an
opportunity for interaction.
Observations Principles
8 Students are asked to design a way Students have input into the design and
to survey the other students about the way that they carry out the task. This
their favorite and least favorite gives them more opportunity for
subjects. interaction.
9 Students report in the next class. A public presentation encourages
students to work on accuracy and
organization, as well as meaning.
10 In their reports, students use the Repeating the language that they have
language they have been working on. been working on shows learners what they
can and what they cannot yet do.
Reviewing the Techniques
Information-gap Task

 An information-gap activity, which we saw used previously in CLT and now in

TBLT, involves the exchange of information among participants in order to
complete a task.

Opinion-gap Task

 An opinion-gap task requires that students express their personal preferences,

feelings, or attitudes in order to complete the task.

 For instance, students might be given a social problem, such as high

unemployment, and be asked to come up with a series of possible solutions, or
they might be asked to compose a letter of advice to a friend who has sought
their counsel about a dilemma.
Reasoning-gap Task

 A reasoning-gap activity requires that students derive some new information by

inferring it from information they have already been given. For example, students
might be given a railroad schedule and asked to work out the best route to get
from one particular city to another, or they might be asked to solve a riddle.

 Prabhu (1987) feels that reasoning-gap tasks work best since information-gap
tasks often require a single step transfer of information but reasoning-gap
reguires this transferred information’s being worked on.

 According to Ellis (2009), TBLT tasks can be unfocused or focused:

Unfocused Tasks
Unfocused tasks are tasks designed to provide learners with opportunities
for communicating generally. The task described in the introduction to this
chapter, where students have to plan an itinerary for a train trip, is an
example.

Focused Tasks
Focused tasks are tasks designed to provide opportunities for
communicating using some specific linguistic item, typically a grammar
structure.
 Question-Answer Section
1 What are the goals of teachers who use TBLT?
• The goal of teachers is to facilitate students’ language learning by
engaging them in a variety of tasks that have a clear outcome.

2 What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
 The teacher’s role is to choose tasks, based on an analysis of students’
needs, that are appropriate to the level of the students and to create
pre-task and task follow-up phases that are in line with the abilities and
needs of the students.

 The teacher also monitors the students’ performance, and intervenes

as necessary.

 The role of the students is to communicate with their peers to complete

a task.
3 What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
 A pre-task phase typically begins a task sequence. During this phase, a
teacher can introduce the students to the language they will need to complete
the task.

 Task phase, the tasks are meaningful and relevant so that the students see the
reason for doing the task and can see how the task relates to possible
situations in their lives outside the classroom.

 A post-task phase takes place to reinforce students’ learning or to address any

problems that may have arisen.

4 What is the nature of student–teacher interaction? What is the

nature of student–student interaction?
 The teacher is the input provider during the initial phase of the lesson. He also
sets the task for students to perform. He provides feedback such as recasts.

 Students often work closely together to help each other accomplish the task and
to solve problem.
 Chapter 12
The Participatory Approach

Textbook:
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2011). Techniques and Principles
in Language Teaching. (3rd ed.). Oxford University
Press.
 The Participatory Approach: One Response to the Politics of
Language Teaching

 Although it originated in the late 1950s with the work of Paulo Freire
(perhaps the most famous of all critical educators), it was not until the
1980s that the Participatory Approach started being widely discussed in
the language teaching literature.

 In some ways the Participatory Approach is similar to content-based

instruction in that it begins with content that is meaningful to the students.
The language that is worked upon emerges from it.

 What is strikingly different, though, is the nature of the content. It is not

the content of subject-matter texts, but rather it is content that comes
from issues of concern to students.
 The goal of a Participatory Approach is to help students to understand the
social, historical, or cultural forces that shaped a particular context, and
then to help empower students to take action and make decisions in order
to gain control over their lives in that context (Wallerstein 1983).

 Like John Dewey, Freire (1970) criticized what he called the banking
method of teaching in which the teacher ‘deposits’ information in the
students, making the assumption that the teacher knows what the students
need to learn.

 Instead, he advocated educational processes where students’ lives, local

cultural norms, and issues become the content for learning.

 In this way, the teacher is no longer depositing information but is rather

allowing learning to emerge from within the students. A core practice of the
Participatory Approach is problem posing.

 Problem posing involves the selection of real-life issues from the students’
lives and engages the students in an open-ended process of problem
solving.
 The Participatory Approach : Principles
Observations Principles
1 The teacher dialogues with What happens in the classroom should
students in order to learn what is be connected with what happens
happening in their lives. outside. The teacher listens for themes
in what students say that will provide
the content for future lessons.
2 The teacher poses a problem The curriculum is not a predetermined
that was voiced by several women product, but the result of an ongoing
during a discussion from a context-specific problem-posing
previous class. process.
3 The teacher asks a number of Education is most effective when it is
questions and leads the class in experience-centered—when it relates
discussing the problem. to students’ real needs. Teachers are
co-learners, asking questions of the
students, who are the experts on their
own lives.
 The Participatory Approach : Principles
Observations Principles
4 The teacher asks the students if When knowledge is jointly constructed,
they want to write a group letter. it becomes a tool to help students find
She elicits the content of the letter a voice; and by finding their voices,
from the students by asking students can act in the world.
leading questions.
5 The teacher writes down what Language teaching occurs with texts
the students tell her. She reads the that the students have co-constructed.
text aloud, and the students do,
too. She asks them if they want to
make any changes. She offers
feedback as well. After the
changes have been made, the
teacher has the students read the
letter out loud several times.
 The Participatory Approach : Principles
Observations Principles
6 Afterwards, the students copy Focus on linguistic form occurs within a
the letter in their notebooks. They focus on content. Language skills are
work on editing it for homework. taught in service of action for change,
rather than in isolation.
7 The students are asked to bring Students can create their own
their revised versions of the letters materials, which, in turn, can become
to the next class for others to read. texts for other students.
8 The students discuss what they A goal of the Participatory Approach is
have learned in the class and what for students to evaluate their own
they want to learn in the future. learning and to increasingly direct it
themselves. This is one way that they
can feel empowered.
 Reviewing the Techniques
The Participatory Approach is another example of a ‘strong version’ of the
Communicative Approach. An analytic syllabus is adopted, and the use of meaningful
language predominates over learning linguistic items one by one. Here are the two
special techniques associated with the Participatory Approach:

• Dialoguing
In the Participatory Approach, teacher and students dialogue about issues in the
students’ lives that relate to their power and the power of others.

• Problem Posing
 The teacher poses a problem that she has identified from dialoguing with students.
Students are encouraged to examine their own practices and beliefs and to engage
in collaborative planning and problem solving around the problem that has been
posed.

 Problem posing helps students to understand the social, historical, and cultural
forces that shaped the context in which they live, and then helps empower them to
take action and make decisions in order to gain control over their lives in that
context.
 Question-Answer Section
1 What are the goals of teachers who use the Participatory Approach?

The teachers’ goals are to teach language that is meaningful and to raise the
political consciousness of her students. Teachers want their students to be
empowered to use the language they are learning in order to solve political
problems in their lives.

2 What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?

The teacher dialogues with the students in order to identify problems they are
having. She then looks for ways to incorporate these problems into the lessons.
These problems become the content she focuses on in language instruction. The
students are encouraged to share the daily concerns of their lives with the teacher
and the class.
3 What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?

 The teacher leads the students in a discussion about their lives. From this
discussion, she identifies problems that the class can work on as a whole.
Students learn how to use language in real world situations in order to address
their problems.

 Knowledge is jointly constructed with the teacher asking questions and the
students responding. Collaboration among students is also encouraged.
Focusing on language form occurs within a focus on content relevant to students’
lives.

 Students are encouraged to evaluate their own learning.

4 What is the nature of student–teacher interaction? What is the

nature of student–student interaction?
 The teacher is supportive of her students. She helps them advocate for
themselves. She helps the students find solutions to problems while also
teaching them the necessary language to understand, discuss and, address
these problems. Students work supportively with one another.
 Learning Strategy Training,
Cooperative Learning, and
Multiple Intelligences

Textbook:
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2011). Techniques and Principles
in Language Teaching. (3rd ed.). Oxford University
Press.
Background
 In this chapter, we discuss three methodological innovations: learning strategy
training, cooperative learning, and multiple intelligences. Because of their
different focus, they complement, rather than challenge.

1. Learning Strategy Training

 In 1975 Rubin investigated what ‘good language learners’ did to facilitate their
learning. From this investigation, she identified some of their learning strategies,
‘the techniques or devices which a learner may use to acquire knowledge’
(p.43).

 Good language learners, according to Rubin, are willing and accurate

guessers who have a strong desire to communicate, and will attempt to do
so even at the risk of appearing foolish.

 They attend to both the meaning and the form of their message. They also
practice and monitor their own speech as well as the speech of others.
 Strategy Training: Principles
Observations Principles
1 The teacher has been reading The students’ prior knowledge and
the students’ learning journals, learning experiences should be
where the students regularly write valued and built upon.
about what and how they are
learning.
2 The teacher decides to have the Studying certain learning strategies will
students work on the strategy of contribute to academic success.
advance organization.
3 The teacher models the use of The teacher’s job is not only to teach
the strategy using a think-aloud language, but to teach learning.
demonstration.
4 The students practice the new For many students, strategies have to
learning strategy. be learned. The best way to do this is
with ‘hands-on’ experience.
 Strategy Training: Principles
Observations Principles
5 The students evaluate their own Students need to become independent,
success in learning the strategy. They self-regulated learners. Self-assessment
modify the strategy to meet their contributes to learner autonomy.
own learning needs. They share their
innovations with their classmates.
6 The teacher asks the students to try An important part of learning a strategy is
out the new strategy on a different being able to transfer it, i.e. use it in a
reading they choose for homework different situation.
that night.
Cooperative Learning
2. Cooperative Learning

 Cooperative learning (sometimes called collaborative

learning) essentially involves students learning from
each other in groups. But it is not the group configuration
that makes cooperative learning distinctive; it is the way
that students and teachers work together that is
important. As we have just seen, with learning strategy
training, the teacher helps students learn how to learn more
effectively.

 In cooperative learning, teachers teach students

collaborative or social skills so that they can work
together more effectively.
 Cooperative Learning: Principles
Observations Principles
1 The vocabulary lesson will be done Students are encouraged to think in terms
in cooperative groups. Each student of ‘positive interdependence,’ which
is to help the other students learn means that the students are not thinking
the new vocabulary words. competitively and individualistically, but
rather cooperatively and in terms of the
group.
2 The students ask which groups they In cooperative learning, students often
should form. The teacher tells them stay together in the same groups for a
to stay in the same groups they period of time so they can learn how to
have been in this week. work better together. The teacher usually
assigns students to the groups so that
the groups are mixed—males and
females, different ethnic groups, different
proficiency levels, etc.
 Cooperative Learning: Principles
Observations Principles
3 The students are to work on the Social skills such as acknowledging
social skill of encouraging others. another’s contribution, asking others to
contribute, and keeping the
conversation calm need to be explicitly
taught.
4 The students appear to be busy Language acquisition is facilitated by
working in their groups. There is much students’ interacting in the target
talking in the groups. language.
5 Students take the test individually. Although students work together, each
student is individually accountable.

6 The group discusses how the target Leadership is ‘distributed.’ Teachers not
social skill has been practiced. Each only teach language; they teach
student is given a role. The teacher cooperation as well. Of course, since
gives feedback on how students did social skills involve the use of language,
on the target social skill. cooperative learning teaches language for
both academic and social purposes.
Multiple Intelligences

 Teachers have always known that their students have different

strengths. In the language teaching field, some of the differences among
students have been attributed to students’ having different learning or
cognitive styles. For instance, some students are better visual learners
than aural learners.

 Related work by psychologist Howard Gardner (1983, 1993, 1999, 2006)

on multiple intelligences has been influential in language teaching
circles.
 Gardner has theorized that individuals have at least eight distinct
intelligences that can be developed over a lifetime. The eight are:

• 1 Logical/mathematical—the ability to use numbers effectively, to see abstract

patterns, and to reason well

• 2 Visual/spatial—the ability to orient oneself in the environment, to create mental

images, and a sensitivity to shape, size, color

• 3 Body/kinesthetic—the ability to use one’s body to express oneself and to

solve problems

• 4 Musical/rhythmic—the ability to recognize tonal patterns and a sensitivity to

rhythm, pitch, melody

• 5 Interpersonal—the ability to understand another person’s moods, feelings,

motivations, and intentions

• 6 Intrapersonal—the ability to understand oneself and to practice self-discipline

• 7 Verbal/linguistic—the ability to use language effectively and creatively

• 8 Naturalist—the ability to relate to nature and to classify what is observed.

 By being aware of which type of intelligence is being tapped by a particular

activity, teachers can keep track of which type they are emphasizing or
neglecting in the classroom and aim for a different representation if they so
choose.

 Christison (1996, 2005) and Armstrong (1994) give us examples of activities that
fit each type of intelligence:

1 Logical/mathematical—puzzles and games, logical, sequential presentations,

classifications and categorizations
2 Visual/spatial—charts and grids, videos, drawing
3 Body/kinesthetic—hands-on activities, field trips, pantomime
4 Musical/rhythmic—singing, playing music, jazz chants
5 Interpersonal—pairwork, project work, group problem solving
6 Intrapersonal—self-evaluation, journal keeping, options for homework
7 Verbal/linguistic—note-taking, storytelling, debates
8 Naturalist—collecting objects from the natural world; learning their names and
about them.
Gardner proposes five minds, ways of
thinking and acting in the world,
which students need to develop. Of the
five minds, three focus on intellectual
development and two minds on
character development.
1 The Disciplinary Mind is the first of the intellectual minds, in which
students master a traditional body of information, such as important
historical developments in a particular country or countries.

2 The second mind that deals with intellectual development is the

Synthesizing Mind, where the focus shifts to bringing together,
organizing, understanding, and articulating information from various
disciplines in a unified and coherent whole. An example is comparing
literature in Spanish, Arabic, and English to learn how the history of people
speaking these languages has shaped literary styles.

3 The third mind is the Creating Mind, where students are encouraged to
come up with new ideas, original solutions to problems, and creative
questions. This could include creative writing or original historical or
political analysis. We might consider use of the Creating Mind as an
example of ‘thinking outside the box’, thinking in an unusual way.
 The two minds focusing on character or moral development are the
Respectful Mind and the Ethical Mind.

4 A well-developed Respectful Mind is reflected by an awareness of,

appreciation for, and openness to the differences and individuality of
others. This would naturally include fostering tolerance for people from other
cultural backgrounds, religions, races, and identities within and beyond the
classroom.

5 The Ethical Mind encourages students to cultivate a sense of

responsibility for themselves and for the wellbeing of others.