CONTENT-BASED AND IMMERSION MODELS FOR SECOND AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING INTRODUCTION CONTENT DEFINED as: Grammar-translation

ion the grammatical structures of the target language Audiolingual method content consisted of grammatical structures, vocabulary, or sound patterns presented in dialogue form. Communicative Approach the communicative purposes for which speakers use second/foreign language. [Thus, in a class following a notional/functional orientation, the content of a unit might be invitations, and individual lessons might cover question types, polite versus informal invitation forms, and ways to accept or decline invitations]

CONTENT- BASED INSTRUCTION Content- is the use of subject matter for second/foreign language teaching purposes. This approach is in keeping with the English for Specific Purposes [ESP] tradition.

Content-based second language instruction generally has strong English for Academic Purposes [EAP] orientation, in which the main instructional goal is to prepare second language students for types of academic tasks they will encounter in school, college or university. Content-based models can be found in both the foreign and second language settings. They can be implemented to teach foreign languages to English-speaking children at the elementary school level in immersion programs or applied to secondary and postsecondary settings. Models of content-based instructions differ in implementation due to such factors as educational setting, program objectives, and target population. All share, however, a common point of departure the integration of language teaching aims with subject matter instruction.

CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION: A RATIONALE The theoretical foundations for content-based instruction can be drawn from a variety of sources, including second language acquisition research and work in educational and cognitive psychology. Content-based instruction fulfills a number of conditions which have been posited as necessary for successful second/foreign language acquisition. Krashen second language acquisition occurs when the learner receives comprehensible input, not when the learners is memorizing vocabulary or completing grammar exercises.

Comprehensible subject-matter teaching is language teaching, since learners acquire language when they understand messages in that language. In content-based instruction, the focus is on the subject matter and not on the form on what is being said rather than how.

Swain suggest that in order to develop communicative competence, learners must have extended opportunities to use the second/foreign language productively. Thus, in addition to receiving comprehensible input, they must produce comprehensible output. Learners need to be pushed toward the delivery of s message that is conveyed precisely, coherently and appropriately.

notions of (1) the zone of proximal development (in which the learners are assisted by the teachers or more capable peers in their development) and (2) inner speech (internally directed speech as strategies for problem solving and rehearsing) can be effectively realized in content-based settings where students have opportunities to negotiate not the language, but content as well, in increasing complex ways.
Vygotsky

review of the research foundations of content-based instruction looks outside the second language acquisition literature to research in educational and cognitive psychology for some of the most persuasive support.
Grabe and Stoller

Research in learning theory has been used to support the Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA).

this theory reinforces teaching approaches which combine the development of language and content knowledge, practice in using this knowledge, ans strategy training to promote independent learning.
Andersons Theory

When learners are exposed to coherent and meaningful information and have opportunities to elaborate information and their linkages are more complex and recall is better.

Content-based approaches promote extended practice with coherent content coupled with relevant language learning activities such as teaching how knowledge structures can be realize through language and content.
Bereiter and Scardamalia argue that expertise is a process in which learners reinvest

their knowledge in a sequence of progressively more complex problem-solving tasks. As learner are exposed to increasing complexity in learning activities, thei learning improves and they develop intrinsic motivation.

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Grabe and Stoller note that the effective content-based instructional approaches combine coherent and interesting informational resources to create increasing, but manageable task complexity.

MODELS OF CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION Models of content-based instruction can be distinguished from each other by several different means: 1. Setting some models are typically implemented in the foreign language setting while other are more common in the second language context. 2. Instructional Level there are many well developed examples reported in the literature of integrated language and content teaching at the elementary school level; other models have typically implemented successfully at the secondary or postsecondary levels with adolescents or adults. 3. Degree of emphasis looking at the degree of emphasis on language and content which underlies a particular program.
Content - Driven Total Immersion Partial Immersion Sheltered Courses Adjunct Model ThemeBased Courses Language - Driven Language Classes with Frequent Use of Content or Language Practice

Met (1999), envisioning a continuum, places, content-driven models at one end while language-driven models appear at the other end. Five models of content-based instruction are described. The first two are welldeveloped examples of models designed to teach foreign languages to English speaking children at elementary school level. The last three models have been implemented in secondary and postsecondary second language settings.

IMMERSION EDUCATION The prototypical content-based approach is the immersion model of foreign language education. In the total immersion model, English-speaking elementary school students receive the majority of their schooling through the medium of their second language. The immersion model is one of the most carefully researched language programs.

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Immersion children consistently perform at or above grade level scholastically, are on par with their monolingual peers in English language development, and by the end of the elementary school, become functional bilinguals.

Early Total Immersion The Culver City Spanish Immersion program is one example of early total immersion; the foreign language is generally used for most or all academic instruction beginning in kindergarten r grade 1.

Middle or Delayed Immersion Onset of instruction in the foreign language begins in the middle elementary grades, usually in the fourth grade.

Late Immersion Do not typically begin until the end of elementary school or beginning of secondary school.

Early Partial Immersion There is usually a 50/50 time allocation of English and the foreign language to teach academic content.

Most immersion programs share the following four objectives: 1. 2. 3. 4. Grade-appropriate levels of primary language (L1) development, Grade-appropriate levels of academic achievement, Functional proficiency in the second/foreign language, An understanding of and appreciation for the culture of the target language group.

CONTENT-ERICHED FOREIGN LANGUAGE IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Content-enriched FLES offers an updated approach to traditional FLES, in with subjects from the standard school curriculum are selected for introduction or reinforcement in the FLES class (Curtain and Pesola, 1994).

Advantages: 1. Students in content-enriched FLES have a more relevant, meaningful context for language learning.

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2. There is a richer context for use of the foreign language for meaningful communication, which is especially important given the learners limited exposure to the foreign language. 3. The foreign language teacher does not have to search material for the language class because the school curriculum provides a wealth of ideas which can be incorporated to instruction. THREE DISTINCT MODELS OF CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION Theme-Based Model The theme-base model is a type of content-based instruction on which selected topics on themes provide the content from which teachers extract language learning activities. Widely implemented in language institutes at the college or university level, where classes are often composed of diverse language backgrounds or interests whose common goal is to attend college or university English-speaking country. The teachers goal is to select topics suitable for a heterogeneous class of international students who need to improve their Academic English skills.

Systematic Framework for Theme-based Instruction (Stoller and Grabe): Their Six Ts Approach is a principled approach to the organization of content resources and the selection of appropriate language learning activities. Theme the central ideas that organize major curricular units selected for their appropriateness to student needs and interests, institutional expectations, program resources, and teacher abilities and interests. Topics the subunits of the content which explore more specific aspects of the theme. Texts the content resources which drive the basic planning of theme units. Texts could include various genres, videos, audiotapes, soft-ware, lectures, graphic representations, guest speakers, or field trips. Threads are linkages across units that create greater curricular coherence. They are relatively abstract concepts (e.g. responsibility, ethics) that provide a natural means of linking themes. Tasks the day-to-day instructional activities utilized to teach content, language, and strategy instruction. Transitions are explicitly planned actions which provide coherence across the topics in a thematic unit and across tasks within topics.

Sheltered Model
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Sheltered derives from the models deliberate separation of second/foreign language students from native speakers to the target language for the purpose of content instruction. All instruction in the sheltered class was given in the second language by content faculty members who gauged their instruction to an audience made up of second language students. The ESL/EFL instructors held short sessions of about 15 minutes in which they would go over key terms or provide students with useful expressions, such as polite ways to interrupt the professor to request clarification; however there was no separate language class per se. The sheltered students demonstrated mastery of the content course material at the same levels as did comparison students enrolled in regular native-speaker sections of psychology. Sheltered courses offer language minority students an alternative to traditional ESL classes, which are often taught in isolation from the rest of the school curriculum giving them access to school subjects from which they might otherwise be barred on the basis of their limited English proficiency. Instruction is geared to their developing levels of second language proficiency through the use of various instructional strategies and materials.

Adjunct Model The adjunct model is a content-based approach in which students are concurrently enrolled in a language class and content course. This model is typically implemented in postsecondary settings where such linking or adjuncting between language and content departments is feasible. The coordination of objectives and assignments between language and content instructors is a key feature of the adjunct model. Participating content faculty modified their syllabi and teaching methods to integrate language and content instruction with the aim of improving the academic literacy skills of the students enrolled in the adjunct courses. Evaluation of the project revealed that, overall, the performance of the students in the adjunct courses approximated or exceeded that of the student who had not been enrolled in the study group courses in which content-based activities were introduced and practiced (Snow and Kamhi-Stein 1997).

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