|
||
|
• DRAFT • DRAFT • DRAFT • DRAFT • DRAFT • DRAFT • DRAFT • DRAFT • DRAFT • DRAFT • Basic Concept ••Definition/ descriptions of CBI from •• CBI is based on the premise effective language learning can take place when the learners use the target language to learn about, or at least do, something else. It extends to the realm of all learners the statement that Curtain and Pesola make in their book ••Children and Languages: Making the Match: "Children learn languages best when they use them to learn something else." The "something else" - the content - may be anything, as long as it involves the use of language. A few examples: cooking, sports, music, gardening, carpentry, and perhaps any occupation at any level – and also literature and other "academic" subjects. Probably most CBI specialists would favor for CBI subjects the activities that resemble "real world" activities, whether occupational or recreational. But conceivably an abstract academic subject could be the focus of CBI, and one might recall that many non-native users of English use and improve their English skills as they study and then practice academic subjects. Even more, no doubt, use and improve their English skills as they create businesses, whether in their home countries, with English as the outreach language to customers and to business partners elsewhere, or as immigrants to English-speaking countries. There is probably no "pure" form of CBI, for two reasons: 1) Even when the language of communication among learners is resolutely confined to the target language, some other processing of content and language occurs outside the target language. By themselves learners may make notes, or read, or whatever in their own language. 2) While the chief focus of the CBI activities must be the performance of activities that closely or even exactly resemble those conducted ordinarily in the given content area, the "instruction" part of CBI - the attention that learners and instructors are paying to the component of language learning - most usually involves a "distancing" from the content and the atmosphere of the "pure" situation. That is, the instructor will most probably want to coach the learners about their language learning and their processing of the content area, whether the coaching occurs in the target or the native language – and the learners will probably also want such explicit coaching. There is some disagreement among language specialists whether the activities that the learners engage in should be limited to simulations. In simulations the element of coaching and self-monitoring by the learners can be made clear. On the other hand, there is something to say for going beyond simulation to an attempt to create, for example, a real student-operated business while the learners use the target language. •• Examples of CBI activities and courses, including STEM-related •• Text ••point out differences between conventional pedagogy and CBI / communicative pedagogy •• More about basic principles •• Text •• Caveats •• Text •• Basic bibliography |