1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:19,400 I will first introduce and describe the Italian tertiary educational setting, and then I'll 2 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:27,320 quickly illustrate some features of the ESP course and how this links to CBI, content-based 3 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:32,840 instruction, and I will then go into applying learning and teaching activities and then 4 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:37,240 conclude. 5 00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:48,080 To begin with, the group that I dealt with was a geology degree major, a first-level 6 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:52,040 degree, three-year degree, first-year students. 7 00:00:52,040 --> 00:01:01,100 This is very important because this particular group, actually, usually, all the courses 8 00:01:01,100 --> 00:01:09,400 that we deal with, with the geology majors, are at a very low English competence on entry 9 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:10,960 in Italy. 10 00:01:10,960 --> 00:01:18,120 This particular group I dealt with was in the second trimester of the first year. 11 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:25,080 I have to explain that because right now we are undergoing a new reform. 12 00:01:25,080 --> 00:01:37,200 This was with the older reform where the department wanted English I course in the first trimester 13 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:45,520 of the first year for geology students, and the second English course, which is an ESP 14 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:49,720 in the second trimester of the first year. 15 00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:57,560 The reason for this is that students are given texts and research material all in English, 16 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:03,520 so they have to learn to understand what they're reading in English. 17 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:10,460 The total number of students that I had were about approximately 35, and as you can see, 18 00:02:10,460 --> 00:02:14,640 the English competence on entry was a very low level. 19 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:22,040 The course type that I was dealing with, therefore, was a second module, mandatory ESP course, 20 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:31,000 but they had already passed a first module, a five-credit general English course. 21 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:38,920 This ESP course was 40 hours long, face-to-face lessons. 22 00:02:38,920 --> 00:02:46,000 It had written and oral final exam, and the target objective that I could hope for with 23 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:50,880 this group was a B1, just to give you an idea. 24 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:53,760 The other aim, obviously, is to encourage learning for life. 25 00:02:53,760 --> 00:02:59,360 You try to bring the students as much as possible towards autonomy, meaning that they are able 26 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:08,560 to pick up a reading, a scientific or semi-scientific article, and be able to understand what they're 27 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:09,560 reading. 28 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:13,760 So, what does this mean as far as CBI in an ESP context? 29 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:17,880 This is how I see it, and this is how I use it. 30 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:28,480 Content and language, ESP, and CBI is right there, because we'll see as I go along. 31 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:34,400 So, CBI is built on the principles of communicative language teaching, real and meaningful communication 32 00:03:34,400 --> 00:03:36,520 where information is exchanged. 33 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:40,400 Basically, it's based on two fundamental principles. 34 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:45,960 First, people learn a second language when they use the language to acquire information, 35 00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:54,600 and this, of course, means that it's linked to motivation. 36 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:58,640 And secondly, it reflects the learner's needs for learning a second language. 37 00:03:58,640 --> 00:04:07,440 I'm not going to go into the needs analysis, but obviously, I did several questionnaires 38 00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:10,840 and the needs analysis of our science students. 39 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:14,960 The first need is reading, followed by all the rest. 40 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:21,240 They're all important, but reading seems to be the top priority. 41 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:22,420 Let's define content. 42 00:04:22,420 --> 00:04:24,200 What do we mean by content? 43 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:30,280 According to Crandall and Tucker, it clearly means academic subject matter. 44 00:04:30,280 --> 00:04:33,480 Genesee says that content need not be academic. 45 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:41,120 It can include any topic or theme or non-language issue of interest or importance to the learners, 46 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:47,600 and content, says Shaput, as any topic of intellectual substance which contributes to 47 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:54,520 the student's understanding of language in general and the target language in particular. 48 00:04:54,520 --> 00:05:01,120 One rationale frequently given for content-based instruction is that language learning is more 49 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:06,160 effective when the focus is taken off explicit language instruction and is instead placed 50 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:10,840 on using the language for the purpose of learning content. 51 00:05:10,840 --> 00:05:15,680 And we've heard this already in the previous talk. 52 00:05:15,760 --> 00:05:20,400 However, others like Krashen believe that comprehensible subject matter teaching is 53 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:24,160 language teaching. 54 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:31,500 So content-based language, then, can be content-driven, where the content is of greater importance 55 00:05:31,500 --> 00:05:37,320 than language learning, and the examples this morning were also quite clear in the emergent 56 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:42,860 programs in Canadian schools, or it can be language-driven, where content is a useful 57 00:05:42,860 --> 00:05:50,940 tool for furthering the aims of the language curriculum, and this was also evident in 58 00:05:50,940 --> 00:05:55,220 the U.S. language programs. 59 00:05:55,220 --> 00:05:59,660 Now there are three prototypes of CBI, according to Brinton, Snow, and Wesch. 60 00:05:59,660 --> 00:06:05,540 The sheltered model, which we all listened to earlier, so I won't go into that. 61 00:06:05,540 --> 00:06:11,860 The adjunct model, which has the emphasis on language and content, which is language 62 00:06:11,860 --> 00:06:18,180 and content-driven, and in this model, students are expected to learn content material while 63 00:06:18,180 --> 00:06:23,980 simultaneously acquiring academic language proficiency, okay, this resonates with Clio, 64 00:06:23,980 --> 00:06:24,980 no? 65 00:06:24,980 --> 00:06:28,760 Or the theme-based model, where it's more language-driven. 66 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:34,420 The courses are aimed at helping students develop their second language skills and proficiency. 67 00:06:34,420 --> 00:06:39,420 Usually themes are selected on their potential to contribute to the learner's language growth 68 00:06:39,420 --> 00:06:43,980 in specific topical or functional domains. 69 00:06:43,980 --> 00:06:51,140 Now, what did I choose as far as themes are concerned? 70 00:06:51,140 --> 00:06:54,180 Natural hazards. 71 00:06:54,180 --> 00:07:00,260 Our geology students really enjoy talking about natural hazards because it touches them 72 00:07:00,260 --> 00:07:04,220 closely. 73 00:07:04,220 --> 00:07:14,660 I also had another course, which was called Natural Risks, okay, and in that course, there 74 00:07:14,660 --> 00:07:22,740 were about 15 students, and we did even more work with natural hazards because in the area 75 00:07:22,740 --> 00:07:25,140 where it was given, it was on the coast. 76 00:07:25,140 --> 00:07:30,180 A few years ago, there was a flood, and there were a lot, so the students then presented 77 00:07:30,180 --> 00:07:33,940 material related to what actually happened in their area. 78 00:07:33,940 --> 00:07:42,780 Okay, so let's look then at the type of disasters that we looked at, earthquakes, volcanoes, 79 00:07:42,780 --> 00:07:47,500 tsunamis, landslides, river floods, tropical storms, and tornadoes. 80 00:07:47,500 --> 00:07:51,940 I'm not going to show you all of them, but the types of learning and teaching activities, 81 00:07:51,940 --> 00:07:56,820 according to Stoller, who classified them under six categories, and as you can see, 82 00:07:56,820 --> 00:08:02,700 the focus is on reading for the language skills improvement in this particular case. 83 00:08:02,700 --> 00:08:08,980 We did a lot of work on vocabulary building, and I will show you some of these activities. 84 00:08:08,980 --> 00:08:13,100 Discourse organization, I'm not going to go into that, but obviously, with the reading, 85 00:08:13,100 --> 00:08:14,740 that's what we did. 86 00:08:14,740 --> 00:08:19,540 Communicative interaction, we worked a lot with communicative interaction around the 87 00:08:19,540 --> 00:08:23,820 end of the course because of the tasks that they were supposed to do, so they had to present 88 00:08:23,820 --> 00:08:31,220 certain projects, et cetera, and then study skills and synthesis of content materials 89 00:08:31,220 --> 00:08:32,220 and grammar. 90 00:08:32,220 --> 00:08:35,980 We'll take a look at a few of these due to time constraints. 91 00:08:35,980 --> 00:08:40,380 Okay, vocabulary building. 92 00:08:40,380 --> 00:08:49,380 When we talked about wind forces, this was a lovely way of learning vocabulary because 93 00:08:49,380 --> 00:08:51,220 of the visual effects, okay? 94 00:08:51,940 --> 00:08:57,580 Some of them, for example, didn't know what gale was, okay, or strong gale, so through 95 00:08:57,580 --> 00:09:02,940 the pictures, they learned the vocabulary, and they were able to explain, if they had 96 00:09:02,940 --> 00:09:04,860 to explain what it was. 97 00:09:04,860 --> 00:09:10,760 The same thing with modified Mercalli scale of earthquake forces. 98 00:09:10,760 --> 00:09:18,180 Through visuals, they were able to understand and explain further what each level meant, 99 00:09:18,180 --> 00:09:25,140 okay, catastrophic, disastrous, et cetera. 100 00:09:25,140 --> 00:09:28,940 Another way of building vocabulary is through definitions. 101 00:09:28,940 --> 00:09:32,980 We did a lot of work on definitions because of the structure. 102 00:09:32,980 --> 00:09:37,140 For example, a seismograph is an instrument for recording. 103 00:09:37,140 --> 00:09:41,340 The resulting record is called a seismograph, okay? 104 00:09:41,340 --> 00:09:46,100 This may seem very simple, but I had a group of A2 level. 105 00:09:46,100 --> 00:09:49,980 I had to keep it simple. 106 00:09:49,980 --> 00:09:55,540 Another way of learning content and vocabulary together is through crossword puzzles, and 107 00:09:55,540 --> 00:09:58,820 we did a lot of work on that. 108 00:09:58,820 --> 00:10:06,780 Here's another example of unscrambling vocabulary when we worked with rocks and minerals. 109 00:10:06,780 --> 00:10:16,060 We talked about sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks, and they had to, for example, shale, 110 00:10:16,060 --> 00:10:21,100 changes into slate, okay, and so on. 111 00:10:21,100 --> 00:10:29,220 Here's another solving puzzles with matching, okay, and they had to find the hidden word, 112 00:10:29,220 --> 00:10:33,740 which obviously is volcano, okay? 113 00:10:33,740 --> 00:10:39,980 They were often given word banks, but then it depends on, you know, the students that 114 00:10:39,980 --> 00:10:40,980 you have. 115 00:10:40,980 --> 00:10:45,380 You don't necessarily have to give word banks. 116 00:10:45,380 --> 00:10:53,820 Here's a lovely way of working with vocabulary, labeling diagrams, okay? 117 00:10:53,820 --> 00:10:59,820 Graphic organizers are fabulous, visuals are fabulous to work with, so they had to label 118 00:10:59,820 --> 00:11:08,540 the parts of the volcano, or you can give them the volcano picture, okay, with everything 119 00:11:08,540 --> 00:11:15,820 already labeled, and then maybe have them, depending on the level of your students, 120 00:11:15,820 --> 00:11:24,140 describe the composite volcano, and then compare with a shield volcano, okay? 121 00:11:24,140 --> 00:11:30,180 In one of the readings that we did, which was taken from New Scientist, it talked about 122 00:11:30,180 --> 00:11:35,060 the different types of faults, okay, the causes for some of the, one, I don't remember now 123 00:11:35,060 --> 00:11:40,660 which earthquake it was, but it talked about faults. 124 00:11:40,660 --> 00:11:47,980 So here, what they had to do was explain, or label, which was the dip-slip fault and 125 00:11:47,980 --> 00:11:54,460 which was the strike-slip fault, and then also indicate the San Andreas fault, because 126 00:11:54,460 --> 00:11:59,780 that came up in the reading. 127 00:11:59,780 --> 00:12:06,860 Another way of understanding if they have understood the content, not just the vocabulary, 128 00:12:06,860 --> 00:12:13,400 but the content, is synthesizing the content through a closed test. 129 00:12:13,400 --> 00:12:22,060 You can give the word bank, in this case I did, and they had to complete the summary 130 00:12:22,060 --> 00:12:30,300 of the text that I had given, which was much longer. 131 00:12:30,300 --> 00:12:36,980 They also did a lot of work with tasks, as I said, either in groups or in couples, and 132 00:12:36,980 --> 00:12:44,460 they had to summarize from the text that I had given them, in this table, all the earthquakes 133 00:12:44,460 --> 00:12:49,620 that were mentioned in that particular unit that we talked about, earthquakes, and then 134 00:12:49,620 --> 00:12:55,660 if there were other earthquakes that occurred in the last 100 years which were not mentioned 135 00:12:55,660 --> 00:13:01,780 during the unit, then they had to complete it, okay, and they were told to include any 136 00:13:01,780 --> 00:13:04,460 that happened in their own country. 137 00:13:04,460 --> 00:13:13,620 Another further step is to talk about emergency, okay, earthquake emergency measures taken 138 00:13:13,620 --> 00:13:19,500 during the quake and after the quake, so here, do's and don'ts. 139 00:13:19,500 --> 00:13:21,540 And of course, communication. 140 00:13:21,540 --> 00:13:27,980 As I said, we talked about, in one of the articles, it talked about San Andreas Falls, 141 00:13:27,980 --> 00:13:31,220 so we talked about building for the big one. 142 00:13:31,220 --> 00:13:38,940 What is the big one, okay, that's yet to come, so that we had discussions, in fact, 143 00:13:38,940 --> 00:13:43,700 some of the communicative interaction were questions such as, in which part of the world 144 00:13:43,700 --> 00:13:49,420 is the population holding its breath waiting for the big one to hit, okay, or can you explain 145 00:13:49,420 --> 00:13:52,540 the difference between the Mercalli Scale and the Richter Scale? 146 00:13:52,540 --> 00:14:00,180 What instruments are earthquakes measured with, et cetera? 147 00:14:00,180 --> 00:14:04,820 This one I used with the other group that I mentioned earlier because this is exactly 148 00:14:04,820 --> 00:14:11,660 what happened in their area, and unfortunately, I was unable to get a hold of one of the students 149 00:14:11,660 --> 00:14:18,020 who was an adult, married, family, who was taking this course to get a degree, and when 150 00:14:18,100 --> 00:14:24,300 he did his poster presentation, it was all personal, so all his pictures were personal 151 00:14:24,300 --> 00:14:28,220 pictures and I couldn't use them without his permission, so I'm afraid I can't show it 152 00:14:28,220 --> 00:14:29,220 to you. 153 00:14:29,220 --> 00:14:34,500 But he did a very good job, and obviously, this is the material that we worked from. 154 00:14:34,500 --> 00:14:41,300 This is taken from the Macmillan topic booklets. 155 00:14:41,300 --> 00:14:47,100 Same thing with hurricanes, taken from the same place. 156 00:14:47,180 --> 00:14:52,180 And then, of course, with the students, you can do some experiential work, okay? 157 00:14:52,180 --> 00:15:02,860 When we worked with minerals, rocks and minerals, then they talked about the hardness scale, 158 00:15:02,860 --> 00:15:09,940 okay, and they had to do this, actually scratch fingernails with one of these and figure out 159 00:15:09,940 --> 00:15:17,060 which was, okay, was a good, unfortunately, we were not able to use 160 00:15:17,060 --> 00:15:20,980 the geology lab, which would have been fabulous. 161 00:15:20,980 --> 00:15:25,060 If you have the opportunity to use it, great. 162 00:15:25,060 --> 00:15:30,140 Another thing which they did was not only give, when we talked about metamorphic rocks, 163 00:15:30,140 --> 00:15:38,020 not only give the origin, the original rock, okay, which changes to the metamorphic rock, 164 00:15:38,020 --> 00:15:43,860 for example, marble, but uses, what are they used in, okay? 165 00:15:43,860 --> 00:15:48,500 For example, soft coal changes to hard coal, and it's used for fuel. 166 00:15:48,500 --> 00:15:54,980 So they see the utility of what they're actually learning. 167 00:15:54,980 --> 00:16:02,460 Again, here, classifying and identifying rocks and minerals, okay, which ones are metamorphic, 168 00:16:02,460 --> 00:16:06,980 which ones are sedimentary, et cetera. 169 00:16:07,140 --> 00:16:14,540 This is one of the posters which they did, and then they present it to the class on rocks 170 00:16:14,540 --> 00:16:15,540 and minerals. 171 00:16:15,540 --> 00:16:21,860 It may seem very simple, but again, I'm talking about an A2, and by the end of the course, 172 00:16:21,860 --> 00:16:24,140 they were at a beginner B1. 173 00:16:24,140 --> 00:16:30,900 So I was proud, even though there were a few errors in this, but they managed to explain, 174 00:16:30,900 --> 00:16:36,300 to do the research on their own, and then present it to the class. 175 00:16:36,300 --> 00:16:40,420 So the benefits of CBI, L2 acquisition increases. 176 00:16:40,420 --> 00:16:44,820 Students learn language best when there is an emphasis on meaningful content rather than 177 00:16:44,820 --> 00:16:47,460 on language itself, and again, this is not new. 178 00:16:47,460 --> 00:16:49,340 We've heard it all day. 179 00:16:49,340 --> 00:16:52,980 Language learning becomes more concrete rather than abstract, as in traditional language 180 00:16:52,980 --> 00:16:58,780 instruction where the focus is on the language itself, and the more complex language is best 181 00:16:58,780 --> 00:17:02,940 taught within a framework that focuses on authentic content. 182 00:17:02,940 --> 00:17:09,100 In conclusion then, there is a definite relationship between CBI and ESP. 183 00:17:09,100 --> 00:17:15,860 Most agree that CBI is a form of ESP. 184 00:17:15,860 --> 00:17:21,580 Research conducted in a variety of programs has shown that CBI results in language learning, 185 00:17:21,580 --> 00:17:25,380 content learning, increased motivation, and interest levels. 186 00:17:25,380 --> 00:17:30,420 Students were definitely motivated, and they enjoyed the course because of the fact that 187 00:17:30,700 --> 00:17:38,900 what we were doing was related to what they were actually learning in their degree course. 188 00:17:38,900 --> 00:17:48,220 It wasn't just, you know, you're general every day, where's the bank, how do I get to, which 189 00:17:48,220 --> 00:17:54,500 is general English, equally important, but they need this for their academic studies. 190 00:17:54,500 --> 00:17:58,860 The integration of language and content throughout a sequence of language levels has the potential 191 00:17:58,860 --> 00:18:03,500 to address the challenge of gaps within basic language studies. 192 00:18:03,500 --> 00:18:04,740 Thank you for your attention.