I had the opportunity (for which I am truly grateful) to speak with Bev for 1.5 hours, one on one, about CBI and my confusion about it. As a student, it meant everything to me that she took that valuable time to devote just to me, and in doing so she has sparked an interest that otherwise could have been extinguished. I also said things that seemed to remind her of things she wanted to teach to the whole class, so I felt my questions were relevant: again, good for my level of interest and engagement and satisfaction.
I’m still trying to imagine CBI in contexts in which I may be likely to be teaching. I doubt I will be in a truly content-based classroom, teaching dual subjects, nor do I think I’ll be working in the adjunct model (two courses — language and content — linked. She describes the distinction between theme- and content-based in terms of outcome: In content-based, a passing grade is based on achieving content objectives (ELs may or may not be mainstreamed; with theme-based, a passing grade is dependent on achievement of language objectives. You help them develop the language within their work. The sheltered model is an ESL-specific setting.
She recommended a chapter (#43) in a book (Handbook of Educational Linguistics, Blackwell Publishing) which she co-edited with Donald Freeman and Francis Bailey.
Two other books she thought I might be interested in:
- Kathleen Graves: Teachers as Course Developers
- Developing a New Curriculum for Adult Learners
She says that theme-based is a valid approach for an entire ESL course, even with the seven weeks I have in Mexico. It is based first and foremost on my students’ interests, which I need to assess. So that makes it hard to do something w/ my WV stuff, which would require pre-work.
In response to my question about building lessons from linguistics up or them down: both are valid. Beginning with the theme, you need to learn to look deep into the material to find what you’re working with, beginning with its context and genre. As you dig deeper, its linguistic underpinnings become exposed. Let’s say you’re writing about the Buffalo Creek Disaster. What genre? Then: What kind of language is required for an expository piece? Then: What language functions do we need? Modals? (Vocab is always part of it.) What kind of word order? Relative clauses? What will I have to teach my learners that they’ll have to recognize?
It can be helpful to look for related texts written in layman’s terms.
You generally wouldn’t do an exercise like Buffalo Creek without its being part of a thread across many weeks: the environment, What is the impact of industrialization on human life in the environment? Depending on who are the learners and what are their goals, always.
My WV exercise, Bev agreed, is not PA: not generated by the students, and not having an action goal.
She can envision it being part of a series, including nuclear power, oil spills, and positive things where humans have worked in conjunction with nature.
Process might entail: Reading a text —> transferring to chart —> pair work —> cloze —> talking —> writing (with frames) = recycling the same linguistic points over and over. Frames can include who/what/where/when questions. (Work on relative clauses?)
Check out:
- The recent coal mining disaster in China
- Systemic functional linguistics
- Genre
Peter Masters on theme-based instruction (you really need to string topics together over a term)
World in Clair’s Classroom was theme-based (India): arts, culture, math, geography, social issues, religion