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Towards integrating television materials into english teaching and learning at the national university of Rwanda: an exploratory case study of the second year english course

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par Pravda Mfurankunda
University of the Western Cape, Cape Town - Masters in Education 2005
  

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2.6. Content- Based Instruction (CBI)

As mentioned earlier, this study also seeks to answer the first subsidiary research question (see Section 1.3.): what is the current approach to language teaching at the NUR? In this study, I was not able to conduct classroom observations to see what the prevailing teaching approach is but I was able to examine the content of the academic English programmes. In this regard, principles of a Content-Based Instruction model to language teaching will be of help. The latter constitutes a starting point for evaluating the current English programmes at the NUR. In fact, from my observations the prevailing teaching and learning practices in this institution reflect a content-oriented language teaching approach. This will be highlighted further in Chapter 4.

This form of instruction has been at the centre of the debates among several scholars and some of them are referred to below. For instance, Davies (2003) in his article provides us with a simple definition of CBI in line with the EFL context. He states that Content based instruction (CBI) is a teaching method that emphasises learning about something rather than learning language (2003:1). Curtin (1995:2), on her part stresses that Content-based instruction is a method of teaching foreign languages that integrates language instruction with instruction in the content areas. She adds that in this approach the foreign language is used as the medium for teaching subject content, such as mathematics or social studies, from the regular classroom curriculum. The list of definitions is not exhaustive. According to Richards & Rodgers (2001:204) Content- based instruction (CBI) refers to an approach to second language teaching in which teaching is organised around the content or information that students will acquire, rather than around a linguistic or other type of syllabus. To be more specific, they specify that CBI as an approach is grounded on the following two central principles:

(1) People learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information, rather than as an end in itself .

(2) Content-based instruction better reflects learner's needs for learning a second language. (2003:207)

They further emphasise that the second principle reflects the fact that many content based programmes serve to prepare ESL students for academic studies or for mainstreaming (2001:207). As a consequence, CBI proponents argue that a central priority would be to access the content of academic learning and teaching as quickly as possible, as well as the processes through which such learning and teaching are realised (2001:207) Within the approach to CBI, there is a theory of language and a number of assumptions about the nature of language underlie it. In this respect, Richards & Rodgers (2001:208) put forward three main points to take into account:

(1) Language is text-and discourse based;

(2) Language draws on integrated skills;

(3) Language is purposeful.

Briefly speaking, the first statement has to do with the fact that CBI addresses the role of language as a vehicle for learning content. The second one deals with the fact that CBI views language use as involving several skills together. The third and last, advocates the use of language for specific purposes. With regard to the theory of learning underlying CBI, the scholars make reference to the first core principle as listed earlier on as an indication (i.e. People learn a second language more successfully when they use the language as a means of acquiring information, rather than as an end in itself) In other words, acquiring information or the content itself constitutes the point of departure or organising principle of the course. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001:209)

Kagwesage (2001:22) states that advocates of the content-based model believe that language and content development should not be regarded in isolation from each other. Rather they are related and therefore students can learn the target language while they are learning other subjects. This is the case for second year English students at the NUR and more details on this are provided in Section 4.5.5.

As Crandall (1987:5) says, the focus is not just on learning the language, but in using it as a medium to learn something else. When using a language as a medium of learning (which is the case for the English students at the NUR), as Snow et.al put it, and when the learners' second language is both the object and medium of instruction, the content of each lesson must be taught simultaneously with skills necessary for understanding it (1989:202). In the next section, I briefly discuss the principles of materials design.

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