Content-based Learning

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Content-based Learning

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“Second language is most effectively learned when used as the medium to convey informational content of interest and relevance to the learner.”1

Overview

Take a look at the above quote again. Specifically, focus on the words  “most effectively learned…content of interest and relevance”.  What does this mean to you as the learner of the English language? Can you imagine a course that does not require you to review all the grammar rules? Can you imagine a course that gets you to learn language just by getting you interested in the content? Have you ever tried to learn content of interest in another language? If you answered “no” to these questions, you are about to be exposed to learning language in a very different way than what you may have been used to in the past. This learning environment has been created to encourage the learner (that’s you) to learn language through the content you study, and to integrate all the skills of language learning – listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Important Ideas about Content-based Language Learning

When we talk about “content-based language learning”, there are a few important points that you, the learner, must be aware of:

1. Language and Content – The Interrelationship
You will often see there is little separation between language instruction and the requirement to listen to and use real language in your English course. For example, if you are asked to “take notes”, this type of exercise gets you to think and write in English. First, you must write down important key concepts you hear; second, to do this you must understand the English; and third, if you have difficulty understanding the concept and/or the English you must go back and work on understanding it. If you are thinking, “this is a lot of work”, you are right. This type of language learning requires you to work harder and be more patient with yourself. Just keep thinking the more practice and “experience” in the language you get, the greater the progress toward the goal of becoming a better communicator in English.

2. Content-based Curriculum – The Interests and Needs of the Learner
Learning language through content that interests you should motivate you to learn content combined with English. We are assuming that you are interested in the subject matter, and hopefully this will make the learning of English an easier process.

3. Contextual Learning of Language
When you learn language in context, you are being exposed to meaningful language in use.  Therefore, the focus becomes how to USE the language and not the RULES of the language. If you have studied the “rules” of English for several years already, you will know that this has not given you the necessary communicative competence to really feel confident in using the language with others who speak English as their first language. Especially in a professional context, people like to feel that they have the necessary language to avoid uncomfortable situations caused by miscommunication in another language.

Implications for Your Learning

As you can see, the point of content-based learning is to give you knowledge of an academic discipline combined with English knowledge to make you a more confident communicator in English. We invite you to be open to this new approach to learning language, and we challenge you to work hard. Most of all, we hope you will enjoy the content and approach to learning!


1 Brinton D., Snow M., Wesche M., Content-based Second Language Instruction, Newbury House Publishers, NY, 1989.

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