Content‐Based Language Instruction

What is the “content” of second or foreign language teaching? A visitor to a second or foreign language class might observe the teacher teaching a grammar point such as relative clauses, students working in pairs to give directions from a map, or a small group listening to a taped folk tale. In a class at another school, the visitor might find the class reading an article about wildlife trafficking one day, and, in the next class session, participating in an activity in which they read biographies of wildlife traffickers, then state their opinions, using expressions such as “I think _________ should go to jail because __________.” At the end of the two-week unit, students prepare a poster and make presentations about endangered animals, displaying information on the causes of endangered status and current conservation efforts. Keywords: esl/efl; educational linguistics; language for academic purposes