Programming for Integration of Content and Language Learning

Abstract

Chapter Overview This chapter focuses on current approaches to and diverse conceptualizations of programme options for integrating content learning with language learning. This discussion is especially important against the background of rising trends of schools using an L2, L3 or AL (i.e. a second, third or additional language) for content instruction in at least some school subjects in many parts of Asia, Europe and worldwide. While LAC first arose in the 1970s in Britain as an approach to promoting the teaching of academic English across different school subjects in L1-English speaking contexts (Bullock 1975; Marland and Barnes 1977), content-based instruction (CBI) as an umbrella term encompassing different forms of bilingual education has arisen in con-texts where L2, L3 or AL learning is an important goal. In this chapter I shall first discuss the theoretical issues underpinning different conceptualizations of how content learning and language learning can be integrated. Then I shall discuss the principles underlying diverse programme models and terms which both overlap and differ in some aspects. In order to help the reader to gain a handle on these diverse terms, I am proposing an analytical framework to classify and design existing and new programme models, while alerting the reader to the unresolved issues and debates in the research literature about the different meanings and definitions given to different programme labels by different people. © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2016 A.M.Y. Lin, Language Across the Curriculum & CLIL in English as an Additional Language (EAL) Contexts, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1802-2_7 143 7.1 Theoretical Issue: Isn't Content and Language Always Already Integrated? From a functional linguistic point of view, language and content are always already integrated (Halliday 1993). Language is the primary semiotic (meaning-making) resource to construe (i.e. to construct and understand) content and so what do we mean when we talk about integrating content and language learning? The key to understanding this is to differentiate between using discipline-specific language to teach content on the one hand, and teaching discipline-specific language to talk about content on the other. That is, when we ask the question: how can we integrate content learning with language learning, our focus is a pedagogical one (Dalton-Puffer 2013) as well as a programme design one. It is important to link this discussion back to Mahboobian 3-dimensional framework of language variation discussed in Chap. 2. Of particular relevance here is the differentiation between domains of language use for everyday purposes and those domains for specialized (e.g. academic content) purposes. In English as second/foreign or additional lan-guage (ESL/EFL/EAL) lessons, students are largely learning how to use language in everyday domains. However, in academic content lessons students are learning content through specialized language use. This disconnection (see discussion in Chap. 4) needs to be addressed through paying special attention to questions of how language learning and content learning can be integrated across the curriculum. Application Scenario 7.1: Buy One Get One Free?