1.4 It's Time for a Language-Driven Model of CBI
According to Hasan (1996), literacy is a language-based semiosis; it involves the use of contextualized language. This means that a more effective way to develop students' advanced literacy in a foreign language education context such as China is likely through a language-driven model of CBI, or the so-called "weak" form of CBI (Stoller, 2004), where language learning objectives are foregrounded and content learning objectives are of secondary importance. In this model (see Figure 1-3), content, though important and necessary, is not the focus of instruction. Rather, it is used as a springboard for language exploration, grammar instruction, and literacy learning. In other words, students are expected to learn language and develop literacy through content more than the other way around (i.e., learn content through language/literacy), although both processes do occur simultaneously. This is unlike in content area classrooms with English-medium instruction, where content runs supreme and language becomes the means for accessing and learning content. Given the historical contexts that led to the genesis of CBI (Stoller, 2004), content-based instruction is not, and should not be equated with, content instruction. Its full name is content-based language/literacy instruction, which means language/literacy is the focus and language/literacy instruction should be conducted in a context rich with content.
Teaching Language and Literacy in Content Context
Figure 1-3 A Language-Driven CBI Curriculum for English Students
There are several reasons for making language and literacy teaching content-based (Schleppegrell, Achugar & Oteiza, 2004; Schleppegrell & de Oliveira, 2006). First, language and content are inextricably tied together: one does not exist without the other. Content is prototypically codified and transmitted in language, and rich language patterns are found only in authentic texts that are rich in content. Second, language/literacy learning is best facilitated, not in isolation, but in content-rich contexts in which language is used. That is, language and literacy are most effectively developed when they are embedded in the learning of disciplinary content and habits of mind. Third, the use of meaningful language in turn motivates and engages students in learning. Learning language and literacy in a vacuum through decontextualized worksheet exercises makes the learning/teaching experience dry, uninspiring, and ineffective. Fourth, the use of rich content from diverse academic disciplines affords students authentic opportunities to engage with the habits of mind that are essential to both language/literacy learning and knowledge building. For example, scientific language (or academic language in general) can be more effectively learned when students have the opportunity to use scientific habits of mind (i.e., dispositions such as evidence-based thinking, integrity, critical-mindedness, skepticism, curiosity, openness to new ideas, imagination) in the process of investigating a scientific problem or issue that they find relevant and compelling.
It is worth noting that in a language-driven model of CBI, content does not have to be highly technical, overtly systematic, or always the most current; but the language that presents this content must contain grammatical patterns characteristic of the more specialized texts of a particular discipline and/or common to academic texts across multiple disciplines. The lessening of technicality and systematicity requirements in content selection is likely to increase the willingness and confidence of English teachers to embrace the advanced language/literacy development work, which should be their primary responsibility.(https://www.daowen.com)
For example, in teaching students about the linguistic features of science, English teachers do not necessarily have to use a college-level science textbook or academic articles from highly specialized journals (e.g., Cell, Nature). They can instead use trade books written by scientists for public consumption, such as A Window on Eternity: A Biologist's Walk Through Gorongosa National Park, which was written by the biologist and Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Wilson (2014); The Ebola Epidemic: The Fight, The Future, which was written by a registered nurse named Connie Goldsmith (2016); or Breakfast in the Rainforest: A Visit with Mountain Gorillas, which was written by an award-winning photographer Richard Sobol (2008). Compared with the more technical texts, these resources are in some ways better for English students because they infuse elements of humanities and social sciences in the writing, which can deepen a key scientific understanding that is particularly helpful for students to develop — the interdependence among science, society, history, and culture. Although some of these trade books — such as those rated by the National Council of Teachers of English (USA), National Science Teachers Association (USA), and National Council for the Social Studies (USA) as outstanding for their content and literary qualities — are written for native speakers of English in elementary, secondary, and tertiary schools, they are ideal for college students who are learning English as an additional or foreign language in that they can cater to learners with varying reading levels and language proficiencies. Other such resources for the teaching of academic English can be found in popular magazines (e.g., The Economist, Time, National Geographic), newspapers (e.g., China Daily, Washington Post, New York Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph), and websites (e.g., U.S. Public Broadcasting Service).
Texts from these resources are often written by content experts but recontextualized for a less specialized audience. They generally contain linguistic features characteristic of the more specialized texts within specific disciplines. For example, Text 1-3, an excerpt from Wilson's (2014) A Window into Eternity (pp. 125-126), uses language patterns (e.g., nominal syntax) that are more commonly found in academic and scientific texts (c.f., Biber & Gray, 2016; Halliday & Martin, 1993), including technical vocabulary (e.g., organisms, alien pathogen, chytrid fungus), nominalizations (e.g., reduction, modification, pollution, extinction), dense noun phrases (e.g., the establishment of a single alien pathogen of uncertain origin, the extinction of at least 10 percent of its plant and animal species), and within-clause logical reasoning (e.g., use of verbs such as can be, has resulted in, caused, has reduced, and is driving, instead of conjunctions, to establish causal relations). Facility with these features can go a long way in helping students read and write in more powerful ways.
Text 1-3
Disease organisms are especially dangerous. The establishment of a single alien pathogen of uncertain origin can be catastrophic to the new hosts it invades. The accidental introduction of a chytrid fungus (possibly African) into Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, North America, and the American tropics has resulted in the loss or reduction of scores of species of frogs. During the past one hundred years, human modification of rivers, streams, and lakes in North America alone (mostly through damming and pollution) has caused the extinction of at least sixty freshwater fish species. Our environmental domination of the land and sea has reduced Earth's biodiversity through the extinction of at least 10 percent of its plant and animal species, mostly in the last century. It is driving species at an accelerating rate through conservation biology's descending categories of "threatened", "endangered", "critically endangered", and finally, "extinct".