This paper explores three College English teachers' perceived difficulties in teaching content-based courses in the Chinese context and opportunities for their change in the knowledge base. Interviews and classroom o...This paper explores three College English teachers' perceived difficulties in teaching content-based courses in the Chinese context and opportunities for their change in the knowledge base. Interviews and classroom observation were used to collect data. After coding and recoding of the audio data, the researcher found that College English teachers face the following difficulties: positioning of themselves, commitment to the course, students' expectation, the balance between language and content, and administrative support. Meanwhile, the experience of teaching content-based courses offered them an opportunity to increase their knowledge of the content, the learners, and educational values. Some implications for CBI (content-based instruction) in curriculum reform were put forward at the end of the paper.展开更多
Content-based instruction has been gaining widespread popularity in the teaching of both ESL and EFL. Despite its reported and recognized advantages, however, many English teachers fail to make full use of its content...Content-based instruction has been gaining widespread popularity in the teaching of both ESL and EFL. Despite its reported and recognized advantages, however, many English teachers fail to make full use of its content and benefits of language learning. In addition, there are comparatively few studies which offer theoretical foundation for content-based teaching and constructive suggestions for its integration in the settings of EFL. This article aims to connect theory with practice and help teachers of EFL in China to maximize the potential of content-based instruction. To achieve this goal, it first presents a short literature review on project-based instruction, followed by a summary of its advantages and beneficial outcomes of using the intemet in order to implement it. It then proposes an eight-step process for the sequencing of project work and finally demonstrate a real-world project specially designed for Chinese EFL students. Both the design and the teaching activities proposed can be easily transferred to other settings..展开更多
文摘This paper explores three College English teachers' perceived difficulties in teaching content-based courses in the Chinese context and opportunities for their change in the knowledge base. Interviews and classroom observation were used to collect data. After coding and recoding of the audio data, the researcher found that College English teachers face the following difficulties: positioning of themselves, commitment to the course, students' expectation, the balance between language and content, and administrative support. Meanwhile, the experience of teaching content-based courses offered them an opportunity to increase their knowledge of the content, the learners, and educational values. Some implications for CBI (content-based instruction) in curriculum reform were put forward at the end of the paper.
文摘Content-based instruction has been gaining widespread popularity in the teaching of both ESL and EFL. Despite its reported and recognized advantages, however, many English teachers fail to make full use of its content and benefits of language learning. In addition, there are comparatively few studies which offer theoretical foundation for content-based teaching and constructive suggestions for its integration in the settings of EFL. This article aims to connect theory with practice and help teachers of EFL in China to maximize the potential of content-based instruction. To achieve this goal, it first presents a short literature review on project-based instruction, followed by a summary of its advantages and beneficial outcomes of using the intemet in order to implement it. It then proposes an eight-step process for the sequencing of project work and finally demonstrate a real-world project specially designed for Chinese EFL students. Both the design and the teaching activities proposed can be easily transferred to other settings..