COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING

CONTENT – BASED INSTRUCTION

High SchoolStudents

MethodologyCommunicative

Competence

APPROACHES

CooperativeLanguage Learning

Content – BasedInstruction

Cooperative activities

Pairs and small groups

Second Language Teaching

Information * acquire

Linguistic / syllabus

COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING

group learning activity

Dependent on the socially structured exchange

of information

Learners in groups

Antecedents Peer

tutoringPeer

monitoring

Early Twentieth Century

John Dervey

Building cooperation

Regular classrooms

UNITED STATES (1960s – 1970s)

Educators

traditional models of classroom learning Teacher -fronted

Competition * Cooperation

C.L.L. has helped educators to fulfill:

Raise the achievement of

allstudents

Help them build positive

relationship

Give students the experiences they need for healthy

social development

Replace the competitive organizational structure

With a team – based high performance

GOALS OF COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING

To provide opportunities for naturalistic S. L.

acquisition

To provide teachers with a methodology

*communicative competence

To enable focused attention to particular

lexical items

To provide opportunities for learners to develop successful learning and

communication strategies

Motivate students and reduce learners stress.

Create a positive affective classroom climate

THEORIES FOCUSING THE IMPORTANCE OF COOPERATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING

Theory of

Language

Support: structural functional models

Interactional models

Theory of Learning

Instructional

Small groups

TYPES OF COOPERATIVE

LEARNING GROUPS

Formal Cooperative

Learning Groups

One – several weeks

Specific task

Informal Cooperative

Learning Groups

Few minutes to a class period .

Facilitate Learning* Direct

teaching

Cooperative Base

Groups

Long term (1 year) *

heterogeneous learning groups

THREE MAJOR KINDS OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING TASKS

1. Team practice from common input – skill development and mastery of facts

All students work on the same material

Make sure that everyone in the groups knows the answer

How can we as teachers encourage a group of learners who apparently have low motivation to work in the activity

mentioned before?

2. JIGSAW

Evaluation and synthesis of facts and opinions. Each member receives a

different piece of the information*** Discussion

3. COOPERATIVE PROJECTS

Topics / resources

Subtopics for each group member.

Making mistakes TEAMWORK

SKILLS

How can we as language teachers achieve this goal of getting students

work together in groups?

Teachers must create a highly Structured

well organized learning environment

Setting goalsPlanning and structuring

tasks

Establishing th physical

arragement of the classroom

Assigning students to groups and roles

Selecting material and

time

CONTENT – BASED INSTRUCTION

Content orinformation

Little or no direct effort

Brinton, Snow, Wesche (1989)

Saint Agustine

Focus on meaningful content in Language

Teaching

Approach Communivative

Language Teaching in the

1980s

TWO CENTRAL PRINCIPLES

People learn a second language more successfully when they use the

language as a means of acquiring

information

Content – Based Instruction

better reflects learner’s needs for learning a

second language

TWO THEORIES

Theory of Language

Theory of

Learning

Text – and discourse - based

Use draws on Integrated skills

Is purposeful

Information: interesting, useful

Content areas are most useful as basis for L.L. than

others

learn best when instruction addresses student’s needs.

Descriptions of activity types in Content – Based Instruction

( Stoller)

Language skills improvement

Vocabulary building

Discourse

organization

Communicative interaction

Study

skills

Synthesis on content

materials and grammar

How can we as teachers achieve all these goals with the students using

Content – Based instruction?

Providing speaking practice of the

English Language

Ask questions and answer them

using the target language

Build

Vocabulary

MAKE MISTAKES

Freedom to work

Teachers don’t discourage the participation of

students in class

Freedom of Selection

AutonomousUnderstand their

own learning process

Take charge of their own learning

Develop high levels of

Student esteem

Essential skills for Content Based

Instructor

Varying the format of classroom isntruction

Group work team building Jigsaw reading

arrangementsBackground knowledge

and language skills

Process approaches to writingCoping

strategies

Appropriate error

correction techniques

C.L.L. Cooperation

competition

Develop critical thinking skills

***Communicative competence

Content Based

Instruction

Teaching of content and information

in the language

being learned

Team work * team building

Express their ideas appropriately and

freely