FOCUS ON BUSINESS ENGLISH

Teaching Content to English Language Learners

3 Goals for Content-Area Instruction

Content Goals—“conceptual learning of knowledge and skills required by the subject matter”

Language Goals—“address learning the precise vocabulary words and sentence patterns needed to communicate content”

General Skills— “means attaining study skills that promote both language and content learning”

“Communicate in the language of the subject and about the subject (construct meaning)”(Hernandez 2003)

Excellent Resource

Teach Strategies for Studying

MetacognitiveWhat will help me learn?

o What do I know?o What do I need to

know?o How can I divide

projects into doable segments?

CognitivePractice

o Memorizing techniqueso Flash cardso Note-taking

SocialCooperative Learning

o Homeworko Studying

Combining Strategies

Think-Alouds and ModelingPurpose—the step-by-step process involved in completing many types of activities

How does your classmate’s brain workActual examples

Students Share Think-Alouds and Modeling

Your student correctly infers information from text EXAMPLE: “That would be a risky company to invest in.”

ASK: Where did you find the information that helped you with that?

Your student solves a complex problem. ASK: How did you figure out that answer?Your student presents an informed opinion on a topic. ASK: What information led you to this opinion?Your student gets a good grade on a test. ASK: How exactly did you study for this test.

Language Goals

Content-obligatory—language essential to an understanding of content material

Content-compatible—language that can be taught naturally within the course of teaching content, language that must be practiced (academic word list) (grammar) (conversational)According to Snow, Met and Genesee (1989)

Stock Market—Finance Content

1. New York Stock Exchange2. NASDAQ3. S&P 5004. Bulls and Bears5. soared, plummeted, flattened, leveled

out, rebounded, recovered, forecast6. present perfect, past, future, conditional

Which is content-obligatory? Which is content compatible?

Content-Compatible—Functions & Forms

Example: Investigates the Fall of Beach BallsFunctions needed to discuss the article?SummarizeInterpret/ReactDescribingForms needed to summarize, interpret, use vocabulary?Complex SentencesCause and Effect (due to, as a result of, led to)Metaphorical/content-compatible vocabularyReading Log Form

Academic Resource:A Conceptual Framework for the Integration of Language and Content in Second/Foreign Language InstructionMarguerite Ann Snow, Myriam Met, Fred Genesee

Obligatory Compatible

launchadvertising campaignsocial mediacompetitorsmarket sharetagline: “Think Different”tweak vs. revamp

collocations differentiated fromfixed phrases “keep up with demand” “ramp up” “have a hit on their hands”comparatives sleeker, smoother, more powerful, supreme (from car desciptions)

Marketing Obligatory & Compatible Language

Marketing Lesson

VIDEO 4 P's

Orabrush (promotion) Subway (price)Food Truck (place)Tee Shirts into Blankets (product)

Content-Obligatory: promotion, price, place, product

Content-Compatible: launch, debut, roll outbreakthrough, innovative, edgy, cutting edge

4 P’s exercise

ZhuZhu Pets

Resources for Content PowerPoints

Free Presentations:ppt format & interactive

Scaffolding

“in order to learn a person must be active, and the activity must be partly familiar and partly new, so that attention can be focused on useful changes and knowledge can be increased.

Van der Lier (1996) as cited in Gibbons (2003)ed”

Too much or too little teacher talk??

Too close a match between “teacher talk” and students’, ss won’t learn enough.

Too great a distance between “teacher talk” and students’, ss won’t understand enough.

Interaction between teacher and learner is key. (Cummins 1996 as cited in Gibbons 2003)

Activate learners’ background knowledge in the area of study:

KWL What do I know? What do I want to know? What will I learnKWL Worksheets

Viral Marketing KWL Worksheet

KWhat I Know

WWhat I Want To Learn

LWhat I Have Learned

              

              

              

 

Teaching Content

Finding the medium Current News/ArticlesMARKETING: Viral MarketingCBS NEWS Story video and transcript “Old Spice”United Breaks GuitarsEvian BabiesFINANCE: Tour of Wall Street Worksheets Practice—Virtual Stock Market Brainpop for stocks and sharesREAL-LIFE examples Warren Buffett

Graphic Organizers

Link to a variety of graphic organizers

Concept/Event Map—connects concepts and events good for current events

Additional Academic Resources

Mediating Language Learning: Teacher Interactions with ESL Students in a Content-Based Classroom Pauline Gibbons