what happened in class

Stephanie and Brian had their turn to present. They had a fun SpongeBob game for us to play. Somehow we also ended up watching Monty Python. The focus of the class was on the differences in behaviorist, interactionist, and innatist theories.

We also discussed SIOP: Content-based or sheltered instruction where English is used to teach other subjects without focusing on the English language. I had some experience with this in Mexico. My students had American textbooks for Science. Some people in class said they didn't think this was particularly helpful, and that students might understand less or be less motivated this way. However, someone said it's easier to learn in a content-based situation when you already have some knowledge of the subject in your own language. I felt this was true with my Mexican students. When we started a new topic that I thought might be difficult for them to comprehend (volume and mass, for example), they really didn't have any trouble with it at all because they had already had been exposed to the material in Spanish. It was a review for them- they learned the same thing over again, but this time with English as vehicle for learning.

I can see the other point of view on content-based learning too. I once took a language course where the instructor played a tape from an opera for us. Nobody (except for the instructor) had any background with or interest in opera, and the students were therefore not motivated to engage in discussion about it. This was a class where students were supposed to be discussing different topics in the target language. In order for this to work, the topic needed to have some relevance to the students. Unfortunately, this instructor did not recognize that this topic would fall flat. I think content-based learning can be used successfully, but that some thought needs to be put into it.