Academic Writing in Content-Based Language Teaching Through Technology (CoBaLTT)

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Academic Writingin Content-Based Language
Teaching Through Technology (CoBaLTT)

• Tetsuo HaradaSchool of EducationWaseda
  University, Tokyo, Japantharada_at_waseda.jp

This PPT file is available on the
Internet http//www.f.waseda.jp/tharada/actfl/cbi
.ppt
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Collaborator

• Kyoko Sato
• University of California
• San Diego

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Outline of the talk

• Purposes
• Overview of CBI and Technology (BBS)
• Overview of the EFL Course Content-based
  academic writing through technology
• Research Questions
• Online Language Exchange and Writing Skills
• Students Perceptions about CBI and BBS
• Discussion and Conclusion

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Purposes

• Integration of language and content in an EFL
  academic writing course through technology
• Effects of online language exchange on writing
  skills
• Students perceptions about CBI and online
  language exchange

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Definition of CBI

• Content-based second language instruction (CBI)
  can be traced back to immersion programs in
  Canada in the 1960s.
• In Europe, CBI is also referred to as content and
  language integrated learning (CLIL).

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Definition of CBI, contd

• Wesche (1993, 57) defines CBI as follows
• Content-based language teaching is distinguished
  first of all by the concurrent learning of a
  specific content and related language use skills
  in a content-driven curriculum, i.e., with the
  selection and sequencing of language elements
  determined by the content.

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Types of CBI
(Brinton, 2003 Brinton, Snow and Wesche, 1989
Wesche, 1993)
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Types of CBI, contd

• Theme-based instruction
• The language course is organized around a series
  of topics and themes from available authentic
  materials, on which language activities are based.

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Types of CBI, contd

• Sustained-content language teaching
• SCLT, similar to theme-based instruction,
  focuses on a single content area or topic as well
  as L2 learning and teaching. The content is
  sustained during a whole course, which allows
  students to work with only one topic and more
  deeply engage the content (Pally, 2000 Murphy
  and Stoller, 2001).

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Rationales for CBI

• Grabe and Stoller (1997)
• Second language acquisition research
• Training studies (e.g., cooperative learning,
  learning strategy instruction, extensive reading)
• Educational and cognitive psychology (e.g.,
  cognitive learning theory, depth-of-processing
  research, discourse comprehension processing
  research, motivation research, expertise
  research)
• Program outcomes (e.g., ESL and EFL contexts)

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Overview of the Course

• Content-based academic writing
• An EFL academic writing course at a university
  level
• Met once a week and thirty times a year (90
  minutes X 30 sessions)
• Sustained-content language teaching, in which a
  theme of education in the U.S. was discussed
  during the full-year course.

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Overview of the Course, contd

• Integration of SCLT with Technology
• A Bulletin Board System (BBS) is a computer
  system running software that allows users to
  connect and login to the system.
• BBS allows for asynchronous online discussion.
• Login
• Front Page
• Sample BBS

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Overview of the Course, contd

• BBS Asynchronous online language exchange
• 30 intermediate Japanese learners of English
  (EFL) were paired with English-speaking learners
  of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) at a
  university in the United States.
• Both groups were required to login to the BBS
  site and write messages in their target language.

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Overview of the Course, contd

• BBS Asynchronous online language exchange
• The EFL group watched a documentary on education
  in the U.S. and posted their questions,
  impressions, and issues raised in the video on
  the BBS site in English.
• The JFL group replied to the EFL learners
  messages in Japanese.

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Research Questions

1. To what extent does online language exchange
   (BBS) affect the EFL learners writing skills?
2. How do the perceptions about SCLT and BBS vary
   according to the self-assessment of their writing
   skills?

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Method

• Participants
• 30 intermediate Japanese learners of English as
  a foreign language (EFL)
• Analysis of Writing Skills
• All the English messages posted on the BBS site
  were analyzed.
• Sentence complexity was measured with T-units.

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Method, contd

• Analysis of Writing Skills, contd
• A T-unit is one main clause with all subordinate
  clauses attached to it (Hunt, 1965).
• Example
• I like the movie. (1 T-unit with 4 words)
• I like the movie we saw about Shakespeare. (1
  T-unit with 8 words)

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Method, contd

• Analysis of Writing Skills, contd
• T-unit length indicates sentence complexity. The
  second example is grammatically more complex than
  the first one.
• Mean T-unit lengths for a spring semester and the
  following fall semester were compared.

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Method, contd

• Analysis of Perceptions about SCLT and BBS
• Questionnaire
• Self-assessment of writing skills
• Perceptions about SCLT and BBS
• The individual responses (i.e., 5-likert type
  scale) were assigned numbers 1-5 1 for strongly
  disagree and 5 for strongly agree.

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Method, contd

• Analysis of Perceptions about SCLT and BBS
• The 30 participants were divided into three
  subgroups (the upper, mid, and lower levels) by
  the self-assessment of their writing skills.

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Results

• Sentence Complexity

Spring Fall
Mean T-unit Length 7.58 8.76
SD 1.15 1.33
t 4.941, df 29, p .000
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Results, contd

• Positive Perceptions about SCLT
• 22 students (71) responded that it was useful to
  link writing instruction with the content.
• 24 students (77) responded that they learned
  much about the content covered in class.

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Results, contd

• Negative Perceptions about BBS
• Only 3 students (10) responded positively about
  BBS discussions with university students in the
  U.S.
• Only 8 students (25) actively participated in
  the BBS discussion.
• Only 2 students (6) responded that their
  partners actively replied to their messages.

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Results, contd
Perceptions of SCLT and BBS According to the
Self-Assessment of Writing Skills
Self-Assessment of Writing Skills Perceptions about SCLT (SD) Perceptions about BBS (SD)
Upper level (n 10) 3.4 (.68) 2.6 (.72)
Mid level (n 10) 3.6 (.41) 2.4 (.53)
Lower level (n 10) 2.7(.43) 2.6 (.68)
Total (N 30) 3.2 (.63) 2.5 (.63)
SCLT F(2, 26) 5.911, p .008, BBS F(2, 26)
.476, p .627 p lt .05
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Discussion and Conclusion

• Sustained-content language teaching
• The integration of content with the curriculum
  for academic writing skills during the whole
  year-long course (SCLT) was fairly accepted by
  the intermediate (high and mid) university
  students.

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Discussion and Conclusion, contd

• Sustained-content language teaching
• Students with poor writing skills have negative
  attitudes toward SCLT. This finding may suggest
  that the successful implementation of SCLT as
  opposed to theme-based instruction depends on
  students proficiency level of a target language.

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Discussion and Conclusion, contd

• Effects of BBS on writing skills
• The mean T-unit lengths significantly differed
  between the two semesters. However, the
  difference, which was slight, may not be
  meaningful. In other words, we cannot conclude
  that the online language exchange helped the
  students improve their writing skills.

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Discussion and Conclusion, contd

• Students perceptions about BBS
• Although technology is innovative in foreign
  language teaching, the students did not show any
  positive perceptions about the use of BBS in the
  SCLT classroom.
• Language exchange may not have worked well.
• Low participation of the partners
• Problems with the students motivation

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Discussion and Conclusion, contd

• Caveat
• Teachers should not be too optimistic about the
  integration of technology into the foreign
  language curriculum.

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References

• Brinton, D. (2003). Content-based instruction. In
  Nunan, D. (Ed.), Practical English language
  teaching (pp. 199-224). New York McGraw-Hill.
• Brinton, D., Snow, M., Wesche, M. (1989).
  Content-based second language instruction.
  Boston, MA Heinle Heinle.
• Grabe, W. Stoller, F. L. (1997). Content-based
  instruction Research foundations. In M. Snow
  D. Brinton (Eds.), The content-based classroom
  Perspectives on integrating language and content.
  New York Addison Wesley Longman.
• Hunt, K. (1965). Grammatical structures written
  at three grade levels. NCTE Research report No.
  3. Champaign, IL, USA NCTE.
• Murphy, J. M. Stoller, F. L. (2001). Sustained
  content language teaching An emerging
  definition. TESOL Journal 10 (2/3).
• Pally, M. (Ed.). (2000). Sustained-content
  teaching in academic ESL/EFL. Boston, MA
  Houghton Mifflin.
• Wesche, M. B. (1993). Discipline-based approaches
  to language study Research issues and outcomes.
  In M. Krueger F. Ryan (Eds.), Language and
  content Discipline- and content-based approaches
  to language study (pp. 57-82). Lexington, MA D.
  C. Heath.