A Study On Content-Based Instruction In Ethnic CET Classroom

Content-Based Instruction (CBI) is a kind of teaching approach which combineslanguage instruction with subject knowledge, and it is developed to meet the specificneeds of individual students and to promote the learning of new subject-basedknowledge. CBI uses the content, learning objectives, and activities from the schoolcurriculum as the vehicle for teaching language skills, and it has been shown to resultin enhanced motivation, self-confidence, language proficiency, and cultural literacy.Although, historically, CBI has been implemented primarily at the elementary schoollevel, its potential positive impact on secondary and post-secondary languageinstruction has been acknowledged. Accordingly, under the guidance of the secondlanguage acquisition theory，the current study aims at probing into the application ofCBI in college English teaching in ethnic colleges， and it is conducted to mainlyaddress the following three questions:1) What kinds of content are suitable for junior ethnic CET classroom?2) How can the CBI approach be applied to the ethnic CET classroom?3) What is the effect of applying CBI approach to ethnic CET classroom?In order to answer the three questions,50freshmen who majored in InternationalTrade from Hubei Institute for Nationalities were invited to participate in theexperimental CBI class, and a questionnaire and an interview were designed andcarried out to collect data for both the quantitative and qualitative analysis. At the endof the study, the researcher firstly found that those interesting and fashionableauthentic materials related to the students’ specialty knowledge, e.g. commercial newsreport of BBC, was suitable for junior ethnic students in the CET classroom.Moreover, according to students’ response, the examination skills for passing CET4orCET6should also be presented in class. Secondly, since CBI class aims to improvethe language proficiency through subject matters, the teachers can employ variousactivities focusing on the subject knowledge, and provide the students opportunities to accomplish the learning tasks with the help of subject knowledge, and the studentshave achieved language training during the process of finishing tasks. Finally, theresults of the post-questionnaire and interview indicates that the CBI approach iseffective in the ethnic CET classroom by increasing the students’ motivation andinterest in language learning as well as improving their language ability like speakingand listening.It is expected that this research can throw some light on the CET classroom forethnic students.