Assessing Academic Language Proficiency and Academic Achievement: The Bridge to Accountability

Running Head : CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTION

Insert Full Title

Insert Student 's Name

Insert Affiliation

Insert Full Title

Content-based instruction and assessment focuses on the meaning of concepts taught in the classroom . It is deemed to be very effective in tutoring students across various educational levels . Content-based instruction involves helping students to attain enough expertise of the subject matter by learning the language used as medium of communication and presentation of lecture materials . It provides a means of gaining additional skills necessary for the achievement of academic excellence (Navys , 2000 p

There are three basic principles of content-based instruction and they are listed as follows : 1 ) It is important to focus on the aspects of language that will be useful to the learner both at present and in the future 2 ) The use of interesting and educative information to motivate language learning in students helps to promote learning effectiveness 3 ) Content-based approach takes into consideration learners ' previous knowledge and aims to develop their cognitive academic and language skills (Navys , 2000

Examples of program models that are associated with content-based instruction include the whole-language curriculum , Task-based approach CALLA (Cognitive Academic Language Approach , and Bilingualism . The content-based approach aims to assist students with a limited understanding of the formal language used in tutoring , most commonly English . It helps teachers to adapt their mode of teaching to favour students with limited proficiency in English and also provides them with an opportunity to increase knowledge of the formal language used within that region (Navys , 2000 . The content-based instructional methodology is implemented by using techniques that facilitate cognition and comprehension like graphic organizers , mind maps , concept maps , and similar tools

Content-based methodology is implemented by monitoring students progress and providing instant feedback so that areas that need improvement may be easily identified . Best practices include differentiating the tutoring of the subject matter from that of the language skills . It is important that tutors understand that learners may respond in different ways to lessons learnt . Each student 's progress should be monitored individually and the overall goals of the approach should be used as a baseline for measuring progress in each student

The advantages of this style of learning are numerous and includes the following : 1 ) it brings together different aspects of the curriculum as core components of a whole 2 ) it places emphasis on the communicative feature of language and explores ways of teaching core subjects effectively 3 ) It increases awareness of the linguistic diversities of Europe and encourages the development of intellectual and linguistic skills (Navys , 2000 . Like any other method of instruction the content-based methodology encounters obstacles within the classroom They include inadequate training of tutors in implementing content-based methodologies inadequate collaboration between the subject teacher and the language teacher questionable proficiency levels of both teachers insufficient instructional materials to help achieve and sustain this method of instruction and difficulty in developing methods for assessing subject matter and language skills within the educational system (Navys , 2000

Students all over the world use languages at different paces...