Poster Presentation

Making the Most of Content-based
EFL Classes

Dr. Melodie Cook
University of Niigata Prefecture
Background

What distinguishes English for special purposes (ESP) from English for general
purposes (EGP) is its focus on learners’ specific needs and goals (Robinson,1991; Strevens, 1988), with relation to particular content areas (Strevens, 1988),
and using the methodology of learning that content (Dudley-Evans & St. John,1998). ESP courses are distinguished by the following: their use of authentic
material; that the language learned will be put to specific purposes, and thatlearners are expected to become eventual users of that language (Carver, 1983).
What teachers must do, therefore, is create environments in which specificcontent is learned; in order to do this, they must choose effective material,deliver it appropriately, and evaluate students’ work fairly and transparently.

Outline of This Paper

In this paper, suggestions are given for adapting any content for use in ESP
classes. Such suggestions include the use of an ice-breaker activity to create agood communicative classroom environment, creating slides and class notes on
a given content topic, effective use of student groups, a sample order of activities,
a sample rubric for assessment, and recommendations for dealing with problems.
For the purposes of this paper, I will show some sample handouts from thefirst unit of a Media Literacy course I adapted for students in the Faculty ofInternational Studies and Regional Development, based on American Center
for Media Literacy Kit (Share, Jolls, & Thoman, 2007).
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Before Starting

Because working with content is as challenging as asking students to communicate
in English is, it is important to create an effective learning environment in whichstudents feel safe and comfortable speaking to their classmates in a second
language. To this end, in the first class of a semester, I use an ice-breaker activity
which requires all students to speak to at least half of their peers. Using a seriesof PowerPoint slide prompts which I provide for the activity, students talk about
one slide for 1-2 minutes with the person across from them. The person at theend of one row moves to the other end of the same row and all students in thatrow shift down one. Then students move on to the next slide, continuing until all
students have talked to everyone in the opposite row.

Materials

Organizing the content to be used in class is very important. To do this, I use
PowerPoint slides for my teaching notes because content can be changed easily,
videos can be embedded into the slides, and every very time I teach the course,
I can update materials easily. While making my teaching notes, I create simple
language-level-appropriate handouts for students based on the content concepts
to be discussed in class. This is an important step as content materials may beappropriate in L1 classrooms, but may need to be modified considerably for L2
students. Materials should, as far as possible, address all four language skills.
Groupings
To deal with content effectively and in a communicative way, students should
be grouped appropriately. To this end, I try to ensure that in each class, students
work alone, with a partner and in a small group. Individual work is good forreading and writing assignments, pair work is good for discussions, writing
assignments, and peer editing. Small group work is good for discussions for
activating background schema (Carrell, 1984), for working on projects andpresentations, and for checking class work. To ensure that all students work withdifferent groups each time in class, I tend to form the groups for most activities
that need them, rather than let students do it. However for presentations, I allow
students to choose their own group members.
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Content-based EFL Classes, OnCUE Journal, 9(2), pages 111-118

A Typical Lesson Format
In this section, I outline how I conduct a class based around a content unit in amedia literacy course consisting of five units based on five core concepts. Each
unit consists of five activities – generally each activity takes one class period
to complete. First, I do an activity to activate background schema with precontent group discussions. Appendix A is a sample of a group activity in which
students watch a commercial of Psy (Gangnam Style) advertising Korean cup
noodles and answer five key questions guiding the course while referring to theadvertisement. Then, I usually show a video related to the topic or give students
an authentic reading based on the topic, along with comprehension questions
I’ve made. Readings can be adapted to suit students’ levels, or students can beasked to keep vocabulary logs for new words. Students can then do an activity
in pairs related to the unit, as in an activity where students have to demonstrate
the principles of one-way vs. two-way communication. For this task, students sit
back-to-back, one facing the board and the other facing the back of the room.
The student facing the board describes a picture to the partner to draw, but thepartner is not allowed to ask questions or communicate in any way. The secondtime, the students are allowed to communicate with each other while doing thetask. Afterwards, they do a reflective activity about what happened during theactivity. Next, I have students write paragraphs or essays based on the content
of that lesson/activity, either individually or in pairs. In this case, students wereasked to write a narrative paragraph describing their experiences of being asender or receiver. Finally, at the end of each unit, I ask students to do a grouppresentation to demonstrate their understanding of the topic for that day/lesson.
Appendix B lists the project options for the first of the five units comprising thiscourse.
Assessment
How to grade students is another important consideration. For presentations, I
find that it is a good idea to use scoring rubrics. Making criteria clear to students
before they present helps them understand what is being asked of them andhelps me explain my grading if questioned (which happens rarely, since students
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Cookknow what is required). Appendix C is a rubric I use to score presentations. I
also use peer assessment, in which students grade each other on participation ingroup projects, evaluating each other’s active contribution of ideas, preparationof materials, and smoothness of presentation. Peer assessment may form onlya small part of the overall grade, but requires students to honestly think about
their contributions to group projects.

Student Passivity/Non-engagement

Changing students’ groups in each class period ensures that all students become
accustomed to working with all classmates. As mentioned above, having students
do peer assessments will help motivate students to contribute to their groups
because students generally enjoy being positively evaluated by their peers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, by creating an effective environment for collaborative learning,by doing a variety of activities in class, by changing groupings, and by using
assessment rubrics that are shared with students, I have created an ESP course
by using authentic material combined with communicative activities in pairs orgroups and including peer assessment. I would follow the same procedures withany set of authentic content materials.

References

Carrell, P. L. (1984). Schema theory and ESL reading: Classroom implications
and applications. Modern Language Journal, 68, 332-343.
Carver, D. (1983). Some propositions about ESP. The ESP Journal, 2(2), 131137. Dudley-Evans, T., & St. John, M. (1998). Developments in English
for specific purposes: A multi-disciplinary approach. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press.
Robinson, P. (1991). ESP today: A practitioner’s guide. Hemel Hemstead,
England: Prentice Hall.
Share, J., Jolls, T., & Thoman, E. (2007). Five key questions that can change theworld: Lesson plans for media literacy. Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved114

Content-based EFL Classes, OnCUE Journal, 9(2), pages 111-118

from http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/five-key-questions-canchange-world
Strevens, P. (1988). ESP after twenty years: A re-appraisal. In M. Tickoo (Ed.),
ESP: State of the art (pp. 1-13). Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Center.

Author bio

Dr. Melodie Cook is an Associate Professor at the University of Niigata Prefectureand has been teaching at the tertiary level in Japan and Canada since 1993. Her
research interests include teacher education, expatriate perceptions of high-stakes
testing and expatriate family use of supplementary education. cookmelo@unii.ac.jpReceived: December 12, 2014
Accepted: August 24, 2015

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Appendix A

Activity for Activating Background Schema
Watch the TV commercial and fill in the following chart:
KEY QUESTIONSYOUR ANSWERS

Who constructed (made) thismessage?

What techniques are used toattract our attention?

How might different people
understand this message
differently?

What lifestyles, values, andpoints of view are shown in orleft out of, this message?

Why was this message sent?

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Appendix B

Presentation Topics and Guidelines
Each group will make a 10-minute presentation on ONE of the following topics:
1. One-way vs two-way communication: Choose any kind of media andshow us how it is one-way or two-way.
2. Matching messages and Media: Show us different varieties of the samemessage according to different media.
3. The World in 22 Minutes: Constructing a News Lineup: Analyze a news
program and tell us what you found out.
4. Behind the Screen: Movie Makers and Their Choices: Analyze different
versions of a movie or different endings of a movie and tell us what you
found out. Or, you could look at the scenes movie makers left out of amovie and tell us why they did so.
5. Maps and the Pictures in our Heads: Tell us more about the Peters Map.
In your presentation, make sure that you address the first important idea, whichis Authorship. Your presentations should answer the following questions:• What kind of text is it?
• What are the various elements (building blocks) that make up the whole?
• How similar or different is it to others of the same genre?
• Which technologies are used in its creation?
• What choices were made that might have been made differently?
• How many people did it take to create this message? What are theirvarious jobs?

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Presentation Scoring Rubric
1 point

3 points

5 points

Time

The presentation is
far too short

The presentation isa little too short or
too long

The presentation isthe correct lengthof time

ContentThe informationis unrelated to the
topic, poor, or too
simple

The informationis good, but a littlethin

The information
is interesting anddetailedLanguage

Too much Japanese
is used or English
text has beentranslated badly
and is hard tounderstand

Most of the English
is understandable,
but there is
still reliance on
Japanese or somepoorly-translated
EnglishThe wholepresentation
is in simple,
understandable
EnglishPresentation:
Visuals

Visuals are
confusing and hardto understand orcontain language
errorsVisuals are mostly
good, but someare not necessary,
unclear, or containmistakes

Visuals are all
relevant to the
topic and correctly
writtenPresentation:
Performance

It seems that thegroup members
are seeing theinformation for
the first time andhaven’t practiced
beforehand.

Some members
understand thetopic well, butsome members
don’t. It appears
that only a few
group members
prepared andpracticed
beforehand.

It seems that
all members
cooperated in
the presentationand practiced it
beforehand.

Comments:118

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