Content-Based/Discipline-Based Program
Descriptions, Evaluation Reports and
Evaluation Instruments

An Annotated Bibliography

Collected and compiled by Sally Rehorick

Burger, Sandra, Marjorie Wesche and Mariette Migneron . 1997. "Late, late immersion": Discipline-based second language teaching at the University of Ottawa. In Immersion education: International perspectives. Robert Keith Johnson and Merrill Swain (eds.), pp.65-84, Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Two parallel programs at the University of Ottawa - one for English-speaking students who want to improve their second language abilities in French and one for French-speaking students who want to take courses in English in a nonlanguage discipline. The programs began as "sheltered" courses whereby only students of the L2 were grouped together in classes. For various reasons, mostly financial and administrative a different model - the adjunct model- was introduced which has L1 speakers studying in the discipline course alongside L2 speakers. The article outlines instructional aspects of the program as well as factors influencing student success, including the need for well-taught disciplinary courses as well as a carefully conceived language component.

Johnson, Robert Keith and Merrill Swain (eds.). 1997 . Immersion education: International perspectives. Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. This book contains fourteen chapters by different authors. There is an introductory chapter which defines immersion programs followed by five sections: immersion in a foreign language; immersion for majority-language students in a minority language; immersion for language revival; immersion for language support; immersion in a language of power; lessons from experience and new directions. Several of the chapters are annotated in this bibliography. The book is currently in the MEI library (P 53, 44, I46. 1997).

Johnson, Robert Keith. 1997 . The Hong Kong education system: Late immersion under stress. In Immersion education: International perspectives. Robert Keith Johnson and Merrill Swain (eds.), pp.171-189, Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. The education system in Hong Kong has changed radically since 1960 when there was a dual system of education in which students either studied through Chinese or English to one in which most students (90%) study through the medium of Chinese at primary level and then switch to English medium on entry to secondary schooling. The author describes the effects of stress on teaching and learning in late immersion classroom, where teachers have adopted a style of mixing and switching between Cantonese and English and students fail to achieve the high levels of proficiency in English demanded by the community and assumed to be possible if late immersion were implemented effectively.

Klee, Carol A. and Diane J. Tedick. Forthcoming . The undergraduate foreign language immersion program in Spanish at the University of Minnesota. In S. Stryker and B. L. Leaver (eds.) Content-based instruction for the foreign language classroom. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. The FLIP (foreign languages immersion program) at the University of Minnesota combines L2 students who have taken the equivalent of 3 years of university level language study with native speakers of Spanish in discipline courses. The authors say that the issue of minimum level of incoming proficiency in the L2 is as yet an unresolved question and further research using their assessment battery of tests will be conducted. Students did make gains in the L2 after one quarter of language study. In the content areas, students who had more background knowledge in the content being studied tended to do better than those students who had little background knowledge. Students with lower language proficiency levels seem to be able to compensate for this lack through more prior background knowledge. The biggest problem cited in the study was the recruitment and training of content professors who were willing to spend the time to adapt their instructional strategies for the L2 students. A three-day workshop for content faculty was seen to be inadequate.

Klee, Carol A., Diane J. Tedick and Andrew Lynch. 1997 . Spanish language immersion: Evaluation of Students' performance, attitudes, and motivation. Florida: 1997 AAAL Colloquium: Foreign language acquisition in a classroom context. The FLIP program is described and the results of evaluations are outlined. Regarding the necessary incoming proficiency level for students, the authors say that a minimum level of "intermediate-high" on the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview is a reliable target level for predicting success in FLIP courses.

Klee, Carol, Andrew Cohen, and Diane Tedick. (n.d., circa 1994) . Content-based instruction in Spanish, French, and German at the University of Minnesota: The Evaluation plan and results for the first year. A description of the evaluation plan for this program (FLIP foreign languages immersion program) as well as an outline of the research instruments used are contained in this article. The three main research questions are: 1) To what extent is a high level of academic proficiency in the foreign language a prerequisite for academic success in immersion classes; 2) to what extent is the student's academic proficiency in the foreign language affected by a quarter of immersion education and 3) how are students' attitudes toward the use of the foreign language and toward the program itself influenced by their participation in FLIP? The final evaluation of this program was conducted by Wesche and her article is abstracted elsewhere in this bibliography.

Krueger, Merle and Frank Ryan. (Eds.) 1993 . Language and content Discipline- and content-based approaches to language study. Lexington and Toronto: D.C. Heath and Company. A collection of 15 articles concerning discipline and content based programs in universities in the USA. These articles are grouped around the following categories: an introduction which describes the growing trend toward the place of foreign languages in the curriculum; theoretical and research issues of discipline-based approaches to language study; case studies of exemplary programs (including Earlham College, St. Olaf's College, University of Minnesota, Monterey Institute of International Studies, University of Rhode Island's International Engineering Program, Eastern Michigan University, Harvard University, Brown University); implications for instructional methods and materials; and implications for the discipline and profession. * Note: this volume is currently on Sally Rehorick's shelves.

Met, Myriam and Eileen B. Lorenz. 1997 . Lessons from US. Immersion programs: Two decades of experience. In Immersion education: International perspectives. Robert Keith Johnson and Merrill Swain (eds.), pp.243-264, Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. The authors describe the growth of elementary school immersion programs in the US. They outline the programmatic and classroom challenges of starting and maintaining successful programs.

Ready, Doreen and Marjorie Wesche. 1991. An Evaluation of the University of Ottawa's sheltered program: Language-teaching strategies that work. In Comprehension-based second language teaching/L'enseignement des langues secondes axé sur la compréhension. Courchêne, R., J. Glidden St-John, and C. Thérien (eds). pp. 2-18 Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press. This paper examines the efficacy of content-based second language teaching in university courses using an adjunct model. In these courses students attend lectures with native speakers and have a one and a half hour per week language class designed to go beyond subject matter comprehension to include a variety of oral and writing activities linked to the course content. Data were collected using language proficiency measures and a questionnaire dealing with various aspects of classroom practice and their impact on the learning of the subject matter and the second language. There was evidence of gains on language measures for all courses. The study showed that there are some overall patterns of L2 teaching strategies considered useful by a majority of students in all courses. In addition there were unique patterns for different courses. From the evidence, it seems probable that some subject-matter courses lend themselves to a wider variety of language use activities that do others. The paper concludes with an overview of the role of the language teacher in the adjunct format.

Shaw, Peter A. 1996 . Voices for improved learning: the ethnographer as co-agent of pedagogic change. In Bailey, Kathleen M. and David Nunan, (eds.), Voices from the language classroom: Qualitative research in second language education. pp. 318-337 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A report of classroom based research in a graduate level content-based program in the International Policy Studies Division at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. A description of the process of improvements in curriculum design and instructional strategies from the point of view of the author as ethnographer and participant faculty is given.

Swain, Merrill and Robert Keith Johnson. 1997 . Immersion education: A category within bilingual education. In Immersion education: International perspectives. Robert Keith Johnson and Merrill Swain (eds.), pp.1-16, Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. The authors differentiate immersion from other types of bilingual programs. They identify a set of core features which they consider to be the defining characteristics of a prototypical immersion program as well as a number of variable features which have consequences for program outcomes. The article concludes with a number of questions that still need to be addressed in immersion research.

Tricamo, Janet and Margaret Ann Snow . LEAP. Learning English-for-academic purposes at California State University, Los Angeles. There three components to this project which are available in the ARC: Evaluation Report (1994); Evaluation Report Year One (1992); and a videotape called Improving University Instruction for Language Minority Students: Strategies for Project LEAP. Project LEAP is a "three-year faculty development and supplemental instruction partnership to improve the academic literacy skills of native born, immigrant and international language minority students. None course teams, each composed of a discipline faculty member, a peer study group leader (i.e. supplemental instruction leader), and a professional language specialist, worked to enhance conceptually and linguistically demanding general education courses for language minority students, by developing classroom strategies which (1) integrate content instruction and language instruction; and (2) demonstrate the principles of faculty and peer partnerships, students empowerment, and scaffolding instruction -- helping students master complex academic literacy skills though guided, sequenced learning tasks, with frequent practice and peer and faculty feedback opportunities." Project LEAP was conceived to address the needs of the 80% of incoming students whose English Placement Test scores deem them to be underprepared for college-level work. Project LEAP had four main components: (1) a faculty development component which trained discipline faculty to incorporate language instruction into their courses. Faculty members attend a quarter long (i.e. three months) language instruction seminar; in the quarter following, the project director observes classes and assists faculty with implementing the language enhancements. (2) the LEAP Study Group Course component contains supplemental courses lead by peer tutors trained in effective language development pedagogy. (3) the Curriculum Modification component assists content faculty with institutionalizing language-sensitive instruction. (4) Dissemination and Project Continuity component documents the project's accomplishments by producing videotapes and manuals on an annual basis and disseminates these on-campus and to other universities. Project LEAP shares a number of commonalties with the MIC learning environment. These commonalties include not only the English language skills of incoming students but also the concern of content faculty (in particular) that students would not learn as much content as students deemed to be "college-ready" at admission. The results documented after three years of the project are impressive. LEAP students' academic performance was compared to non-LEAP students and "despite their significant entering skills deficiencies, study group students' academic performance approximated that of other students." Grade point averages were comparable and "in-depth investigation of one key academic literacy skill revealed that study group students, after receiving instruction in the skill of summary writing, outperformed college-ready students in a summary writing exercise." In addition to these student results, there was a positive washback reported by faculty members for their courses which were not part of Project LEAP. They incorporated language instruction into their other courses.

Van Naerssen, Margaret. 1989. Academic communication skills. A summer program for graduate students in city and regional planning, urban design, and architecture. Final report. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. This report describes a pilot program for incoming students in the Graduate School of Fine Arts at U. of Pennsylvania who were nonnative speakers of English. The program addressed the specific academic needs of these students. The report notes the need for balance between content and language skills and strategies; in particular, the author notes that "content-specific materials should not be so far beyond the comprehension level of the students that they defeat the purpose of developing communication skills and strategies."

Wesche, Marjorie B. 1990. Evaluation Plan: Discipline-Based Foreign Language Programs. This one-page document outlines an evaluation framework for institutions offering discipline-based programs. The framework includes questions to be posed concerning the audience for the evaluation, the goals of the evaluation, program objectives, data gathering, evaluation design and measurement instruments and procedures.

Wesche, Marjorie B. 1993 . French immersion graduates at university and beyond: What difference has it made? In Georgetown University round table on languages and linguistics 1992, James Alatis (ed.), pp. 208-239. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. In this article, Wesche reports on a 7-year study which examined attitudinal and second language proficiency questions among graduates of Canadian school immersion programs. Immersion graduates have spent as much as 14 years in bilingual programs and have received up to 40% of their elementary and secondary schooling through the medium of their second language (French). The following questions (among other) were addressed: What difference has participation in immersion schooling made in the lives of graduates? What kind of first and second language skills do these you adults have? What are their attitudes toward the L2 and its use and how often do they actually use it? If they do not use it very often, do they lose these hard-won L2 skills? Are the interethnic attitudes of graduates different from the attitudes of peers whose schooling was in the L1 and if so, can these differences be attributed to the immersion experience?

Wesche, Marjorie B. 1995 . Where We've Been. LAC (Languages Across the Curriculum) "Next Steps" Conference, Washington, D.C. This paper contains a "state-of-the-art" description of the evolution of discipline-based (content-based, or languages-across-the-curriculum) programs at the university level in the USA and Canada. Wesche, who has served as an external evaluator on a number of these programs, situates this overview of a relatively recent (15 years) phenomenon within a larger context of immersion programs in the Canadian school system (25 year history). The paper contains a lengthy and recent bibliography.

Wesche, Marjorie B. 1997 . The University of Minnesota's Foreign Languages Immersion Program (FLIP), Final Evaluation, June 1997. This report describes and evaluates the FLIP program instituted at U of Minnesota in 1993. Courses in Spanish, German and French are offered in various social sciences, International Relations and literature, culture and language. The FLIP is an outgrowth of the Foreign Languages across the Curriculum (FLAC) started in the 1980s.

Wesche, Marjorie. 1995 . Interim evaluation: Foreign language immersion program at the University of Minnesota. Ottawa: University of Ottawa. This report provides an interim external assessment of the FLIP program (see also Klee, Tedick and Lynch; and Wesche elsewhere in this bibliography). In addition to the usual evaluation issues of language, academic and attitudinal outcomes, Wesche points to the need for research concerning program implementation and changing institutional culture.

 

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