Chapter 4 (1)

Teaching Language in Context
Alice Omaggio
Chapter (4) : The Role of Context in
Comprehension and Learning
Presented to : DR Dina Al Jamal
Prepared by: Zainab Salem AL-Shudifat
&
Asma Taisir AL-Meanizel

Hypothesis
The Importance of Context
and Background
Knowledge in The
Comprehension Process
Reader's Background
Knowledge and
Topic Interest (Table
4.5)
The Role of Computers
in Providing Richer
Contexts for Language
Learning
Integrating
Language and
Content
Cultural
Background
Cues (Table
4.6)
Schema
Theory
Research on the
Role of Context
in
Comprehension
Summaries,
Questions and
Captions (Table
4.4)
Titles & Topic
Cues (Table 4.3)

Hypothesis: Opportunities Must Be Provided for Students to
Practice Using Language in Arrange of Context Likely to Be
Countered in the Target Culture.
Previously, Omaggio presented a rationale for orienting instruction toward
proficiency, using the interrelated concepts of content/ context, function, and
accuracy as organizing threads.
In chapter (4), Omaggio highlights the first of these ideas. Starting with the
hypothesis that second language programs should provide students with
sufficient opportunities to :
1) Learn a language in context.
2) Apply their knowledge to cope with the authentic language-use situation.
Most educators agree today that students must eventually know how to use
language forms they learned in authentic communication situations, which can be
achieved if the form of language is presented and practiced in a communicative
Context. Although, focusing on meaning and content is primary.
Contextualized is certainly not new in language teaching, at least from a
theoretical point of view.

Jespersen (1904) mentioned in his book that “we ought to learn a language
through sensible communications”, this indicates that learning a language
involves specific connection in the communicated thoughts. However, The
implying list of disconnected sentences was unjustifiable.
exercising the presented language for practice dominated during The 20th
century in non-sequiturs way. After 75 years, Widdowson (1978) and Slager
(1978), aroused the need to emphasize the basis of language teaching with a
more extended and natural context discourse.
the communicative language teaching movement started in the 20th century,
it stresses the need for contextualization and authenticity; since contemporary
textbooks are conceived differently than their predecessors. Therefore, many
textbooks include a CD-ROM contains a web page that leads to world-wide links
and online activities, with sound and video clips. So there is no assurance that
language use is always normative or fully comprehensible to language learners.

The developed communicative approaches, proficiency-based instruction,
and the standard for foreign language are all recommending authentic
materials and open-ended. Moreover, interactive communication makes some
educators question the value of including analytic exercises that focus on
language forms in the contemporary textbook.
many scholars believe that any program fosters the development of
proficiency should incorporate both analytic and experiential approaches to
language learning.
Stern (1990) explained two types of teaching approaches. The first type is
the analytic approach, which the object of study is the language. The second
type is the experiential approach, which is how to learn language through
communication, such as, the immersion and content-based classrooms.
These two teaching types may complement and provide essentials support
for one another in the second language classroom.

Allen et al. believed that learners may benefit mostly if form and
functions are instructionally linked. Also, There is no doubt that students
need to practice the target language.
However, giving the student the opportunities alone is not enough,
students need to be motivated to use language accurately, appropriately,
and coherently.
learning language activities must involve grammar, functional,
organizational and sociolinguistic aspects of the target language. This
chapter aims to use language in the classroom, whether for analytic
purposes or experiential, that must be contextualized.

The following samples explain two ways in which analytic practice focus on a
particular feature of language that can be devised:
Sample(1):
the teacher/ to want/ the students / to look at/ his/ books.
The teacher wants the students to look at their books.
is decontextualized and is typical of some of the exercises still used in some language
classrooms. The linguistic feature to be practiced is the use of the subjunctive mood
after verbs of volition.
Sample (2):
Looking for an apartment. Jean-Philippe and his roommate, Paul, want to find a new
apartment near the university. Create their conversation, using the element given. Follow
the model:
I/to want/the apartment/to be/near/university
I want the apartment to be near the university.
explain how the same kind of analytic practice activity can be contextualized to conform
to the theme of a particular unit of study, such as looking for an apartment.

On one hand, Both samples almost equivalent in difficulty and structure, and it possible to
do both sample activities without processing the sentences meaningfully. On other hand, the
difference is :
Sample (1) would hardly be said in sequence in a real-world situation.
Sample(2) could conceivably be said in a conversation with meaningful processing can be
assured. Also, it is more natural than the sample(1).
The fundamental difference between noncontextualized and contextualized practice of
this type is that the latter links form with meaning that language wants to convey in the
natural communicative situation. Therefor, such practice focused on particular formal
features of the language is recommended by scholars like Stern(1190) and Allen et al.
(1990).

In immersion settings, the focused practice is designed to enable students to
refine and shape their communicative output to follow the target language
norms.
The pre-communicative practice activities designed to be used before
students engage in more communicative and open-ended exchange. It is
consistent with the positions on language acquisition in adults described by
different researchers who confirm that focused practice can be beneficial as
students' skills are developing.
Many scholars concluded that if accuracy is one of the instruction goals,
students need to pass through a period of meaningful yet structured or
monitored practice; they argue against the approach that too soon for
unconstrained communication.

Littlewood (1980) suggests that classroom activities can be designed to
follow a sequence that meaning gradually plays a more significant role. He
characterizes linguistic activities along a continuum that progresses through the
following types:
1)Primary focus on form( activities kept to an absolute minimum in proficiency-
oriented instruction)
2)Focus on form plus meaning (contextualized and meaningful exercises
constitute( pre-communicative) practice. Communicative language-learning
environment open-ended creative and personalized.
3)Focus on meaning plus form.
4)Primary focus on meaning.
(3-4) should be encouraged to develop oral proficiency by using technological
aids to instruction can increase opportunities for meaningful comprehension and
production activities.
In this way, analytic and experiential aspects of language learning can be
combined. Content-based instruction and immersion experiences are”
experiential” in nature and offer full contextualization of instruction by definition.

The importance of context and background knowledge in the
comprehension process: some theoretical considerations.
This section explaining why using contextualized language practice material is
learning and practicing the language in a meaningful context is more appealing to
both students and teachers than learning isolated bits of language through extensive
memorization and drilling.
The role of background knowledge in understanding
and interpreting texts.
Many questions raise about students experienced in learning a foreign language and
the difficulties and frustrations that can arise when attempting to understand a spoken or
written text in a foreign language. Especially in the earliest stage of language study.
Ausubel (1968,1978) believed that learning must be meaningful to be effective and
permanent. That way, the material must be related to existing knowledge that learners
already possess, and teachers need to provide an advanced pedagogical device that
activates relevant background knowledge to facilitate the learning and retention of new
material. However, even though Ausubel advanced as a textual organizer, other scholars
used the term advance organizer by referring to pictures, titles, topic summaries, and
proposed questions.

In the second language comprehension process, It’s helpful to know what
kind of knowledge learners can bring to comprehension tasks. Thus far, At
least three types of background knowledge are potentially activated in the
second-language comprehension process, which are:
1)Linguistic information. ( knowledge of target-language code)
2)Knowledge of the world. ( store of concept and expectations based on prior
experience)
3)Knowledge of the discourse structure. The understanding of how various
kinds or types of discourse are generally organized.
Focusing on the processing of linguistic form in language practice only
involves the first type. But by contrast, language learning activities are
relevant context and help activate student knowledge of the world of familiar
discourse structure.

Yorio(1971) supported this hypothesis by isolates the following factors in
the reading process:
1)Knowledge of the language.
2)Ability to predict to make correct choices.
3)Ability to remember the previous cues.
4)Ability to make the necessary association between the different cues
selected.
Yorio explains why second – language reader and l listeners at a
disadvantage for several reasons:
1)They are forced to recall cues that they either do not know at all or know
imperfectly. So they forget those cues much faster than they would cue in
their native language.
2)They must simultaneously predict future cues and make associations with
past cues, which is a slow and challenging process for many experienced
learners.
In response to Yorio’s questionnaire of 30 students, he attributes the
difficulty shows in the questionnaire to the need to concentrate on the triple
process: storage of past cues, prediction of future, and associations
between the two.

The problems which faced Yorio’s students are familiar to many language
teachers, mainly student who are novice or intermediate level proficiency.
Where they focus on one kind of knowledge background to solve such a
problem, the teacher can encourage them by providing supplementary cues to
meaning, drawing on all three types of background knowledge.
Using individual different background knowledge to comprehend written
and the oral text was presented by reading theorist writing in the 1970s.
Smith(1971) and Goodman (1972) represented first language reading
comprehension primarily and effectively developed second – language
theories. In the nature of the listening and reading process.
Smith(1971) presented a “reduction of uncertainty,” which means select
elements of the text rather than use all the visual cues available on the printed
page. Involving the interaction between thought and language. He argued that
the ability to anticipate what has not been seen is vital in reading, just as the
ability to anticipate what has not been heard is vital in listening.

(top-down) it is a model of reading comprehension described by both Smith and
Goodman where the reader is thought to begin with a higher-order higher-order
concept and work down to the text's actual features.
Kolar(1973) claimed that skilled readers do not process words as such but work on
the semantic or logical relations of material. Reader samples the visual cues to
formulate a concept that is relatable to what they already know. However, scholars
highlighted that what one brings to the text is more important than what is in the text.
Schema theory : using background knowledge to enhance the
language comprehension process
Bartlett(1932) explains the background knowledge role in language
comprehension and formalized it in a theoretical model known as Schema theory.
Thus far, one of the fundamental beliefs of this theory is that any given text does not
carry meaning in and of itself. Instead, it provides direction for listeners or readers so
that they can construct meaning from their own cognitive structure.

Rumelhart (1977) defines a Schema as "an abstract representation of a
generic concept for an object, event or situation "cultural differences may also
alter the abstract representation for given concept. However, according to
Rumelhart, "misunderstanding" happens when we have found the wrong
schema for a given concept or event.
Therefore, schema represents a whole situation; a chain of a stereotypic
event is called up in an individual's mind in an association with the situation.
Schema theorists describe an interactive model of comprehension. They
posit to separate but interrelated modes of information processing: bottom-up
processing and top-down processing.
Carrell and Eister n hold( 1983) explain the difference between these two
operations.
1)Bottom-up is when the message is interpreted principally by paying attention
to specific details, which is considered data-driven( moving from part to the
whole concept).
2)Top-down occurs when the reader/listener begins with more general higher-
order schema, makes predication based on background knowledge, and
searches the input for information to fit into the "slots." It is considered to
conceptually driven (moving from whole to parts).

Carrell(1988) explains that skilled readers can shift from on processing mode to
another while lower-proficiency readers tend to rely too much on one or the othe
mode of processing. Lower-proficiency readers maybe to text-bound relying mostly
on bottom-up carrell attributes this unidirectional processing to five possible causes:
1) Lack of relevant background knowledge to help them us top-down process.
2) Failure to activate available schemata.
3) Linguistic and reading skill deficiencies.
4) Misconceptions about reading especially in foreign language.
5) Individual difference in cognitive style.
there are two basic kind of schemata were explained by Carrell and Eisterhold
which used to understand message:
1) Content Schemata (relating to one’s background knowledge and expectations
about objects, event and situations)
2) Formal Schemata ( relating to one’s background knowledge of the rhetorical o
discourse structures of different types)
Both types important to the comprehension process.

Research on the Role of Context in Comprehension
Recently a significant amount of research evidence has been
gathered to support the theoretical models of comprehension. In
this section, a variety of such studies are summarized. Virtually
all of them can be said to lend support to Schema Theory in that
they deal with the role of advance organizers. The study sample
shows the breadth of evidence for a schema-based approach to
reading and listening.
The studies have been grouped to correspond to the four
following questions:
1- Can pictures, drawings, or other visual organizers actually enhance
students’ comprehension of texts in the second language? If so, what types
of help do they provide? What kinds of pictures might be best to use?

The Role of Visual Organizes
Table 4.1.summary of Research Results on Visual organizers
Some earliest work included four studies conducted by Bransford
and Johnson (1972). Their research showed clearly that when prose
passages are ambiguous or do not present clear cues to the topic,
relevant contextual information (or background knowledge) is needed
comprehension them, even though the text is written in the native
language (English, in this case).
Several subsequent studies that looked at listening or reading comprehension
in a foreign language have shown that visual materials such as pictures, video, or
graphic organizers, also generally enhance comprehension of a target- language
text, particularly when learners are at a fairly low level of proficiency. However, in
studies that compared low- proficiency to higher-level learners or native
speakers, pictorial materials did not enhance comprehension to any significant
degree of the readers/ listeners who were more proficient (Omaggio
1977,1979:Muller1980 ). This may be because the text was relatively easy for
more advanced learners to comprehend without enhancement.

Another finding in the research on pictorial organizers is that not all pictures are
equally effective at enhancing comprehension and that several pictures used
together are not necessarily better than using just one ( Omaggio 1977, 1979 ).
Different effects have also been found when still pictures versus video have been
compared (Chung 1994; Hanley, Herron and Cole 1995).
2- What are the effects of non-pictorial Pre-reading or Pre-listening activities on
comprehension of target- language materials? Does going over key vocabulary with
students before reading or listening to a passage enhance their understanding of
the text? What is the effect of giving the student a brief outline, summary, or title of
the passage on comprehension? How useful are pre questioning techniques in
facilitating comprehension?

A number of studies that have been done comparing or combining
visual organizers with other kinds of pre-reading / pre-listening activities
are discussed in this section. Table 4.2 summarizes research studies
that compare visual organizers' effect with the effects of other types of
pre-reading and pre-listening treatments. In general, these studies
indicate that non-pictorial pre-reading/ pre-listening activities such as
studying vocabulary or answering or comping up with questions can
have significant positive effects on comprehension. Several studies
indicate that pictorial organizers are particularly helpful to students at
lower proficiency levels and may enhance comprehension most for
beginning and intermediate learners, whereas non-pictorial aids can be
as or more effective for learners at high levels.

Titles & Topic Cues (Table 4.3)
Studies summarized in Table 4.3 have investigated the effects of providing
subjects with a title or topic for a passage before reading or listening. In the first
two studies (Bransford and Johnson 1979; Schaller 1976), the passage is
somewhat ambiguous; in the third study (Adams 1982) with students studying
French, a keyword in the passage has been replaced nonsense word. In all
three cases, a very familiar event sequence or script is used to construct a
passage describing an ordinary activity such as washing clothes, playing tennis,
or shopping. The researcher looks at whether the topic's provision in a brief
sentence or two before reading or listening may "activate a script" (Schank and
Abelson 1977) and thus enhance comprehension of the passage.

Summaries, Questions and Captions (Table 4.4)
In a series of experiments, Herron (1994), Herron, Cole, York and Linden
(1998), and Henderson looked at the use of advance organizers to examine
their effect on college students' comprehension. The results of these studies
are summarized in Table 4.4 ( p.157) indicate that both declarative and
interrogative forms of advance organizers that briefly outline the main events
of a video can enhance comprehension, and that using a set of questions
relating to the main events in advance of viewing can foster deeper
processing the material (Herron 1999).

Though many studies have shown that various kinds of advance organizers
are significant, not all studies demonstrate a comprehension advantage when an
advance organizer is used. A study by Chung (1999) with Taiwanese college-
level EFL students suggest that the textual advance organizer students received
before viewing a video did give the listeners an advantage, whereas the use of
captions while viewing had a significant effect on comprehension.
Results differ from those of Herron (1994), in which an organizer consisting
of a summary of the main scenes of a video was helpful to students listening to
French. It would be interesting to know whether the difference in results might be
due to the difference in language studies, the students' level, or some other
factor. Chung hypothesized (the most had studied English for about six years);
he has also speculated that the results may have been different had the
organizers been provided in written form than orally.

Though many studies have shown that various kinds of advance organizers are significant,
not all studies demonstrate a comprehension advantage when an advance organizer is used. A
study by Chung (1999) with Taiwanese college-level EFL students suggest that the textual
advance organizer students received before viewing a video did give the listeners an advantage,
whereas the use of captions while viewing had a significant effect on comprehension.
Results differ from those of Herron (1994), in which an organizer consisting of a summary of
the main scenes of a video was helpful to students listening to French. It would be interesting to
know whether the difference in results might be due to the difference in language studies, the
students' level, or some other factor. Chung hypothe
In a study with advanced university-level ESL students, Markham (1999) found that the
provision of captions (in English) for educational television video materials significantly
enhanced the students' ability to recognize new vocabulary they had encountered in the
videotape on post- viewing listening comprehension test, where the orally presented multiple-
choice items contained that vocabulary. He suggests that the positive benefits of combining
listening material with the target- language captions will eventually transfer to listening- only
tasks.
Markham's 1999 study provided further support for his finding in previous research
(Markham 1993, cited in the 1999 study) that captions "dramatically improved the general
comprehension of university-level ESL students particularly when the component of the video
did not correlate with the audio portion of the episode (Markham 1999, p. 322). sized (the most
had studied English for about six years); he has also speculated that the results may have been
different had the organizers been provided in written form than orally.

Table 4.4 presents a summary of the studies discussed above. In general,
the research reviewed indicates that advance organizers such as summaries
and pre questions can have very positive effects on learners' comprehension
of listening materials; however, as in the previous studies reviewed, the effect
of these various kinds of organizers may be different for learners depending
on their proficiency level, with lower- proficiency learners generally benefiting
the most from these sorts of captions while viewing video material can be
beneficial to learners even at advanced levels of language study.
3- How important is it for students to know the subject and / cultural
connotations in a passage before attempting to read or understand the text?
Does a student's cultural background play a role in comprehension?

Reader's Background Knowledge and Topic Interest (Table 4.5)
The studies indicate that students comprehend the texts more when the
topic is familiar to them than when it is unfamiliar. However, when students'
schemata do not correspond on given points with the passage content, some
problems may occur. For example, Long (1999) reports on an explanatory
study that looked at the effects of background knowledge on listening
comprehension. She noted some 'dysfunctional effects" of the schemata used
by a subgroup of students who overextended their limited knowledge about
the California gold rush of 1898 while listening to a text about a modern-day
gold rush in Ecuador. Bartlett pointed out this phenomenon of overextension
and distortion of schemata in his 1932 research on "remembering." He
mentions that some omissions and distortions of the story may be due to
individual differences, but some seem to attributable to cultural influences
(cultural schemata).

A study done by Carrell and Wise (1998) suggests that although prior
knowledge has often been shown to affect reading comprehension in both
L1 and L2, it does not always do. They offer that readers do not always
activate their knowledge and that the significance of factors such as prior
knowledge and interest in the topic can differ with different populations
and different proficiency levels. Based on their study, they recommend
that teachers avoid low-interest, low prior knowledge topics for readings
or allow students to self-select reading when possible.

Another exciting result reported in Chen and Donin's (1979) relates to
the effect of the language used when writing recall protocols to show
comprehension. Their study with Chinese- speaking graduate students,
writing recall protocols in the native language (Mandarin Chinese) vs.
writing them in the L2 (English) did not make a significant difference or give
students a significant advantage. Their results contradict those found by
Lee (1986) that students had a superior recall of a passage when they
wrote their memories in their native language. Chen and Donin for writing
recalls in Chinese may due to the fact that there is a greater distance
between Chinese and English and English and other Western European.

One additional factor researched is the syntactic complexity of
readings when prior knowledge is also taken into account. Barry and
Lazarte's (1995) study with high school students showed that students
with high prior knowledge about Incas recalled significantly more
essential information about passages on this topic when syntactic
complexity levels were low. Their results were " most students still have
not acquired sensitivity to the schematic grid or propositional schema
necessary complex Spanish sentences efficiency" (p.50 ). They added
that content-based instruction, mainly on historical or cultural topics,
may require careful text adaptation, reading strategy instruction for
processing more complex syntactic cues, or both. These suggestions
are essential for teachers and materials writers to consider when
developing content-based courses in a second language. They are also
important to consider when instructors teaching beginning and
intermediate language courses attempt to implement the "connections"
goals of the standards frame through the use of authentic text in various
academic subject areas.

Cultural Background Cues (Table 4.6)
The result of two ESL studies relating to the effects of cultural
background knowledge on passage comprehension are summarized
in Table 4.6. Findings suggest that background knowledge of this type
can enhance comprehension and that attitudes and emotional
reactions may have a role in the activation of schemata and ultimately
in the comprehension process.4- Does the type of text influence the
facility with which students comprehend a passage in a foreign
language? Are some rhetorical structures more comfortable to
understand than others? Does it help the student have a description or
preview of a passage's organization before attempting to read it?

Research on the effects of rhetorical (as opposed to content) schemata
shows that comprehension also suffers when a story's structure violates the
expected norm. For example, most stories involve a problem-solving episode
of some type in which (1) something happens to the protagonist, (2) this
event sets up a goal to be accomplished the goal( Rumelhart 1977). Most
stories such as fables, tales and short narratives use this generic problem-
solving element as their essential rhetoric structure. Violations of this
stereotypic structure may cause the reader to fail to comprehend.
Second – language research (Carrell 1984b; Lee and Riley 1990) has
also shown that Second language readers, expose to highly organized
narrative structures such as the text of problem-solution structure, are easier
to comprehend.
Research has also shown that second language readers can benefit from
instruction about such a text's rhetorical structure before reading. Table 4.7
summarizes research results on narrative structure results on narrative
structure and its effects on readers' comprehension.

The Role of Computers in Providing Richer Contexts for language
Learning
The computer is one of the newest resources for language teachers in
providing an enriched context for learning. Frommer (1998) points out that
computers, when used appropriately, can provide meaningful context as well
as background information that students need to understand the cultural
framework in which the target language is used, and thus help students learn
the language in its "full cultural meaning" (p.211)

Frommer lists three dimensional that computers add to the learning environment for
foreign language learners:
(1) exposing students to larger quantities of text, images and authentic materials;
(2) increasing time on task in an efficient way;
(3) allowing students to assume responsibility for their learning" (p., 211).
Whether computers are used in the tutorial (directed) mode or in the explanatory
(browsing) mode, they offer many features that provide context and aid memory and
cognition. For the program to continue (214).
Formmer points out several advantages to using this new technology:
(1)"The computer is multisensory, "providing material in more than one way;
(2) "The computer can be programmed to allow users to control both conditions of
viewing and what is viewed" (p.212);
(3) "The computer is multidimensional and extensible" that is hypertext (p.213);
(4) students can gain access to a multitude of the authentic text created by and for
native speakers. (p.214);
(5) "The computer…..offers students interactive experience". Programs require
students to make choices and to act in order

Cubillos (1998) addresses the issue of the computer's validity as a
pedagogical tool in the communicative classroom. He rightly points out that
teachers are the ones who need to make decisions about which material and
equipment are most suits the needs of their learners. Also, in his review, he
presents evidence that technology can
� facilitate vocabulary learning;
� increase students' awareness of language structure through more
sophisticated error- feedback programs;
� support reading and writing development;
� help teachers keep track of students' processing of language;
� facilitate students' exploration of the target culture;
� enhance motivation; and
� improve teaching resources through such tools as presentation, software,
grading program, and e-mail communication with students as well as other
professionals.
� Also, he points out that some technological materials are not as good as
others, and evaluation of software and computer program is necessary to
make optimal choices for use in instruction.

Integrating Language and Content: Immersion and Content –
Based Instruction
One way to ensure that language learning occurs in a meaningful context and
that language processing goes beyond the level of the isolated sentence is to
develop instructional models where language and content are closely intertwined. In
recent years, numerous scholars have discussed the merits of content-based
instruction for foreign languages in the United States.
Many of the principles of content-based instruction are derived from those used in
the design of immersion programs, begun in Canada in 1965 and widely used in the
teaching of French to Anglophone children in Canadian schools. Adaptation of the
immersion model for schools in the United States have served various purposes: (1) as
educational, cultural, and linguistic enrichment programs in the elementary grades;
(2) as magnet schools to bring about an ethnic and/or racial balance within a school
district; and (3) as a means of achieving a kind of two-way bilingualism in
communities with minority population (Genesee 1985, p.544). The common goal for
immersion programs is to develop significant language proficiency levels through
experiential learning in subject-matter areas.

Met (1999) defines content-based foreign language learning as "instruction that
uses learning objectives and activities drawn from the elementary school curriculum
as a vehicle for teaching language skills" (p.281). She adds that the foreign
language can be the sole language of instruction (total immersion), or it can be
used to augment and supplement instruction in the native language (partial
immersion). Genesee (1985) defines the Canadian immersion program as the target
language used for teaching regular school subjects.
Met describes three immersion models that have been used successfully in
Canadian schools. The first is called early immersion, where first two, three, or even
four schooling grades are entirely done in French, followed by gradual incorporation
of English- language instruction until sixth grade. The second model is delayed
immersion, where students in the fourth and fifth grades receive instruction in French,
followed by reintegration into regular English- language curriculum in subsequent
grades. The third model is late immersion, beginning with all-French instruction in
seventh or eighth grade, usually following one year of core French (Swain
and Laptkin 1989).

Studies generally show that students develop a relatively high functional
proficiency level in the second language (Swain and Laptkin 1989). They find
that while early immersion learners sometimes show a slight advantage in
listening and speaking skills and early immersion students do not surpass late
immersion students in literacy. They also characterized adolescent and adult
learners as more efficient, especially in reading and writing. They posit several
possible reasons for this greater efficiency among the older learners: (1) they
already know how to write and read in their native language; thus, they can
transfer these skills to the new language; (2) they are cognitively more mature
than the younger learners and are therefore "better able to abstract, to
generalize, and to classify from the beginning of their second language
learning." And to attend consciously to what they are learning (p.152).

For example, Ballman (1997) discuss how beginning language courses can be
enhanced through "content- enriched instruction," in which vocabulary, grammar,
and content are integrated to reflect a specific theme or converge to represent a
specific topic"( p.173). Also, Bragger and Rice (1998) outline ways to address the
"connections" goal of the standers in "theme-based" content courses,
characterized by the use of authentic text to explore various themes or topic as
students develop competence in a second language.
Met (1999) describes a continuum of programmatic possibilities for integrating
language and content learning, ranging from the most content-driven language
programs on one end of the continuum to those primarily language-driven.
The more content-driven "immersion program, in which the school curriculum is
taught through the medium of another language" (p.144) is distinguished from
programs where language mastery is most important. In between these two examples,
Met arranges partial immersion programs, sheltered courses (where both subjects are
taught in the target language), adjunct courses (where both the subject matter and
the language instruction are taught together), and theme-based courses (where
language instruction is arranged around thematic modules or units). An integration of
formed- focused activities and content based assignments is needed to achieve the
best results, regardless of age or level of proficiency of the students. Students develop
competence in a second language.

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