3.1.

USING SUBJECT MATTER FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING

BRIEF SUMMARY
Using subject matter for language teaching or what later is known as
immersion program is based on the theoretical assumption that
language is acquired through comprehensible input in the classroom
(Swain, 1985). This is in accordance with Krashens Comprehensible
Input Hypothesis (1985) which states that to be exposed to an
environment rich in comprehensible input is sufficient for acquisition
to take place. According to Krashen, language input that is
comprehensible exceeds somewhat the learners current knowledge of
the language (i+1) and is offered in a low affective filter environment.
Most second language acquisition theorists endorse the input
hypothesis in some form. However, many also argue that
comprehensible input is not sufficient for language acquisition to take
place (e.g., Swain, 1985; White, 1987). Research on the second
language development of immersion students shows that while
immersion learners demonstrate native-like competence in listening
comprehension and reading skills, they generally fall behind native
speakers in their productive language skills such as writing and
speaking (Genesee, 1987; Harley & Swain, 1984; Swain, 1985). Such
findings have led researchers to challenge what they see as an
overemphasis on the role of comprehensible input in the second
language acquisition process. Comprehensible input, although
constantly available to the immersion student, does not appear to be
the only necessary factor for acquisition. In addition to
comprehensible input, it is important to consider the role the learners
own output plays (Swain, 1985). Learner output can be considered in
terms of oral and written proficiency. This article will center on the
question of how to foster the development of the immersion students
oral proficiency through a discussion of what immersion programs are
doing successfully in this area as well as where immersion programs
need to improve. Finally, I offer a list of strategies that immersion
teachers can implement to address more comprehensively the
development of oral proficiency with their students.
Requirements for optimal input:
1. Comprehensible

2.

3.

4.

5.

Subject matter teaching will be of use for acquisition only to the

extent it is comprehensible. What this means is that different
subjects may be of more use to students at different levels. Cazden
(1979) points out that one could make a case that mathematics is
ideal for teaching in an imperfectly acquired L2. There is a limited
vocabulary, less interactional demand than in some other subjects,
and considerable extra-linguistic support to aid comprehension.
Students with more second language proficiency could handle
subject matter that is more displaced in time and space that supply
fewer concrete referents, such as history and literature. The point
is not simply that second language students can survive in subject
matter classes, but also that they will receive comprehensible input
that will help them improve more in the second language. The
comprehensibility requirement argues against submersion, against
mixing second language acquirers in with native speakers before
the second language acquirers reach higher levels of proficiency:
the presence of native speakers insures that a good proportion of
the language heard by the intermediate acquirer will not be
comprehensible.
Interesting / Relevant
Subject matter may not always be interesting, but it is relevant.
When students are focused on the subject matter, there is a very
good chance they will be focused off the form of the language it is
presented in. Subject matter affords a good chance of meeting the
"forgetting principle", of the student being so focused on what is
said that he is not aware of how it is said.
Not Grammatically Sequenced
This requirement is also clearly met. In fact, it is hard to image
subject matter teaching not meeting it. This would require
contextualizing beyond our wildest dreams.
Quantity
Clearly, there is the potential of supplying great quantities of input
this way. Subject matter teaching in the second language
automatically reaches the pedagogical ideal of filling the entire
class hour with comprehensible input.
Filter Strength
Subject matter teaching may involve, and in fact requires some
minimum amount of anxiety. This anxiety, however, is not

directed at the language it is presented in, if the message is

comprehensible. Subject matter teachers can keep the language
portion relatively anxiety-free and the filter down by:
(1) insuring comprehensibility of the message;
(2) not demanding premature production;
(3) not demanding full grammatical accuracy from students.
Subject matter second language teachers might consider testing
procedures that require less linguistic production (short answers
instead of long essays), and class discussion procedures that take
students' linguistic capacities into consideration (not correcting
errors on form or even allowing use of the L1 where practical, as
in the Natural Approach). The point to remember is that further
language acquisition comes with more comprehensible input, from
teacher talk and reading, and not from demands for production.
6. Tools for Conversational Management
Subject matter teaching may not provide the tools necessary to
maintain conversations on the outside, but it can lead to the
learning and acquisition of academic communicative competence
in another culture. In a class composed entirely of immigrants and
foreign students, teachers can be aware of cultural differences in
academic behavior and teach classroom behavior, either via
learning, for obvious aspects of classroom behavior (standing or
not standing when the teacher enters the room; what sort of paper
to hand in homework on, etc.) or acquisition, for more subtle
aspects.
EVALUATION
Stein (1991) states that using subject matter in language teaching or
immersion programs can do well in :
1. Encourage learning the second language in its entirety
An important characteristic of immersion education is that the second
language is introduced as a holistic system with the purpose of
communicating meaning at all times. Immersion students are typically
exposed a range of academic vocabulary and linguistic structures from
the very early grades without having to go through the process of
learning them piece by piece. Therefore, learners language output tends
to be meaning- focused and lexically and syntactically varied from the
early stages.

2. Increase fluency
Fluency implies automaticity. Immersion learners can converse without
apparent difficulty, especially about familiar academic topics and
classroom routines. They use a varied academic vocabulary without
halting pauses and stumbles or searching for words.
3. Support the development of strategies for getting the meaning across
Immersion learners are accustomed to processing language for meaning
primarily; that is, they pay attention to the substance of an utterance.
Additionally, they are used to communicating the meaning of an
utterance in any ways they can without taking into account how they are
communicating (Swain, 1985). While trying to communicate the
meaning of an utterance sometimes results in a kind of developing
language (e.g., [yo] tiene hambre [I is hungry]), immersion learners are
resourceful at using different strategies such as circumlocution and
occasional use of L1 to make their meaning understood at all costs.
Despite the advantages of immersion, Stein (1999) also proposed where
immersion programs need to improve :
1. Develop nonacademic vocabulary
While immersion learners academic vocabulary develops over the
years, the development of their nonacademic, everyday vocabulary
appears to lag behind. Examples of everyday topics are clothing, toys,
food, sports, greetings, family, professions, shopping, travel, likes and
dislikes, feelings, etc. Tarone and Swain (1995) refer to immersion
students lack of a vernacular to explain the increased use of L1 as
students progress through the grade levels. They suggest that the
sociolinguistic environment within the immersion classroom might be
described as diglossic. A diglossic language context reserves the use of
one language for certain communicative purposes and the second for
others. Students in immersion classrooms have been observed to use the
immersion language to communicate about academic topics but to
switch to their first language for informal, nonacademic speech.
2. Attend to accuracy
The term accuracy relates to correct use of linguistic structures
(grammatical accuracy), appropriate use of register (sociolinguistic
accuracy), precision of vocabulary (semantic accuracy), and proper use
of cohesive devices (rhetorical accuracy) (Omaggio, 1986). Immersion
research, which for the most part has concentrated on grammatical and

sociolinguistic accuracy, shows that immersion learners fall behind

native speakers in both of these types of accuracy (Genesee 1987;
Harley et al., 1990; Harley & Swain, 1984; Swain, 1985).
3. Increase ability to make form-meaning connections
Making form-meaning connections can be described as the language
learners ability to attend to or notice (Schmidt, 1990) the linguistic
structure while they interpret or express the meaning of an utterance.
Immersion learners, who process language primarily for meaning, need
instruction that includes encouraging the learner to process language for
meaning and form at the same time. This does not mean that the learner
can explain a linguistic rule such as noun-adjective agreement or talk
about nouns, adverbs, etc. For example, the learner might notice that
casa [house] takes a feminine determiner and modifier, but might not
be able to explain the agreement rule in that particular example, nor
might he/she know how to identify the determiner as an article and the
modifier as an adjective. What is important is the learners accurate
interpretation and use of the adjective in feminine contexts (e.g., la casa
bonita [the pretty house]), and not whether the learner can explain a
rule.
DISCUSSION ON THE ARGUED POINTS
After discussing about what using subject matter in language teaching
or immersion is, research on its advantages and weakness, now we will
discuss how the weakness can be reduce and the advantages can be
pushed to its best. According to Stein (1999), there are strategies that
can be used to maximize the use of immersion programs, namely:
1. Perform a needs analysis.
Listen to your students use of the language when they talk to you,
when they give oral presentations to the class and when they interact
with each other while working in groups. Ask yourself, What
strengths does their oral language show? What weaknesses? More
detailed questions might include:
a. Does Johnny always use masculine articles and adjectives for
every noun, including the feminine nouns?
b. Allison use only the infinitive form of verbs?
c. Can Pedro talk about a marine mammal but has trouble talking
about how he helps at home?

d. Can Ann talk about electromagnetism but cant describe the

clothes she is wearing that day?
e. Do your students always address adults with the informal t
rather than the more socially appropriate formal Ud.?
2. Familiarize yourself with the linguistic structures in the target
language (phonology, morphology and syntax).
Knowledge of the linguistic structures enables you to assess your
students needs. Some examples of specific phonological differences
and linguistic structures include:
a. the difference between the sound of p in Spanish and in English
(phonology)
b. article-noun-adjective
agreement
features (syntax and
morphology)
c. subject-verb agreement (syntax and morphology)
d. use of prepositions (syntax)
e. the verb system (tenses, aspects, moods) (syntax and
morphology)
3. Encourage use of nonacademic vocabulary in your classroom.
Many of the daily activities in the lower elementary grades lend
themselves well to the development of nonacademic vocabulary,
such as show and tell. The challenge becomes greater in the upper
elementary grades at which time the teacher needs to be creative and
specifically plan to incorporate activities that include everyday
vocabulary. For example, you can organize activities around the
topics of food and nutrition (recipes), shopping, traveling, and
clothes, relating them to the different seasons and situations. By
making use of storybooks and activities that emphasize everyday
vocabulary teachers can strategically support its use.
4. Include linguistic objective(s) in addition to the content objective(s)
in your lesson plans.
For example, a linguistic objective in a first-grade science class that
focuses on What scientists do could look like this:
The students will use verbs related to the scientists world (verbs of
measurement, prediction, etc.). In addition to learning the contentrelated verbs, emphasis can be given to subject-verb agreement for
the first and third person plural in Spanish (Govea & Perdomo,
1999).

5. Encourage more oral production in your classes.

Do you interact with your students? Research shows that teachers in
immersion classes do most of the talking (Allen et al., 1990). Use a
tape recorder to record and listen to how much talking your students
do and how much talking you do in the day. Here is a list of helpful
tips to guide these teacher-student interactions:
a. Relate your questions or points of discussion to your students
lives.
b. Ask students what they did the day before, for example,
especially if it was a weekend.
c. Encourage students to tell you about their families, their friends,
their siblings, what they are wearing and what their preferences
are for food, movies, TV programs, etc.
d. Discuss current and everyday events.
e. Take time for games, word games, Jeopardy, guessing games,
Twenty Questions, etc.
f. Above all, make the conversation real and interesting. Students
will begin to look forward to these moments every day.
Allen et al. (1990) also found that student output is often limited to
one or two words in the target language. Therefore, immersion
teachers need to create an interactional environment that encourages
the use of extended discourse among the students. Well-structured
cooperative communication activities such as Jigsaw tasks and
information gap tasks provide students with opportunities to engage
in more language rich interaction (Pica, Kanagy, & Falodun, 1993).
Inviting students to collaboratively plan and give oral presentations
about a topic facilitates student use of academic language as well. In
order to encourage the use of extended discourse in the classroom,
teachers can ask open-ended questions, such as, Why do you think
soap floats? or Tell your partner what you think might happen next
in the story and why you think so.
6. Encourage accurate oral production.
One way to encourage accuracy is through the concept of focus-onform (Long, 1991; Doughty & Williams, 1998), which targets
students errors that are systematic, pervasive, and remediable (Long,
1991). The use of focus-on-form techniques in the classroom allows

the teacher to provide error correction at the time the error occurs.
Long describes this method in the following way:
...whereas the content of lessons with focus on forms is the
forms themselves, a syllabus with a focus-on-form teaches
something else biology, mathematics, workshop practice,
automobile repair, the geography of a country where the
foreign language is spoken, the cultures of its speakers, and so
on and overtly draws students attention to linguistic
elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding
focus is on meaning or communication (Long, 1991, p. 45,
italics added).
An effective way to provide oral focus-on-form in the classroom is
by providing linguistic feedback (Doughty & Williams, 1998; Lyster
& Ranta, 1997). Linguistic feedback lets the learner know that
something in the utterance is not entirely accurate or acceptable to a
native speaker. For example, feedback might be used to encourage
subject-verb agreement. There exists a variety of feedback types that
teachers can choose from (for an overview of different types of
feedback, see ACIE Bridge, by Tedick & DeGortari 1998). They can
be used either one at a time or in combination, e.g., recast followed
by a tag question (Stein, 1998).
S
: la manzana rojo
the red (masculine) apple. (Inaccurate noun-adjective
agreement)
T
: la manzana roja, no?
The red (feminine) apple, isnt it?
For feedback to be effective Doughty and Williams (1998) also
recommend that it :
a. be consistent
b. target one error at a time
c. integrate attention to meaning and form
d. be given precisely when the error is detected during a meaningful
activity
CONCUSION

Second language learning students in using subject matter as language

teaching or immersion students need much encouragement and plenty of
opportunities to develop their oral proficiency. The present article has
offered some strategies the teacher can use to promote the development of
oral proficiency in the immersion classroom. These strategies may be used
in the target language content classes as well as in language arts classes.
What is important is the teachers commitment to developing students oral
proficiency in a systematic and consistent way at all times

REFERENCES
Krashen, Stephen D. 1987. Principles and Practice in Second Language
Acquisition. UK : Prentice-Hall International
Stein, Miriam. 1999. Developing Oral Proficiency in the Immersion
Classroom. Arlington : ACIE Newsletter