INTEGRATING CONTENT-BASED TEACHING INTO GENERAL ENGLISH COURSES

Teaching higher-level students we frequently face the problem of choosing a topic for discussion that would both motivate the learners and ensure authentic communication.

It seems that higher-level course books do not always meet the learner’s needs and expectations in terms of the topics, as by the time they reach high B2 or C1 levels the learners have already discussed most themes General English courses offer, which can lead to decreasing motivation. Similarly, due to good language proficiency, learners are exposed to more authentic texts (spoken and written) and can be comfortable with more complex language than the course books generally provide, which contributes to lower motivation.

In an attempt to find a solution to these problems, we did a comparative study of General English and Content-Based Teaching (CBT) materials, including measuring the effectiveness of their use with the same classes, analyzing learners’ attitudes and teachers’ feedback.

The data enabled us to assess the suitability of Content-Based Teaching for solving motivation-related problems in different teaching contexts as compared to common General English approaches. We identified the types of learners (learning styles) for whom CBT proved most effective, and learners’ level of language proficiency at which elements of CBT help increase motivation and ensure good progress. Being beneficial for high level academic learners, it tends to be less suitable for other language courses at levels lower than B1. In addition, we offer suggestions for effective integration elements of CBT at levels lower than B1.