The Message Is the Medium

A New Paradigm for Content‐Oriented Instruction

Bibliographic Data

ID8937726
AuthorsJeannette D Bragger (Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author), Donald B Rice (Hamline University)
Year1999
Volume32
Issue3
Pages373-391
Publication date1999-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueForeign Language Annals (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0015-718X • E-ISSN: 1944-9720
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1944-9720.1999.tb01349.x
OpenAlexW1992468118
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited3

This article focuses on the Connections goal of the National Standards—i.e., on the integration of interdisciplinary content and language skills. Although content has always played some role in foreign language courses, the complexities of “connections” to academic content are far from being realized in the current foreign language teaching and learning environment. Consequently, this article proposes a developmental model for content‐oriented instruction that moves students from familiar to unfamiliar academic and cultural content while also taking into account their language level at each stage. In the process, the article offers suggestions on how to avoid the “sudden jumps” in difficulty, characteristic of language and literature courses both in high school and college, which lead to so much student/teacher frustration as well as to often dramatic drops in enrollment from level to level

Content (measure theory · Foreign language · Language acquisition · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Process (computing · Computer Science · Psychology · Second Language Learning and Teaching