内容教学法对英语学习者学习动机和学习水平影响实证得研究.pdf

Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 The Objective of the Study Content-based Instruction (CBI) has become a widely adopted pedagogical approach to English language teaching, it is thought of as an effective approach, which successfully integrates language learning with content learning (Widdowson, 1978; Brinton, et al 1989; Stryker Leaver, 1989; Freeman, 1995). Language proficiency is achieved through the study of subject matter. This teaching approach is remarkably different from traditional language teaching methods—the separation of language learning and content learning. CBI gives up the misconception that the purpose of teaching language is to teach a set of rules, to focus on forms, regardless of the content it carries, and takes the students’ needs, interest and motivation into consideration (Snow, 1993). The objective of the present study is to explore, within the framework of cognitive and educational psychology theory, how and to what extent the application of CBI in middle school English classroom influences the long-term learning performance of Chinese-speaking EFL ( abbreviation of English as a Foreign Language) learners. To be more specific, this study will investigate how and to what extent CBI can influence junior school students for more advanced language study as they go on to secondary school in China. 1.2 Significance of the Study CBI is a growing enterprise, and it has been used in a variety of language learning contexts for the last twenty-five years, though its popularity and wider applicability have increased dramatically in the past ten years. Whereas traditional approaches to foreign language teaching have been almost exclusively structure- or language-based, CBI calls into question of the interface of language and content. In CBI, languag