Content-based English Program

Content-based English Program

By Darrell Moen: Foreign Languages Program Chair
College of Systems Engineering SIT
Japanese Translation by Kaori Mori

Japanese | English

Introduction

In the mid-1990s, a broad consensus was reached among university educators in Japan that reliance only on the grammar-based approach to English language studies, although of benefit to Japanese students who had experienced at least one year living abroad in an English-speaking environment or those students who were truly interested in improving their English language skills, did not lead to an improvement in English language competency on the part of the majority of students. It was found that the focus on grammar led to an increase in dislike in the study of English for many students, and the end result was that the majority of Japanese university graduates were functionally illiterate in English although they had studied English since junior high school.

In order to develop interest on the part of students in actually using the English language they had passively acquired over the years, since the mid-1990s an increasing number of English Departments as well as English programs embedded within other departments and faculties at Japanese universities incorporated into their curriculum a “content-based” approach to the teaching of English as a foreign language. By 2000, most Japanese universities, including Shibaura Institute of Technology, offered both “language-based” courses and “content-based” courses in their English language curriculum.

To meet the SIT College of Systems Engineering graduation requirements, students must obtain a minimum of eight credits in English. Students are free to choose from any of the English courses offered in both the College of Engineering and the College of Systems Engineering. The English courses offered in the College of Systems Engineering at SIT are all content-based and students can choose which class they wish to take using a course sign-up sheet (with a class size limit of 25 students). The sign-up sheets are posted at the 2nd floor bulletin board of the Systems Engineering building approximately one week before the start of classes in both spring and fall semesters.

Content-based courses in English

Exposure to socially relevant, critical analyses of history, contemporary society, and international relations is an important component in quality university education, in language studies as well as in the social sciences. The academic boundaries in the social sciences and humanities are no longer clearly defined, and the increasing recognition of the overly fragmented state of academic disciplines offers a much needed counter balance to a previous preference for narrowly defined specializations.

The “content-based approach” to English language instruction in Japan offers an excellent example of how previously closed academic boundaries are now being innovatively crossed, so that social scientists can utilize their expertise in the humanities as well as in other social science disciplines. Thus, at many universities in Japan, social scientists with doctorates from universities abroad are provided the opportunity to teach a broad range of interdisciplinary courses in English that not only improve students’ English language skills, but challenge them to broaden their perspectives and search for new horizons.

In content-based courses, all four language skills (reading, writing, listening, speaking) are fully integrated, and not artificially separated, in order for students to gain confidence in all areas of language acquisition. Students are able to gain English language skills in an intellectually stimulating and content-rich learning environment, and are exposed to “authentic” English texts (readings targeting native English speakers) with the focus on content and communicating ideas using university-level material that is socially relevant and offers a diversity of perspectives. Thus, this approach is a major departure from the previous focus on grammatical accuracy using English for Foreign Learners textbooks, substitution drills, translation exercises, patterns in daily conversation, and comprehension quizzes.

In the English courses offered in our faculty, although the topics of discussion, class procedure, and methods of evaluation vary from teacher to teacher, the primary objective is the same: to help students develop and use their critical thinking skills by cultivating the ability to identify the perspectives being offered in analyses of social phenomena.

Pedagogical Approach

Education plays an important role in the construction of student subjectivities and in order to create a more equitable society, we need a vision of how students, as adult citizens, might act in different and well informed social, cultural, and political ways. Ethics needs to be understood as central to education since the issues we face as teachers and students are not just questions of knowledge and truth but also of right and wrong, of the need to struggle against inequality and injustice as well as the need to identify perspective and interpretation associated with analyses of social phenomena. Pedagogically, the aim is to help students to deal with their struggles to make sense of their lives, to finds ways of changing how lives are lived within inequitable social structures, and to transform the possibilities of our lives and the ways we understand those possibilities.

Most content-based classes in our faculty involve students in small group discussions in order to allow them to express their opinions and hear the opinions of their classmates on topics ranging from environmental issues and human rights to issues of war and peace or corporate globalization. Students are given the opportunity to broaden their own perspectives and bring in examples from their everyday lives to relate to the issue under discussion; their enthusiastic response to critical yet constructive analyses of social issues that concern them directly or indirectly have clearly indicated a felt need on their parts to develop and exercise their critical thinking skills. Often, the material introduced to students reflect the perspectives of people whose voices are seldom heard (e.g. working women, Third World poor, participants in grassroots-based social movements), so students are encouraged to confront and critique their own biases and interpretations of social phenomena based on what are commonly-held cultural values and assumptions.

Aims and objectives

In addition to giving students the opportunity to increase their English language skills by reading “authentic” English texts, writing comments in English regarding the content of the assigned readings, and listening to the opinions expressed in English by a wide range of people in documentary videos, students are given the opportunity to be able to identify various perspectives and interpretations of social phenomena in order to discuss socially relevant issues by developing and utilizing their critical thinking skills. By exchanging opinions with classmates in small group discussions, in Japanese and in English, students are able to broaden their own perspectives and increase their awareness of diverse pressing social issues. Students are instilled with a belief in the freedom of inquiry in university and gain the confidence needed to express critical opinions and offer alternative analyses.

Grading Criteria

Since classes are, for the most part, discussion-based, grades are primarily based on class attendance, active participation in group and class discussions, and homework assignments. Some teachers may require in-class projects such as preparing a PowerPoint presentation in English or short skits to be performed in front of the class in groups, and other teachers may offer tests to make sure students understand core concepts covered in class.

Students are able to evaluate themselves regarding the new vocabulary acquired or the increase in confidence they may have in reading and understanding “authentic” English texts and their ability to express their opinions in written English concerning the topic under discussion. Hopefully, they will be motivated to read more articles concerning socially relevant topics of interest to them, thereby further broadening their own perspectives and enabling them to become engaged citizens.

On Critical Thinking

Critical thinking, one of the most important skills for college work and beyond, seeks the meaning beneath the surface of a statement or “text.” Using analysis, the critical thinker separates this text into its elements in order to see meanings, relations, and assumptions that might otherwise remain buried. Critical thinking underlies reading, writing, speaking and listening – the basic elements of communication – and helps to uncover bias and prejudice, offering a path to freedom from half-truths and deceptions.

Consider the five steps of critical thinking: (a) What am I being asked to believe or accept? What is the hypothesis? (b) What evidence is available to support the assertion? Is it reliable and valid? (c) Are there alternative ways of interpreting the evidence? (d) What additional evidence would help to evaluate the alternatives? (e) What conclusions are most reasonable based on the evidence and the number of alternative explanations?

Students should be taught “how” to think (evaluation and analysis) and not just “what” to think (rote memorization of facts). This is the basis of helping students to develop critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is disciplined intellectual analysis that combines research, knowledge of historical context, and balanced judgment. Critical thinking entails the careful and deliberate determination of whether to accept, reject, or suspend judgment about a claim. A large part of critical thinking goes beyond informal logic and includes assessment of beliefs and identification of prejudice, bias, propaganda, self-deception, distortion, misinformation, etc. Good critical thinking is skillful and responsible thinking in which you study the problem or issue from all angles, and then exercise your best judgment to draw conclusions.

Critical thinking means self-reflective thinking in the pursuit of relevant and reliable knowledge about the world. Another way to describe it is reasonable, reflective, responsible, and skillful thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe or what action to take. A person who thinks critically can ask appropriate questions, gather relevant information, efficiently and creatively sort through this information, reason logically from this information, and come to reliable and trustworthy conclusions about the world that enable one to live and act responsibly in it. True critical thinking is higher-order thinking, enabling a person to, for example, responsibly judge between political candidates, determine if corporate globalization is conducive to peace and social justice, evaluate society's need for nuclear power plants, or assess the consequences of global warming. Critical thinking enables an individual to be a responsible citizen who contributes to society, and not be merely a consumer of society's distractions. Developing critical thinking skills helps to increase social and political consciousness.

Critical thinking can be described as the scientific method applied by ordinary people to the ordinary world. This is true because critical thinking mimics the well-known method of scientific investigation: a question is identified, a hypothesis formulated, relevant data sought and gathered, the hypothesis is logically tested and evaluated, and reliable conclusions are drawn from the result. A scientifically-literate person, such as a math or science instructor, has learned to think critically to achieve that level of scientific awareness. But any individual with an advanced degree in any university discipline has almost certainly learned the techniques of critical thinking.

Critical thinking is the ability to think for one's self, and reliably and responsibly make those decisions that affect one's life. Critical thinking is also critical inquiry, so such critical thinkers investigate problems, ask questions, pose new answers that challenge the status quo, discover new information that can, for example, be used to help promote peace, human rights, and social justice, question authorities and traditional beliefs, and often challenge received dogmas and doctrines. It may be that patriarchal, militaristic, elite-controlled societies can tolerate only a small number of critical thinkers, so that learning, internalizing, and practicing scientific and critical thinking is discouraged. Most people are followers of authority: most do not question, are not curious, and do not challenge authority figures who claim special knowledge or insight. Most people, therefore, do not think for themselves, but rely on others to think for them. Most people indulge in wishful, hopeful, and emotional thinking, believing that what they believe is true because they wish it, hope it, or feel it to be true. Most people, therefore, do not think critically.

The English Program in the College of Systems Engineering at SIT places great importance on helping students become broad-minded, critical thinkers able to process information in the most skillful, accurate, and rigorous manner possible, in such a way that it leads to the most reliable, logical, and trustworthy conclusions, upon which they can make responsible decisions about their lives, behavior, and actions with full knowledge of the assumptions and consequences of those decisions.