It’s understandable that ESL teachers would like to include something more than language-skill development in their courses. However, this desire can become a mission which can override the real needs of the students.

Teachers who have a passion about a topic, for example, the environment, social justice, animal rights, racism, and technology, can feel, as one colleague explained, “This topic is very important for all students to know about.” This can lead to a theme for a course in which the focus of each lesson is about that topic as students read, write and talk about it and learn the specialized vocabulary connected to it.

A problem can arise when the theme starts to overshadow skill building. For example,
when working on reading skills, if a reading passage has “important” content but is above the students’ reading levels, the teacher will “orally” explain what they read. Students are evaluated on how much they knew about the content rather than on their language-skills development.

As another example, if the conversation or discussion skill that is supposed to be developed during the course isn’t naturally applicable to the theme, it may not be practiced.

Teachers at the next level might find students with a lot of knowledge about causes of air pollution or the challenges of recycling or discrimination in hiring practices or the potential of AI or social media, but weak language skills.

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be an either-or situation; in other words, we don’t have to choose between skill development or content.

Engaging content and skills development. It is possible to have both.

Teachers can liberate themselves by avoiding assigning a theme for their course. At the same time, they can still include content. Some examples:

Example 1)
Focus of the lesson: Discussion skill of referring to and summarizing parts of a source.
Content Supporting material: An article about social media causing sadness.  Parts of this article may be above the students’ current level, but a brief study guide leads them to understand the important points. However, we can still use the article; students will not be expected to understand the whole article. There are no “specialize” vocabulary exercises. (See • Stimulating Small-Group Discussion Activity 3: “Does Social Media Make People Sadder?”)
Activity: Individually students read the article and complete the study guide. Then in small groups, using provided discussion questions, they discuss the article and apply discussion techniques that they’ve been introduced to.
Evaluation: Student are evaluated on their discussion ability NOT on their reading comprehension. If they come aways from the lesson with an better understanding of social media, that’s a bonus, but it won’t affect their grade for the course.

Example 2)
Focus of the lesson: Reading-skills development.
Content: Students read the article, “Experiencing Discrimination,” which is at the proper level for this class. They answer extensive study guide questions which draws on various reading skills. It also included work with Tier 2 vocabulary, which are words that they will typically encounter in any academic reading, not Tier 3 words that are content-specific.
(See • 7th Free ESL Reading Unit. Experiencing Discrimination)
Supporting materials: Small-group discussion questions about the article.
Activity: Individually students read the article and complete the study guide. Then in small groups, they discuss the content of the article.
Evaluation: Student are evaluated on reading comprehension NOT on their discussion skills.

See related posting:  • Don’t Wastes Students’ Energy Teaching Certain Types of Vocabulary Words in Reading Class

A rare theme that effectively integrates skill building and content.

I have found a topic or theme that has proven to be engaging and of high-interest to almost all my students. Because they can easily relate to it and have experiences with it, they have a solid schema to build on as they gain new understanding about it. In addition, after most lessons, they are able to immediately apply what they learned to their lives beyond the classroom.

But what is most important, students can develop their language skills effectively while working with this content. Moreover, readingsat various levels are quite abundant and only require learning a limited number of Tier 3 (specialized) vocabulary.

The topic is Cross-Cultural Studies.

For more about Cross-Cultural Studies in the ESL classroom, see …

• Best Subject for an ESL Integrated-Skills Class (Part 1 Overview)

 • Best Subject for an ESL Integrated-Skills Class (Part 2 of 4: Reading aspect)

 • Best Subject for an ESL Integrated-Skills Class (Parts 3 and 4: Discussion and Writing aspects) 

David Kehe
Faculty Emeritus