The Effects Of Content Based Instruction On Non-English Majors’ Reading Comprehension Ability

Content Based Instruction (CBI) is a teaching method which derives from the immersion education that has been implemented in Canada and many European countries. This teaching method, like the multiple intelligence mode, language awareness mode, and the autonomous learning mode, results from global teaching institutions’efforts to explore effective learning method. It manages to overcome the separation of language learning and content learning in traditional language teaching by integrating different factors in learning process. In essence, it integrates processes like meaning construction, cognition, problem-solving, higher order thinking, language use and language learning. Though presently content-based instruction has been widely used in both elementary education and higher education in many western countries, it is still at a groping stage in China. In order to promote this teaching method, this study applied content-based instruction to college English teaching to improve students’ academic English ability so that they can better adapt themselves to bilingual education.Specifically speaking, this study attempted to address the following questions:(1) What effects does content-based instruction have on non-English majors’general reading ability and academic reading ability? (2) What is the relationship between students’ language proficiency and their performance in CBI course? (3) How do students respond to content-based instruction class?Participants in this study were 107 first year college students from two parallel classes, journalism class and logistics class, in a college in Nanjing as its subjects.54 journalism students were taken as the experimental group and attended interview-based class while 53 logistics students were taken as the control group and participated in the traditional college English class. The experiment lasted for one semester. Tests, questionnaire and semi-structured interview were used to analyze the results quantitatively and qualitatively.It has been found that (1) experimental group students outperformed their counterparts in the control group significantly in both general reading ability and academic reading ability. In other words, CBI can effectively enhance non-English major’s two kinds of reading abilities; (2) low proficient students in the experimental group made significant improvements in both kinds of reading abilities while high proficient students failed to do so; (3) with interview-related vocabulary enlarged and academic writing ability improved, students generally preferred CBI course to traditional English class. This study provides a plausible way to deal with students’lack of related vocabulary and poor academic reading in bilingual class.