A language-science bridge: ESL for marine science. (Language Teaching & Learning).

Abstract

A team of language and science faculty across the U.S. developed a prototype language course in ESL with sustained content for Marine Science. A set of original course materials for university students was designed and implemented in August 2000. Encouraging initial results from preand post- testing indicate that courses in sustained content do enhance language acquisition. Both students and teachers have commented on the potential of sustained content in Second languages to (1) strengthen language skills in ESL; (2) enhance academic performance in courses taken in the core discipline at U.S. institutions; and (3) motivate students to improve their performance in English. Although the core content for our model was Marine Science, the theoretical framework and teaching methods used could be easily adapted for sustained content courses in other languages and core disciplines.

Introduction

The ability of scientists to communicate across linguistic frontiers may determine the future of the world's oceans. As oceanographers seek to understand the large-scale processes operating in the oceans, it is crucial that they work in international teams and in overseas locations (Ogden 1997). Yet science students in higher education are not mobile because they are often bound to lab facilities and specialized curricula. The Institution of International Education reports that students with majors in the sciences and engineering constitute less than 2% of all those who study abroad each year. The scientific community has voiced with increasing frequency the need for students who are able to "function productively in science within a different culture" and has called for science teachers to broaden curricula (Davies 1996).

Confronted with this reality, Eckerd College has partnered with two other U.S. institutions (the University of Washington-Seattle and the University of Hawai'i-Hilo) and with three E.U. universities (the University of La Rochelle-France, the University of Liege-Belgium, and the Universidad de Las Palmas-Gran Canaria) to create a consortium for student and faculty exchange. Integral to the exchange is a critical interdisciplinary link much like a bridge. The Bridge is in fact a unique course, which connects students not only to ESL, but also to the specific English language of Marine Science. It was designed as a three-week intensive course in sustained content. Its purpose is to prepare these students for the linguistic and cross-cultural demands of study abroad in the field of Marine Science.

An interdisciplinary team of language and science faculty representing each of the three U.S. partner institutions took the lead in designing the bridge course. Participants were selected based on their interest in developing a new format for language pedagogy, which would open language learning to the academic field of marine science. The majority of the participants were teachers who would be engaged directly with the E.U. students in courses during the student exchange. During a curriculum meeting supported by FIPSE, the team developed the learning model and set of original course materials. These materials were implemented in a pilot course delivered in August 2000. Encouraging initial results from student surveys and pre- and post- testing indicate that courses in sustained content do enhance language acquisition. Although our model focused on students in Marine Science, the theoretical framework and teaching methods could be modified and made applicable for international students transitioning into U.S. degree programs in many academic disciplines. Furthermore, the model is adaptable for sustained content in second languages for U.S. students as a preparation for study/work abroad in a specific academic field.

The Learning Model

Many of the elements specific to the design of a language bridge course will vary according to expected learning outcomes, for both language learning and for learning in the core discipline. There are, nonetheless, certain underlying principles that should strengthen the bridge's construction. The following section presents some of these as they relate to the expansion of language teaching and the learning knowledge base through sustained content or "bridge" course development.

1. Sustained content courses make second language learning relevant to university students in academic fields that may not otherwise encourage formal language training.

2. Because the sustained content course in a second language is perceived by students as relevant to their work in the core discipline, learner motivation is maximized.

3. With course materials that are discipline-specific, learners see their studies in a global context where language study is central.

4. Sustained content courses empower learners linguistically to conduct academic and professional work abroad in a given field. Thus, courses in sustained content expand the workforce of bilingual and multilingual professionals.

Assessing Learner Needs

Now we turn to issues of practice and the steps involved in developing the Bridge curriculum. First of all, pilot exchanges were conducted and assessed by the faculty team. The Bridge course was conceived based on the experience of these students. A European student who attended Eckerd College wrote, for example:

   The teaching system is rather disconcerting, because there are no lecture
   classes really.... I realized, however, that with the additional
   information from the textbooks that the subjects were in fact at an
   advanced level. On the other hand, a real trap: "projects". These projects,
   which I didn't think about in the beginning, came all of a sudden; you have
   to complete them, write the reports and prepare for final exams at the same
   time. The language did not pose any comprehension problems most of the
   time, however in some courses it was difficult for me to follow the
   professor (for example when he spoke without turning towards the class.)
   (M. Couzigou, personal communication, July 14, 1998)

Based on surveys such as this, we knew that aural comprehension was a particular challenge for students attending science lectures. In addition, the independent reading assignments and project-based work required in science courses could be "disconcerting" for the international student. Both of these factors -- the linguistic and the cultural -- would be significant in the design of the sustained content ESL course.

Curriculum Design

The team of ESL professionals and Marine Science faculty decided to devote each of the three weeks of the Bridge to a different theme which is generally addressed in a first or second year program of study in the core content. The team then created fourteen study guides, one for each three-hour class.

The marine scientists reviewed and then selected the content of each theme from a variety of introductory-level textbooks in Marine Science, a collection of professional journal articles and a selection of commercial videos. The ESL members chose language centered learning goals to accompany each theme based on the English proficiency level of the potential students and the previously identified emphasis on the skills of aural and reading comprehension. For example, the first week of the course focused on Marine Geology. The language goals included: increasing the ability to understand most questions, statements and conversations spoken at normal speed; identifying main ideas and accurate predictions of content in written materials and lectures; demonstrating increasing accuracy in grammar, punctuation and spelling; and, handling a variety of communicative tasks and social situations that students could expect to encounter during their first days abroad. Functional skills included: learning to outline, mark, skim and scan a text in the core discipline; learning to identify and use specialized vocabulary with dictionaries and context clues; and learning skills for note-taking from a lecture in the core discipline.

The challenge was then to produce study guides based on the videos and texts, which were task-based for use in the classroom. ESL team members drew heavily on their teaching experience and recent literature on reading and listening strategies (Nunan & Miller, 1995; Larimer & Schleicher, 1999). They decided that each study guide should include a four-part task division: pre-listening/reading, global listening/reading, intensive listening/reading and post-listening/reading activities.

Pre-reading/listening activities were designed to introduce the content to be presented in the reading/video and to provide students with the vocabulary necessary to complete the exercises. The marine scientists, who were able to advise us, determined probable prior knowledge of content based on what junior or senior marine science majors would most likely know. An example of a pre-listening activity to prepare for a video on marine geology might be:

   How many of the following can you define: epifauna, sesile, crevices,
   infauna, substrate, planktonic, lecithotrophic, demersal, foraminiferan
   protozoans, macrofauna, meiofauna, abyssal plain, continental shelf,
   oscillate, flotsam and jetsam. Work with a panner. Check with other pairs
   of students if there are words that you don't know. If no one knows, can
   you find them in the dictionary? Make one sentence using as many of the
   words as possible!

Global reading/listening exercises involved working directly with the text/video. These exercises were designed to guide students to an overview of the text/video: skimming the text for the gist/watching the first half of the video without interruption listening for the main idea, scanning the text for specific information/watching the first half of the video without interruption, listening for the answers to specific questions, and problemsolving from the context. When used with the same video on marine geology, global activities would require students to respond to both content and linguistic questions, for example:

As you view the first half of the video, try to hear when and how each of the vocabulary words (see example above) is used. Can you identify what pan of speech each is used as? How do you know? Also as you watch, try to answer the following questions:

1. Who's launching the expedition?

2. Where is the expedition located?

3. What is the purpose?

4. What is the name of the vessel?

5. What is an ROV? What is its name?

6. How hot are black smokers?

7. What are chimneys made of?

Intensive Reading/Listening exercises promoted a more critical understanding of the text/video and its functional language. Such exercises might include questions such as, "How does the text/video present data?" or "How does the text/video contradict or support a theory?" For example, after viewing the complete video on marine biology and reading a selection on American culture:

   Most of the following vocabulary can be used to describe both marine &
   human communities. Working with your group, define each word below in one
   or both contexts. Be sure that you understand the differences, if any.
   Based on your viewing and reading, discuss the similarities and differences
   between the culture of one marine community depicted in the video and that
   of America. (population, community, symbioses, symbiotic relationships,
   habitat, niche ecology vs. society, environmental resistance, carrying
   capacity, population density, species, diversity)

Post-Reading/Viewing exercises were more open-ended, allowing students to summarize information presented in the reading or video, to discuss their own opinions on the topic, to apply the reading or video to previous knowledge in the field, or to expand on the reading or video by completing a project or expansion activity. After completing readings on marine biology and geology, and after viewing videos and hearing "live" lectures in both areas, students were asked:

   With your partner, please design a life form that would be reasonably adept
   at living in an inter-tidal habitat characterized as a rocky shore. Use
   diagrams or illustrations when necessary. Include physical form and
   physiological functions (e.g. nourishment, reproduction) of your population
   as well as how these relate to the specific characteristics of your chosen
   habitat. Prepare to present your life form to the class, and defend its
   characteristics based on marine biology/geology. Be sure to use appropriate
   forms of the conditional.

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to visualize the joint role of marine scientists and ESL professionals in curriculum design is to summarize how a study guide for a video was written. Both groups viewed the video together, the scientists focusing on content, and generating vocabulary lists, comprehension questions and theoretical implications, while the ESL team complied lists of idioms, examples of rhetorical questions, future tenses or analogies and clues to meaning apparent in visual images. The results of both groups were combined to produce a study guide that merged the product of both groups. For example:

1. a pre-viewing activity asking students to explain a list of verbs of motion i.e. pulse, ebb, surge, chum, tug,

2. a global viewing activity asking students to indicate aural recognition of these verbs, and note the context in which they were used,

3. an intensive viewing activity asking students to listen for additional verbs of motion and the adaptations that certain marine life has made based on their individual forms of movement,

4. a post-viewing activity to describe orally, but without the use of drawing or gesture, the movement of various sea creatures without using the actual verb most specific to each of their unique styles of movement while classmates try to guess the verb and creature

Teaching Methodology

Communicative language teaching based on integration of the four basic skills best characterizes the theoretical basis of the methodology used throughout the course. Pair and small group activities provide students with the opportunity to use the targeted linguistic structures rather than learn about them. The teacher as a facilitator, rather than as a traditional "teacher," is prerequisite to the success of this approach, and, in the case of sustained content outside the scope of most ESL teachers' sphere of knowledge, prerequisite also to the success of the Bridge. The concepts and principles advanced by H. Douglas Brown (1994) and David Nunan (1988) certainly influenced our methodology, while recent works providing both rational and models for content based instruction edited by Snow & Brinton (1997) and Pally (2000) were consulted to insure the credibility of our specific activities.

Foremost in the teaching methodology was to remember that the content was a means to an end: the enhancement of English usage. If students advanced their abilities in Marine Science, that was a valuable by-product of the teacher's endeavors, but never one of the goals. This made it possible for the ELS teacher to approach the content material from a purely linguistic viewpoint.

All content comprehension questions were verified or generated either by marine scientists or textbook teacher's guides. Various glossaries provided specific vocabulary definitions, as many words were not contained in ESL specific dictionaries. Students' extensive yet disparate prior knowledge of Marine Science was a very valuable resource, and the pair/group setting made this easily accessible.

The teacher's expertise in English structure and rhetorical forms and in ELS methodology made identification of thesis statements and main ideas, for example, possible without a thorough understanding of the content, and identification of parts of speech, tenses, etc. required no little or no understanding. Also, students were quick to point out if others missed the point or misinterpreted details. Expansion activities often took the form of projects requiring students to prepare oral presentations requiring collaboration, to participate in debates assuming a particular theoretical stance, or even to prepare a portion of a study guide and facilitate its use in the classroom, all activities designed to further their English acquisition rather than content acquisition.

Students were aware of our goals and purposes-this was an ESL course- but often became so engrossed in the content that they "forgot" they were learning English. It was necessary for them to acquire and master both skills and structure if they wished to actively participate in classroom activities, and because the class was based always on their known area of interest, their desire to participate was enhanced. After being sent off with a partner to design a life form capable of living in a rocky shore habitant, for example, the assignment was completed and presented to the rest of the class with enthusiasm. Students then attacked the soundness of each other's life forms and insisted that they be presented without the use of unreal conditionals!

Students completed one research paper over the course of the three weeks. The goal of the assignment was to experience library and research protocol and to provide a student chosen, and thus high interest, topic for extemporaneous and more formalized oral reports throughout the course. Marine Science faculty evaluated the papers for content, while the ESL teacher did the language evaluation. The papers were subsequently presented orally. The final evaluation for the course was based on four primary elements: class work, homework, final research paper and final research oral report. Each element constituted 25% of the final grade.

Indications of Program Success

All students in the course demonstrated improvement in their ability to read scientific materials in English and to understand videos on topics in Marine Science. Their final projects highlighted their enhanced ability to integrate new vocabulary, grammatical structures and discipline-appropriate rhetorical strategies in both written and oral work. For further assessment of language learning outcomes, we adopted the Institutional TOEFL exam. It was administered to all six students prior to the Bridge course and following the Bridge course. On average students improved their TOEFL scores by 17.7 points or 3.2%. While these results are speculative, the trend is unambiguous.

Some students demonstrated dramatic improvement. Of particular importance for our program were the students who were able to achieve the required TOEFL score for admission to U.S. institutions after completing the bridge course. A longitudinal study, which includes a control group and larger sample, is already in place and we intend to have more conclusive results in the next five years.

Student response to the pilot bridge course was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. A postbridge survey indicated that the students felt increased confidence in their subsequent course work in the sciences. One student summed up her satisfaction with the bridge course in the following remark; "[The] Bridge course is very useful in the way that we are given several guidelines to prepare us to study for our classes.... "Combined with the enhanced linguistic performance is the cultural knowledge that students gained during the bridge. This was useful in adjusting their expectations for coursework abroad in their scientific fields. As another student expressed it, "The Bridge course was very useful in that it gave us the opportunity to meet the other exchange students, get "insider" information about our host schools, and have a refresher course in language pertaining to our specific field of study."

Conclusion

Sustained content courses in ESL empower students to use their language proficiency in the context of their core disciplines. Students study topics that are aligned with their pre-professional interests, and they concentrate on reading strategies, vocabulary acquisition, listening comprehension and professional writing in preparation to study or work abroad. Given the growing demand for scientists who are capable and competent to work in international teams on large-scale global issues, sustained content courses in ESL and other second languages hold great promise for the expansion of language learning across disciplines.

References

Brown, H. D. (1994). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (3rd ed.). Prentice Hall of Regents.

Davies, G. (1996). Experiential, Cooperative, and Study Abroad Education. Journal of Chemical Education, 73(5), pp. 438-440.

Larimer, R. E., & Schleicher, L. (Eds.). (1999). New Ways in Using Authentic Materials in the Classroom. New Ways in TESOL Series.

Nunan, D. (1988). The Learner -Centered Curriculum. Cambridge University Press.

Nunan, David, Miller, & Lindsay (Eds.). (1995). New Ways in Teaching Listening. New Ways in TESOL Series: Innovative Classroom Techniques.

Ogden, J. C. (1997, July 3). Sustaining the Health of the Oceans. The Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A48.

Pally, M. (Ed.). (2000). Sustained Content Teaching in Academic ESL/EFL. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Snow, M. A., & Brinton, D. M. (Eds.). (1997). The Content-Based_Classroom. Addison Wesley Longman.

Marjorie is an adjunct professor at Echerd College and the Academic of ELS Language Centers in St. Petersburgs. Centers in St. Peterburg. She has administered and taught in ESL programs worlwide. Martha is an associate of French. She currently directs the joint EU-US consortium, Marine Science student mobility, funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Educaion.