The focus of a CBI lesson is on the topic or subject matter
During the lesson
Students are focused on learning about something
Topics such as
Favourite pop star
Topical news story
Film
They learn about this subject using the language they are trying to learn
Not their native language
This is thought to be a more natural way of developing language ability
One that corresponds more to the way we originally learn our first language.
Preparation
Choose a subject of interest to students.
Find three or four suitable sources that deal with different aspects of the subject.
These could be websites, reference books, audio or video of lectures or even real people.
During the lesson
Divide the class into small groups
Assign each group a small research task and a source of information to use to help them fulfil the task.
Then once they have done their research
They form new groups with students that used other information sources
Share and compare their information.
Some product as the end result of this sharing of information
Which could take the form of a group report or presentation of some kind.
It can make learning a language more interesting and motivating.
Students can use the language to fulfil a real purpose, which can make students both more independent and confident.
Students can also develop a much wider knowledge of the world through CBI
Which can feed back into improving and supporting their general educational needs.
CBI is very popular among EAP (English for Academic Purposes) teachers
It helps students to develop valuable study skills such as note taking, summarising and extracting key information from texts.
Taking information from different sources
Re-evaluating and restructuring that information can help students to develop very valuable thinking skills that can then be transferred to other subjects.
The inclusion of a group work element within the framework
Given above can also help students to develop their collaborative skills, which can have great social value.
CBI isn't explicitly focused on language learning
Some students may feel confused or may even feel that they aren't improving their language skills.
Particularly in monolingual classes
The lesson isn't explicitly focused on language practice students find it much easier and quicker to use their mother tongu
Hard to find information sources and texts that lower levels can understand
The sharing of information in the target language may cause great difficulties
Possible way around this at lower levels is either to use texts in the students' native language and then get them to use the target language for the sharing of information and end product
Some students may copy directly from the source texts they use to get their information
Avoid this by designing tasks that demand students evaluate the information in some way, to draw conclusions or actually to put it to some practical use
Having information sources that have conflicting information can also be helpful as students have to decide which information they agree with or most believe.
While CBI can be both challenging
Demanding for the teacher and the students, it can also be very stimulating and rewarding.
The degree to which you adopt this approach may well depend on the willingness of your students
the institution in which you work and the availability of resources within your environment.
School wants to consider introducing across the curriculum or something that you experiment with just for one or two lessons
try to involve other teachers within your school, particularly teachers from other subjects
Try to involve the students
Get them to help you decide what topics and subjects the lessons are based around
Find out how they feel this kind of lessons compares to your usual lessons