Components of Materials Evaluation

Nunan 2003:206 states that this integration reflects what happens in the real-world communication that is interaction involves multiple skills simultaneously. She also stated that in the application of CBI, there is no set sequence of skills to be taught. A lesson may begin with any skill or, alternatively, with a focus on grammar or vocabulary. 3. Involve students actively in all phases of the learning process. Because CBI falls under the more general rubric of communicative language teaching CLT, the CBI classroom is learner rather than teacher centered Littlewood in Nunan 2003:207. In this classroom, students learn through doing and actively engaged in the learning process. Students do not depend on the teacher as the source of information. Brinton in Nunan 2003:207 stated that central to CBI is the belief that learning occurs not only through exposure to the teacher’s input, but also through peer input and interactions. 4. Choose content for its relevance to students’ lives, interests, andor academic goals. According to Brinton in Nunan 2003:207-208, the choice of content in CBI depends on the students and instructional settings. In many school contexts, content-based language instruction closely parallels school subjects. She also states that topics of learning may be drawn from students’ occupational needs or be determined by general interest inventories. 5. Select authentic texts and tasks. Brinton in Nunan 2003:208 states that a key component of CBI is authenticity-both of the texts used in the classroom and the tasks that learners asked to perform. Hutchinson and Waters in Nunan 2003:208 define authentic text as those that are not originally constructed for language teaching purposes. Brinton added that in CBI since the objective is to aim for its authenticity of task, the tasks associated with a given text should mirror those that would take place in the real world. 6. Draw overt attention to language features. The purpose of CBI is to expose learners to authentic and comprehensible input with the goal of their being able to use language for communicative purposes. However, as CBI departs from some other approaches to language teaching in its belief that comprehensible input alone will not lead to successful language acquisition. It makes use of awareness-raising tasks to draw attention to specific language features found in the authentic texts.

c. Techniques and Tasks Used in Content-Based Instruction CBI