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Background and Research
50
T52
Contextualization in the Language Classroom
American educator John Dewey wrote: “We only think when we
are confronted with a problem.” In some subject areas, students
have difficulty connecting what they are learning with real-life
situations in which the knowledge and skills are needed. When
taught as a collection of isolated bits and pieces, vocabulary
and grammar rules are meaningless abstractions to be “covered”
in class but never used. In contrast, contextualized learning sets
each new word or grammatical structure in an age-appropriate,
relevant situation and highlights its usefulness. Knowing what
to say, when, and to whom can only be acquired through
practice in carrying out increasingly complex real-world tasks.
Research shows that by contextualizing learning, students can
more easily acquire knowledge and skills and transfer their
knowledge and skills to new and different situations.
Making Learning Meaningful
There are several ways to contextualize learning. First, we can
make learning meaningful simply by stating at the beginning
of each lesson why and for what purpose the vocabulary and
grammar will be needed. Instead of saying: “Today, we’ll be
learning about adjective agreement,” we make learning relevant
by saying: “By the end of class today, you’ll be able to describe
someone’s appearance.” Contextualized learning focuses
students’ attention on the tasks they will be able to complete.
Emphasizing the Cultural Context
In addition to stating our lesson objective as a communication
task, we can also make learning meaningful by emphasizing
cultural situations in which vocabulary and grammar would be
needed. Rather than teaching vocabulary for fruits, vegetables,
meat or desserts in an alphabetical list, in one lesson we could
teach only the items that would typically be sold in a single store.
For example, the communication task might be “asking for and
stating a price;” the cultural context might be “at the bakery.”
In addition to learning about culturally specific products that are
sold in a bakery and the expressions and cultural practices used
to purchase something in a bakery, students can compare this
daily life situation with the way in which they complete a similar
task in their own communities (Standards 2.1, 2.2, and 4.2).
Making Connections to Other Disciplines
One final way to contextualize what students learn is to
incorporate content from other academic disciplines. Using art
as an example, when learning articles of clothing and colors,
students might focus on the tasks “asking for a description”
Anne Nerenz,
Eastern Michigan University
and “identifying and describing clothing” by analyzing clothing
items and painting styles from the target culture. In addition
to learning to accomplish meaningful language tasks and
learning about important cultural products, students also make
connections to art as they observe artists’ use of color, light,
background, and detail (Standards 3.1 and 3.2).
Teaching in Context
By focusing instruction on meaningful language tasks, situating
lessons in engaging cultural contexts, and making connections
to other disciplines, we capture students’ attention and
make learning relevant for them. Teaching in context helps all
students to move seamlessly from
acquiring
skills to
applying
those skills as they work their way more and more smoothly
through the business of life in the target culture.
Bibliography
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