Teaching Content to
English Language Learners
FOCUS ON
BUSINESS ENGLISH
3 Goals for Content-Area Instruction
 Content Goals—“conceptual learning of knowledge
and skills required by the subject matter”
 Language Goals—“address learning the precise
vocabulary words and sentence patterns needed to
communicate content”
 General Skills— “means attaining study skills that
promote both language and content learning”
“Communicate in the language of the subject
and about the subject (construct meaning)”
(Hernandez 2003)
Excellent Resource
Teach Strategies for Studying
Metacognitive
Cognitive
Social
What will help me learn?
Practice
Cooperative
Learning
o What do I know?
o What do I need to know?
o How can I divide projects
into doable segments?
o Memorizing
techniques
o Flash cards
o Note-taking
o Homework
o Studying
Combining Strategies
 Think-Alouds and Modeling
Purpose—the step-by-step process involved in
completing many types of activities
 How does your classmate’s brain work
 Actual examples
Students Share Think-Alouds and Modeling
Your student correctly infers information from text
EXAMPLE: “That would be a risky company to invest in.”
ASK: Where did you find the information that helped you with
that?
Your student solves a complex problem.
 ASK: How did you figure out that answer?
Your student presents an informed opinion on a topic.
 ASK: What information led you to this opinion?
Your student gets a good grade on a test.
 ASK: How exactly did you study for this test.

Language Goals
Content-obligatory—language essential to an
understanding of content material
Content-compatible—language that can be
taught naturally within the course of teaching
content, language that must be practiced
(academic word list) (grammar)
(conversational)
According to Snow, Met and Genesee (1989)
Stock Market—Finance Content
1. New York Stock Exchange
2. NASDAQ
3. S&P 500
4. Bulls and Bears
5. soared, plummeted, flattened, leveled out,
rebounded, recovered, forecast
6. present perfect, past, future, conditional
Which
is content-obligatory?
Which is content compatible?
Content-Compatible—Functions & Forms
Example: Investigates the Fall of Beach Balls
Functions needed to discuss the article?
 Summarize
 Interpret/React
 Describing
Forms needed to summarize, interpret, use
vocabulary?
 Complex Sentences
 Cause and Effect (due to, as a result of, led to)
 Metaphorical/content-compatible vocabulary
Reading Log Form
Academic Resource:
A Conceptual Framework for the Integration
of Language and Content in Second/Foreign
Language Instruction
Marguerite Ann Snow, Myriam Met, Fred Genesee
Marketing Obligatory & Compatible Language
Obligatory
launch
advertising campaign
social media
competitors
market share
tagline:
“Think Different”
tweak vs. revamp
Compatible
collocations
differentiated from
fixed phrases
“keep up with demand”
“ramp up”
“have a hit on their hands”
comparatives
sleeker, smoother, more
powerful, supreme (from car
desciptions)
Marketing Lesson
VIDEO 4 P's
Orabrush (promotion)
Subway (price)
Food Truck (place)
Tee Shirts into Blankets (product)
Content-Obligatory:
promotion, price, place, product
Content-Compatible:
launch, debut, roll out
breakthrough, innovative, edgy, cutting edge
4 P’s exercise
ZhuZhu Pets
Resources for Content PowerPoints
Free Presentations:
ppt format & interactive
Scaffolding
“in order to learn a person must be active, and the
activity must be partly familiar and partly new, so
that attention can be focused on useful changes and
knowledge can be increased.
Van der Lier (1996) as cited in Gibbons (2003)
ed”
Too much or too little teacher talk??
Too close a match between “teacher talk” and
students’, ss won’t learn enough.
Too great a distance between “teacher talk” and
students’, ss won’t understand enough.
Interaction between teacher and learner is key.
(Cummins 1996 as cited in Gibbons 2003)
Activate learners’ background knowledge in the area of
study:
KWL
What do I know?
What do I want to know?
What will I learn
KWL Worksheets
Viral Marketing KWL Worksheet
K
What I Know
W
What I Want To Learn
L
What I Have Learned
Teaching Content
Finding the medium
Current News/Articles
MARKETING: Viral Marketing
CBS NEWS Story video and transcript “Old Spice”
United Breaks Guitars
Evian Babies
FINANCE:
 Tour of Wall Street
 Worksheets
 Practice—Virtual Stock Market
 Brainpop for stocks and shares
REAL-LIFE examples
Warren Buffett

Graphic Organizers
Link to a variety of graphic organizers
Concept/Event Map—connects concepts and events
good for current events
Additional Academic Resources
Mediating Language Learning: Teacher
Interactions with ESL Students in a ContentBased Classroom
Pauline Gibbons