Theme Teaching Theme or
content-based teaching is a method of using meaningful English as a vehicle for the expansion of world knowledge of the learner in the target lang.
Meaningful Learning -
Although today’s textbooks are written
around themes they do not always allow for student input. By building your own theme, even
if it is based on one from the textbook, students can be involved in the collecting of
suitable materials. In this way the theme becomes more personalized for your particular
class enabling you to create units which are more
suitable for your class unlike text books which are written for a general audience.
By collecting a variety of materials based on a
theme, and making them available to the class, students have a choice of what they want
to read or what task they wish to do.
Integrates various genres -
The rationale behind thematic teaching is that
it integrates various genres which are built around a common theme and includes all 4
language skills.
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Theme
Teaching
Advantages
TEACHER BASED
The teacher reads an article / story / poem / song
/ etc. which s/he would like to teach and starts collecting or compiling a unit around
this theme.
STUDENT DIRECTED
Students are asked to list topics that interest
them. By democratic vote, they choose the topics they want to deal with and are
responsible to bring in their own material which will be used to make up the unit.
TEXT BOOK BASED THEME
The theme in the text book is used as a
springboard and teacher/students add materials of different genres to expand the unit.
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STRATEGIES
The topic approach begins with a subject that is
relevant and/or of interest to the students and then designs activities for learners that
will involve them in investigating that topic and using language as an integral or central
part of that investigation.
LITERATURE STRATEGIES -
The use of literature in language instruction
gives students learning English opportunities to appreciate English in meaningful
contexts, to hear the rhythm and intonation of the language, to become familiar with the
syntactical structures while gradually gaining an understanding of the text.
AUDIO
CASSETTES -
Recordings of stories, songs, student
presentations (interviews, dialogues, readings, ...)
SHARED WRITING AND READING -
During shared writing and reading, the medium of
print is used to reformulate and extend ideas explored through the inquiry activities.
First the students think, talk and act on their ideas. Then they reformulate their ideas
through print. The shared writing and reading can center on a creative chart.
Chart production may take a variety of forms. Each
student may make an individual contribution. Some charts take a narrative form in which
students may retell what they learned or describe an event.
SELECT A PICTURE -
Each pupil says a word that goes with a picture.
The teacher then writes words on a chart and clips the picture to it. Groups (or
individuals) can be encouraged to write a paragraph / an essay / a short story ... based
on the chosen picture.
INDEPENDENT READING -
A well stocked variety of readings. Classroom time
is set for reading.
COLLECTING FOLDERS
- The pupil puts any and all things,
realia, or articles on the topic in his/her folder. (Pictures, vocabulary lists,
descriptive paragraphs, stories, etc.)
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TOPIC
PRESENTATION
Student chooses a topic of interest and presents
it to the class through an oral presentation as well as writing it out in essay form.
The written work
