Integrating Language and Content: A Case Study

Résumé

This article addresses the question of how language and content can be taught concurrently. It approaches the question from a perspective of task: examining what it is that a student needs to know about an academic task to perform effectively in a specific situation. In other words, how a general knowledge of the requirements of a given task relates to performance on a specific task. To illustrate this, a case study of summarizing is presented. The case study suggests that a metacognitive awareness of the general requirements has an impact on student performance. In addition, it illustrates how this awareness impacts on the linguistic performance of students. Use of the Knowledge Framework (Mohan, 1986), which involves the use of visuals to link the general requirements of a task to a specific situation, is suggested as a possible way of co-ordinating the teaching of language and content.