Chapter 11: Cumulative Curricular Model for Content and Language Development in the Multilingual Classroom

Teaching content courses to multicultural, multilingual students presents challenges in both helping students master content outcomes and language expectations (Leaver & Shekhtman, 2009). This chapter outlines an instructional approach that encourages multilingual literacy, intercultural discussions, and target language development through a series of cumulative tasks in which students take on the dual roles of learners and experts.

This chapter describes how the original curriculum, which was developed for intensive English and first-year composition classrooms (Eckstein, Chariton, & McCollum, 2011; McCollum, 2012), has been adapted for use in wider academic contexts. The curriculum combines techniques from English for Specific Purposes course design (Viana, Bocorny, & Sarmento, 2019) with a student-centered, collaborative classroom environment. Course developers identify field-specific oral and written genres and then support students in their development of advanced target language as they analyze case studies.

This cumulative model honors the diverse linguistic backgrounds of students in multilingual classrooms. Learners are encouraged to deepen their content-area knowledge by using online sources to select course material in any language that they feel comfortable consuming, and then they develop their target language skills by participating in group discussions and sharing digital projects with organizational and linguistic support from the instructor. The iterative nature of the approach offers multiple opportunities for students to improve both their content knowledge and language proficiency within a formulaic and familiar instructional model that also enhances their technology skills.