ABSTRACT
Content-based language teaching (CBLT) is an instructional approach in which nonlinguistic content such as geography, history, or science is taught to students through the medium of a language that they are learning as an additional language. CBLT thus crosses a wide range of international contexts and instructional settings, including elementary, secondary, and postsecondary institutions. Given the potential confusion from the perspective of students in CBLT concerning whether the teacher's focus is on content or language, teachers need to be very aware of their own use of language and how they interact with students. Scaffolding refers to the assistance that a teacher provides to students so that they can understand language and accomplish tasks in ways that they would be unable to do on their own without such support. One way for teachers in CBLT to focus more on language in some contexts than others is to distribute the activities across language arts lessons and subject-matter lessons.
