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THROUGH A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
linguistically complex descriptions can be better understood through the
support of non-verbal input. Before learners acquire new features of the L2,
the message must be embedded in a meaningful context which integrates
what is not known of the foreign language.
Exploring text types
Disciplines that rely more on verbal communication require the learners to
have a reasonably high level of L2 competence before they can be
introduced into the curriculum, especially if the second/foreign language is
not similar to the students’ mother tongue. These disciplines, however, are
ideal to explore all text types, from description to argumentation and thus
provide an excellent means for teaching students to discuss, give opinions,
defend positions, etc. in the foreign language.
General and special languages
A further consideration that must be made when choosing suitable
disciplines is that different types of language may be acquired. Although to
a greater or lesser extent all disciplines rely on general language for
classroom routines and in less structured parts of the classroom, a
distinction may be drawn between human sciences on the one hand and
technical and scientific subjects on the other. The type of discourse found
in the first group is closer to the general language: what is read in
newspapers, used in conversation, heard on TV, etc. Technical and scientific
language, on the other hand, is rich in words that are only found in the
specific field, and also has typical grammatical structures. These specialist
expressions need to be learnt in order to deal with the different field-related
topics. If, for example, most of the words used in history are those of the
general language, many of the words found in, for example, chemistry, will
be very specific to that particular subject.
This results in different advantages and disadvantages. When learning
history in French, students will learn a lot of the common core of the
language and their general ability to use the language will improve. The
technical vocabulary of chemistry, on the other hand, is common to many