What is Content-Based Instruction (CBI)

Acquiring literacy skills for the 21st century requires learners to move beyond the traditional print literacy skills and to develop strategies for effective communication in predominantly visual environments. The chapter explores how teachers of young language learners may scaffold children's development of visual literacy in Content-Based Instruction (CBI) and thus prepare them both for comprehending and producing visual images and multimodal texts. The chapter first provides a framework for understanding visual literacy and then describes pedagogical strategies language teachers may apply to promote visual literacy in a young learner classroom. Finally, it highlights the role of visual images in CBI and gives examples of classroom activities that foster simultaneous development of visual literacy and foreign/second language (L2) communication skills for young learners.