Concept of Language Across the Curriculum (LAC) :

Language Across the Curriculum means that language education not only takes place in specific subjects explicitly defined and reserved for it, such as mother tongue education, foreign language education, second language education, etc. but also in other aspects. It is considered to be a curricular enrichment program that provides students with the opportunity to make use of their skills in languages other than English in non-linguistic subjects. LAC also helps students to understand the subject content and even enables them to improve student's language proficiency and understanding of academic content. LAC involves both the primary and the secondary skills of language as it is the prerequisite for cognitive development. LAC not only encourages teaching other subjects in the same classroom but also stresses subject-specific languages. It emphasizes among the students the need of applying knowledge beyond the language learning classroom. This approach stresses the need of integrating language learning with the concept of content learning. Language Across the Curriculum acknowledges that language education does not only take place in specific subjects such as in the teaching English Lessons, Geography Lessons, and Science Lessons but language learning also takes place in each and every subject ie in every learning activity, and thus it implies across the whole curriculum. Nature of Language Across the Curriculum: Language development and enhancement is the primary responsibility of all teachers across the schools and in all subjects even in all areas as emphasized by LAC. Each subject area has both similar language aspects and patterns as in other subject areas including its own specific language usage and style. It enables learners to get an understanding of different technical terms that are related to subject-specific concepts. It ultimately helps the learners to improve their own linguistic skills by linking them with the content knowledge. The language-based curriculum provides well-planned and structured content information that is strategically presented to felicitate and enrich the language experiences of the students across all subject-specific areas. Beyond appropriate language classes, language learning is embedded in all content classes, the Arts, Science, Physical education, etc. According to NCF(2005), 'A language across the curriculum perspective is perhaps of particular relevance to primary education. Language is best acquired through different meaning-making contexts, and hence all teaching is in a sense language teaching ". Nature of Language thus consists of the respective language aspects and it's an appropriate use in the classroom transaction.

Back to Blogs