Bilingual Content-Based Teaching - an Important Component for Education Globalization

Content-based bilingual teaching is a model of the integrated-skills approach to combined language and content teaching, which integrates the learning of some specific subject-matter content with the learning of foreign language. In this paper, the authors will share with other educators their first-hand experiences in bilingual teaching and observation of science classes in different countries. Through their practice in bilingual teaching, many similarities and variations between the educational components of the two countries have been recognized. Results from the comparison study indicate that bilingual content-based teaching is an important step to fit the current trend of education globalization. It not only provides an English environment for students to strengthen and enhance their technical English skills in science and mathematics, but also creates international exchange opportunities for educators from different countries. It opens the door for educators to see different teaching techniques of others, to exchange their teaching experiences, and to incorporate advanced teaching methods in their own classes. Both educators and students will benefit from the combination of the best features of eastern and western education systems. We believe that successful bilingual content-based instruction will prepare students to be more competitive in their future careers for the rapidly globalizing world