Dr. Krashen has set before us an enormous challenge by his suggestion that we learn languages unconsciously. That is because learning in schools is typically about conscious, analytical, left brain deciphering of subject matter.   Thus, in languages, we have created books to help us present the language, but that very fact takes us, if […]

Robert sent this email: Hi Ben, I just wanted to share a comment I came across in a German-English forum I visit. Someone asked for a translation of the name of the equation for velocity = distance x time. One of the replies used standard American terminology, substituting the word “rate” for “velocity”. A contributor

Here is another email from Vernon Lee. It describes a poignant moment at the Japan seminar: Ben, The Japanese lady who sat close to me asked me a question during the break. A little history first. After the first day my new friend and I were walking to the bus stop about a 4 minute walk

This is from Vernon Lee who has a TPRS language school in Fujisawa, Japan, about an hour south of Tokyo: Ben, Once Susan started and her words had all been translated into Japanese we felt that we weren’t alone anymore. She adjusted her presentation to reach her new eager audience patiently waiting for everyone in the

Duke was in today and observed. He shared a great idea that I would like to expand on a little here. My level 2 students had heard so much auditory CI in level one that he suggested my asking what they thought about the content of the song (Aicha by Khaled Sahra) we were working with. Which

This is from Martha Nojima: Ben said Susie galvanized teachers here in Japan. That’s right. A year ago when I started this I never imagined it would be so successful. The timing was right for many things and they clicked into place to make this work. Susie told me she was nervous about presenting in

Jack Taylor you are right I am just waiting for stuff I can share here about Susie’s visit to Japan. The single word that comes to my mind so far from this visit is “galvanized”. Susie galvanized teachers – that’s what she does. She makes them feel like they can do it. They are already creating a

Since Susan Gross has just left Japan, having apparently had a huge impact there from the emails I have been receiving (will post some here later), we can say that some important work has been done. Think about it. Japan. The ice is cracking on the sea of Japanese foreign language education. The magnificent idea

Personalized information gathered from PQA is the lifeblood of comprehensible input. If we don’t have enough personalized information about each kid in the class, which we are gathering now, we will not be able to personalize our stories enough later this year and they will be flat. The Circling with Balls cards are a start

Here is a nice update from Jim Tripp about how his year has been a bit different, how it has evolved for him so far and what he is focusing on: Ok, so it’s not a novel idea, but one that I’m glad I’ve remembered and stuck to this year so far. I am progressing

Yesterday during FVR I noticed that one of my students was reading the fabulous children’s book Brown Bear, Brown Bear (what do you see?). So I decided to read it to the kids right after the FVR session, kind of like on kindergarten day. It was amazing to see them relax and enjoy being read to. I