The wrapping around the gift that Krashen gave us is opaque. It’s hard to see what is inside unless you unwrap it. That takes no small amount of dedication and hard work. Krashen’s work is much easier to dismiss than embrace. Imagine my surprise when I opened the gift and found a way of teaching that actually worked! How lucky I was!
But, maybe it wasn’t luck. Maybe it was that I was simply ready, after so many years of failed attempts (I just didn’t know what was best for my students) to just make my job work for a change. Yes, I think that’s it. I didn’t want to rip off 96% of my students anymore. I couldn’t. It was love it or leave it in my career at that point ten years ago.
I think that the single most important factor in my earning the right to “get” comprehensible input was that I had given up the idea, somewhere along the line, that some of my students were stupid. Another factor, of course, was my realization somewhere along the line that my students didn’t really come into my classroom to become little editors of the language – rather, they wanted to speak and understand it.
The Problem with CI
Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and
1 thought on “Love it or Leave it”
Great post!