Here is Diane’s proposal for San Diego:
Title: Teaching Beginners Comprehensibly
Type: Session
Applicable Language: Any
Language of Presentation: English
Lead Presenter:
Diane Neubauer
Valor Christian High School
Additional Presenter:
Ngan Ha Ta
Kent Denver School
Reed Riggs
University of Hawaii At M?noa
Content and Purpose:
Teaching for language acquisition requires teachers to balance many challenging skills: using the target language 90% or more of the time, developing a high level of student interaction and engagement, and maintaining a high level of student comprehension. When working with beginners, these skills are perhaps most challenging for the teacher because of the minimal level of student language knowledge. This presentation will demonstrate and discuss techniques to help teachers manage these important principles in their own classrooms.
Outcomes:
Participants will experience comprehensible, 90%+ use of the target language from the very earliest stages of language exposure. Teachers will come away with approaches for interpersonal and interpretive communication with beginning-level students using the target language, engaging student interest, and maintaining a high level of student comprehension. Administrators will receive a helpful observation checklist with factors to look for when visiting a world language classroom.
Strategies for Engagement:
First, audience members who have no background in Mandarin Chinese, and who are willing to take the role of “students” during the presentation, will be invited to seats at the front of the room. The lead presenter will conduct a sample lesson teaching Chinese, from introducing new words, use of gestures, conducting interpersonal communication with the “students,” and finishing with preliminary reading activities in the interpretive mode of communication. Throughout the sample class, the additional presenters will add commentary to explain the stages of the process, ask the “students” for feedback about their experience, and answer questions from the audience.
Program Description:
Teaching for language acquisition requires teachers to balance using the target language 90% or more of the time, developing a high level of student interaction and engagement, and maintaining a high level of student comprehension. When working with beginners, these skills are perhaps most challenging yet important because of the minimal level of student language. This presentation will include a beginning language lesson in Mandarin Chinese, inviting participants without Chinese knowledge to participate as “students.” The lead presenter will demonstrate a beginning lesson while additional presenters will periodically note teaching techniques and address questions from the audience. Teachers and administrators will leave with application points and a checklist of factors to consider when seeking comprehensible, interactive, beginner-appropriate language activities in any world language classroom.
Audience Level: All