in my view the need is to simplify and protect ourselves from too many techniques and strategies. We must learn simple teaching because if what we do is not simple then it cannot be elegant. And all of us want our teaching to be elegant, whether we are aware of it or not. When we worry about our teaching and try too many things, we become confusing. And if we are confused then our students will be confused. So we want to remain simple. The main ingredients of simple teaching, elegant teaching, in my opinion, are joy, fun and happiness. How can we find our own joy so we can help our students enjoy what we teach them? If we could do that, the result would be employment that we truly enjoy doing, not to mention the gains in acquisition that far surpass the gains made in classrooms that are taught in a robotic manner to only the left hemispheres of the students’ brains. We shouldn’t even walk into our classrooms this Monday morning if we can’t bring to our students some reason to believe in life, and to at least get glimpses of the deep and graceful beauty of each language that we teach.
