Skill #1 – Circling:
Students become strongly engaged when you get enough repetitions on the words you are trying to teach them, because they understand. There is a strong link between student engagement and good circling. In the early stages of learning this skill, you will probably refer frequently to your circling poster, which should be up in the back of your room until you are ready to circle on your own, first in the following mechanical way:
Statement
Question
Either/or
Negative
Optional are:
Throw In
Ask a detail
Who
What
When
Where
Why
An example of circling:
Statement: “Class, there is a boy!” (ohh!)
Question: “Class, is there a boy?” (yes) You add: “That’s correct, class, there is a boy.”
Either/Or: “Class, is there a boy or a girl?” (boy) You add: “That’s correct, class, there is a boy.”
Negative: “Is there a girl?” (no) You add: “That’s correct, class, there is not a girl. There is a boy.
Throw In: “Is there a monkey?” (no) You add: “That’s correct, class, there is not a monkey. There is a boy.”
What: “Class, what is there?” (boy) You add: “That’s correct, class, there is a boy.”
Who: Class, what is the boy’s name? (David) You add: “That’s correct, class, the boy’s name is David.”
If it is true that listening to comprehensible input is the pre-eminent focus of all foreign language instruction, circling is the pre-eminent feature of comprehensible input. The astounding results gained by students trained with comprehensible input would be impossible without some form of circling.
The focus of circling in each sentence is on the part of the sentence that is new to the students. When you say the part of the sentence that is new to them, you can even highlight it with an increase in sound and change of inflection in your voice.
A single thought must be in the forefront of the instructor’s mind when circling: the word or structure that you want the students to know must be repeated, repeated, and repeated again in each successive utterance. If you leave the targeted structure out of the sentence, you are not circling.
Some instructors focus more on the circling than on the structure, thinking that there must be a “right” way to circle. Circling is not a formula to be blindly followed. Rather, general repetitive questioning that accentuates and repeats the structure to be learned is proper circling.
By focusing less on the circling itself as a formula and more on the structure being circled, the structure quickly becomes comprehensible to the students. It also becomes instantly recognizable to the students when it occurs later in more complicated language settings.
(to be cont.)