I feel as if the “New CI” out there is very much about making money for the new breed of purveyors of CI, who explore and pollute the purity of the research in what has become a new CI marketplace that uses social media and the internet to sell very mediocre stuff that has strayed from the purity of what Blaine Ray introduced all those twenty years ago, and does little more than confuse people.
CI is not about us and we shouldn’t bend it to our bank accounts and those who do are hurting the movement. Instead of making up a million cute CI activities that end up, by their sheer number, confusing teachers, the real CI teachers of the future need to focus more on what helps children learn languages in our classrooms, and only that.
Not only do the myriad and confusing cute new activities confuse, even if they make a buck for the teachers in the form of online sales, they also take CI instruction further and further away from the real research.
One person is pushing CALP products. Ask any real upper level teacher, any teacher who is an expert, and they will tell you that the new CALP product was made up by a teacher who never taught upper levels, who never even taught at the high school level. Beware of false information about CI on the internet. Beware, also, of those little novels, that do not bring unity to classes, but further divide them as described here heavily over recent years.
When you think about what you want to do in your teaching next year, I suggest that you avoid all the cute activities because they do no reflect a contiguous, wholistic approach to language teaching, and they do not align with the research. They are fractured, trumpian, deceitful, and spring from self-interest, and they end up making you crazy. Get a method and stick with it. Learn what CI is really about.
Read the recent article here on this topic: