Ben Slavic

From time to time I will update those in the group who are interested on how our Beniko Mason/Krashen study is going. This is what we hope will be the first valid study comparing CI based instruction with traditional instruction.  We started this week. Paul Kirschling identified about 42 verbs that we assumed/agreed were “pre-taught” from first semester. These are simple and common verbs like […]

We here in Colorado are extremely proud to announce that the second iFLT Conference will be held just up the road from Denver in Breckenridge, Colorado the week of July 16 – 20, which is the week before NTPRS. The website (link below) went live today, but so far only the conference information is available on it

A question about portfolios from Angela: Hey Ben! I’m interested in creating student portfolios that can show parents/administrators student achievements & successes in the target language using TPRS. Could you throw this out there to the blog group to see if anyone has successfully done student portfolios, and if so, what types of artifacts were

It has been awhile since we talked about the importance of the ACTFL Three Modes of Communication, so I thought Iwould bring them back up here today. Actually, what I am publishing here is a local state level documents that acknowledges the role of the three modes in 21st century second language classrooms. This is

An excellent bio from Lea: My name is Lea Ekeberg, and I teach Chinese in an independent school in Washington, DC.  I’m in my eighth year of teaching now, and I first experienced TPRS two years ago at ACTFL in one of Carol Gaab’s ACTFL sessions.  The chance to experience the method as a learner

This text by Drew was written as part of a grant process that got him over to Germany last summer to study at the Goethe Institut. Part of his grant was to write an article for the California Language Teachers Association. The title of his piece was “A Claim for Comprehensible Input.”  The article explains how he learned much more German doing things he

This goes under a new category called Poetry. They are poems that I like to teach my students. If we can get some of your favorites in Spanish and German and other languages, we could share them in much the same way as we are now beginning to share songs and readings. The first one is

Mamba Verde Patricio y Shrek están caminando por selva. Buscan tigres. Patricio busca un tigre blanco y Shrek busca uno verde. Los dos están caminando con cuidado, porque es importante caminar con cuidado en la selva. De repente, Shrek es mordido por un serpiente. ¡Es un Mamba Verde! Los Mamba Verde son muy venenosos, así

I got this question from Ray: Hey Ben, I had to bail on a story yesterday.  When bailing, do you find it wise to choose a very boring activity to put in perspective for them how much better stories are than other possible activities?  Do you also let them know that you stopped the story

Here is one of Anne’s from Jim: Perezoso Jeremy trabaja en McDonald’s y prepara las hamburguesas. El jefe le grita porque Jeremy es muy perezoso. Le dice, “¡Trabaja, Jeremy! ¡Qué perezoso eres!” Jeremy no trabaja. Come papas fritas. El jefe le grita, “¡Vete!” La próxima semana Jeremy trabaja en DollWorld. Jeremy lava las muñecas. El

Another One from Brigitte: Report Card Day zeigt (shows) findet es lustig (finds it funny) das Zeugnis (the report card) Zeugnistag Es ist mitten im Februar und heute ist Zeugnistag.  Wolfgang hat sein Zeugnis bekommen.  Sein Zeugnis ist sehr schlecht, er hat eine „5“ in einhundertein Fächern und eine „6“ in Diskotanzen.  Wolfgang findet das

Important important (wichtig) needs (braucht) has to pay (muss bezahlen) Eine wichtige Geschichte Christoph ist ein sehr wichtiger Astronaut.  Er möchte zum Mond fliegen und braucht eine wichtige Rakete.  Es gibt wichtige Raketen bei der NASA.  Christoph geht zur NASA in Cape Canaveral.  Dort arbeitet Louie der Pinguin. Christoph  geht zu Louie und sagt:  “Ich