Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and that people in the U.S. are not. Extending this (what

Michel Baker is looking for an experienced TPRS coach in the Carolinas. What’s happening over there? Michel is in the Columbia, SC area.

It’s odd that the big textbook companies have held dominion over our profession for so long. It’s even more odd how the annual ACTFL conference, in spite of their statements about proficiency and use of

Carol sent this in a few weeks ago but it is just making it to through the queue. I think it is an important reminder: Dear Ben: My French 2 class has been a little

There are still some outstanding bios which we need to solidify our knowledge of who each of us is. It’s not paranoid to think that someone can just join, not say who they are, and

Many know Kate Taluga from NTPRS. She works with preserving Myskoke language in Florida and is part of the Oklahoma group as well, since her People were one of those native groups split between those

[ed. note: this is a recent comment by Robert. It connects to a somewhat confusing term (confusing at least to me) introduced around 2009 by Krashen – transparency. In an effort to locate the discussion of trasnparency into one accessible

Carol has a question: Hi! Could you throw this out to the techie folks? I am thinking about using Google Voice to record my upper levels short speaking assessments. I am getting some push back.

When the story script we are using is too busy in the first location, time keeps us from getting to the other locations and we lose all that chance for lots of repetition of the

I was discussing with my coordinator (at the university) my ideas that using tprs could help us with our lower level retention issues, particularly with minority students.  She always wants to “see the research” on

John sent this: Ben, I thought you’d either be horrified or entertained by the description of a panel at this year’s upcoming American Philological Association meeting. It is called “After Krashen.” What amazes me is

Robert sent me two takes on the Beatitudes, both of which I have published below. The first is a spoof, but the second is most wonderful, irrespective of whatever faith one might profess, or not

This from John: Ben – Recent conversations in my school are causing me to think that I am soon going to have to justify my assessments in very concrete terms, possibly in the context of

This content from a recent response by Robert to Jody on https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/12/05/ohio-may-have-a-problem/ cannot be ignored so I am reposting it here as a blog entry: I have to agree with Jody. Most programs ignore the importance of

This content from a recent comment by Jody on https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/12/05/ohio-may-have-a-problem/ cannot be ignored so I am reposting it here as a blog entry: …in TPRS and the CI methods that “we” use, negotiation of meaning

Brigitte’s follow up meeting with her administrator was different than she thought it would be, for those who remember her comment here of a few weeks ago in which she felt that the kids “froze

Thank you Michael for this bio: I haven’t yet gotten around to writing my bio, but I could cut and paste the majority of Jen’s bio into my own. Everything she said about not feeling

This is from John: Ben, I wanted to make sure this helpful resource is accessible to Latin teachers on your blog. It is a list of the 300 most frequent Latin words, based on the

There is one thing about the use of English that I am not sure we have mentioned here but that illustrates exactly why it is so crucial to enforce our rules, especially the non-use of English, and strongly.

We didn’t get a discussion going on Michael’s blog post from Friday. However, we need to step up on the follow-up email below from Michael. I don’t mean to demand responses here, but this is

More from Byrce and AshLee: (posted by Bryce Hedstrom at his site http://www.brycehedstrom.com/2011/university-student-classroom-observation) These are some further reflections by AshLee, a student at Colorado State University.  I had presented on TPRS in her Methods of

(posted by Bryce Hedstrom at his site http://www.brycehedstrom.com/2011/university-student-relfections) Bryce shares: I recently did presentations on TPRS at two regional universities.  This is a journal response from AshLee Pray, a Spanish student at Colorado State University in

Jane sent this short animated film in French: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILmjvmsExNQ

Jody sent this link: http://ideas.time.com/2011/12/07/the-power-of-smart-listening/  

I got this from Chris today: Ben, Ohio is currently in the process of revising and rolling out new, revised Foreign Language Standards.  Currently, I’d say they align fairly well with ACTFL’s 5 Cs.  I

Pls. find three options for 90 block classes below. I pulled these from blog posts here so that they can more easily be found in one place. I included comments so all of this is

It would probably be a good thing to check the phrases that go with the story before class. Think about which one(s) could lend themselves to PQA. Like today, the simple phrase “after school” turned

This is a comment turned blog entry from a week ago about the history, as I see it, of comprehension based instruction over the past fifty years: We must respect the vision set out in 1983

From John: Here is a Latin story loosely based on Talks Too Much. As you can see, the details got a bit out of hand, and I chose to include more details that I would

From Brigitte: Hi, This is a reading based on a Matava script (the ever popular Refrigerator story).  I used it for level one and it worked great.  I was a bit concerned that the structures

From Wikipedia: “An idée reçue is a received, or accepted, idea. This term was used by Gustave Flaubert in his work Le Dictionnaire des Idées Reçues to refer to a catch phrases and platitudes, most

Story scripts should be simple and emotional. Students are attracted to verbs and emotions. But too many verbs confuse them and stories lacking in emotion bore them. Amy Catania wrote a story about a waitress who

Got this from Michael today: Hi Ben, Here’s a counter perspective my buddy sent me that he ran into on StudySpanish.com: http://www.studyspanish.com/whyteachgrammar.htm I also included my response. Just thought it was hilarious to read this

Designing a curriculum based on a novel can be a very effective way to acquire a language. How to do it? The following ideas are suggested: 1. The instructor looks at the first chapter of the book

You take a chapter from the novel and, going paragraph by paragraph, you do the following: 1. the students read the paragraph silently or translate with a partner if they can handle that. 2. you read it aloud

Pls. send only readings that are connected to Matava/Tripp scripts. I got a bunch today that were just readings, but, as good as they are, I think that they would be hard to use by

Robert sent this. I have worked with math teachers on using gesturing to pack formulae, etc. into muscle memory. Maybe someone can address this idea: Hi Ben, Could you post the following note and question for me?

I got this from Kate just now: Hey Ben, Happy Friday to you! I just had to share this home run moment that I had today. It’s so great to have an outlet to share

Another Matava French reading for fifth graders from Allison: La vache Qui Veut Être une Poule Dans une maison il y a un mouton, trois canards et une vache. Les animaux habitent dans la maison.

This one is from Allison and thank you Allison: Here’s a script based on Matava’s “The Thirsty Boy.”  My fifth and sixth graders like stories with animals, and I like to bring in restaurant vocab now

The reading categories are in four languages – we just started this here about two months ago – and the purpose was to have an “instant cut and paste” option for our own readings based on

 “…it made me feel like the language wasn’t just a class. I was adding more to my character.” A barometer student wrote this last June in the end-of-year reflection. It pretty much made my year. 

I had never thought of actually giving specific instructions to the Quiz Writer during stories but this morning I got this excellent little set of instructions from Ben Lev (CA) which do exactly that. Thanks

A repost from 2011: I got the email below from Brian. In it, he talks about the term “flying” that we have been using here lately. It made me think of some old emails from

I need a reminder that I am there to teach the structures, not the story. Sometimes we get to focusing on (more like bowing down at the alter of) the story and those myriad details that

This goes under the simplicity banner. Today I: – sent by boss my lesson plans. It took three minutes because they are the same every week. – called Matava for a story because I do

Hi Ben, This is La from Madison, Wisconsin. Sorry for the procrastination on this and not sending you my bio sooner… Here’s a bit about myself… I am not a “4%,” in fact I was

Jody wrote in 2009: I also teach songs. Duh– (especially with my little ones), but NOT because I actually believe it increases language acquisition very much. That is pretty easy to prove. Stuff from songs