Q. So the big problem is that we haven’t been really following what Dr. Krashen says? A. I would say that the big problem is that we haven’t been trusting that the kids will learn the language if we just speak to them naturally. Q. So should one then not even try to teach a […]

We’ve been making a lot of music over the years and I figured out that we hit our official ten year anniversary for this group in January. Actually I’ve been blogging since 2003 but the archives only go back to ’07 due to losing stuff from the old blog. So Happy Anniversary, everyone! A few

This is a repost from 2007: If new teachers, in their efforts to satisfy some kind of benchmark on some pacing guide, forget the kid, they will never effectively teach the benchmark anyway. The kid will only do enough to pass the class, and they won’t acquire much, leaving the foreign language profession with business

Q. At what level is all of this work with the Invisibles the most effective? A. For me it is with sixth graders. They really get into it. But I think all middle school levels can “go there”. However, if the kids have ever had a year or more of traditional book based verb conjugation

Pamela: “I made lots of copies with “fill in the blank space” exercises, so at least I can tell the parents that I tried everything I could, and their kids are just not able to understand it. I do think that we all are able to learn a language – we already did so with

Pamela: “My students find it exhausting and tedious to answer similar questions over and over again.” Tina: I just sense your frustration here. I know the feeling! You knock yourself out trying something new, you are stepping outside your comfort zone, and you are not getting the results, and you are second-guessing yourself. But I

Pamela had said that her students reacted to Circling with this response: “Do you think we are stupid? We did understand who did what where when and how. Stop asking that question over and over again.” She went on: “Even though I know that they even don’t understand easy texts and cannot produce one single

Tina continues (pls refer to the first article in this series to refresh your awareness of Pamela’s concerns): In the interest of Krashen’s ability to read the longer messages (and I am told he reads them all) I am making these short, though I have a lot of ideas for Pamela. And yes, I agree

Tina continues her response to Pamela’s concerns expressed in the previous article: Tina: I said earlier that I would provide ways to provide repetition without circling. To provide repetitions outside without having to rely on “circling” you could: “Ask” a story or tell a story to them using comprehensible language. Circle to the extent that

Pamela expressed concerns about TPRS recently in a discussion online. In the next six articles here, Tina responds to her: Pamela: Maybe I’m not the right teacher for TPRS. I don’t know. It doesn’t work for me. On the hand, the class is expected to create a story. On the other hand, I need to

Q You refer to the idea of a “group mind”. Can you expand on that? A. It’s the collective unconscious mind of the class, and is perhaps the most unifying tool in building community. We enjoy our community by envisaging the same happy and interesting things together. I remember that last year Pringle Man had

Steven wrote this about a month ago here: …we can try our best to map the great sea of CI via systems and strategies like TPRS and circling. etc… but nontargeted CI has really been the most underrated and under-noticed revolutionary movement. Teachers are afraid because it undermines their control. But the complexity of SLA