Hi Ben, From Keri: I have a question.  I watched all of Adriana Ramirez’s videos and I really like the idea of the additional step she added in between the TPRS verbal story and the written.  She added the step of “skits”.  The students have a little class time to recreate the story and make […]

If you are thinking about a grad program in language acquisition that is Krashen-friendly, you may want to read this from Eric: “Here is what Krashen told me last school year about graduate programs: …I don’t know of ANY departments open to our point of view. The few that were (eg my old department, Arizona

What is more important? (a) maximizing instructional minutes in favor of CI, or (b) just having fun hanging out with the kids? My answer used to be (a). And it was an intense (a). I thought that I could duplicate first learning language conditions in my classroom. That was nuts. Now it is (b). I

I promised to post all of Krashen’s responses to my ROA article. Those 20 posts are what got me seriously rethinking CI in schools. Here is the second: Me: “The fourth step of ROA is doing choral translation using the laser pointer.” Dr. Krashen: I really like that you bring up the issue of ESL/EFL.  This is

With stories, teaching a language successfully is very difficult, but it reaches any conscious student. Without stories, success is virtually impossible, and reaches only a few bright kids. You have to pick one of these. If you pick the first, you align with 21st century standards. If you pick the second, you align with nothing. You do,

  General caution for new people. The reason we do stories is to set up reading. Reading is our big gun. We do lots of fun CI but it is all to set up we a text. You can follow a precise and detailed reading sequence that can last up to three weeks (in which not

Steven has a question: Hi Ben, I am writing for some help regarding how I can adapt my CI teaching for BTSA, a mandatory beginning teacher’s program in California.  In essence it is a program where a supervisor evaluates teaching according to CSTP or the California Standards of the Teaching Profession. It includes quick and

Dr. Krashen states: There is nothing wrong with talking about grammar occasionally. Eric Herman stated my position about grammar and output very well on your blog. Even a dictation once in a while (especially as it relates to French culture!). In fact, doing a little grammar, etc. is a good chance to discuss language acquisition

From Tim Geerlings: Ben, Can you post the following question to the group? I have two students in my Spanish 2A class who will not, period, do freewrites. They are otherwise GREAT students, who pay attention, volunteer phrases in Spanish, and seem to understand every single of the hundreds of questions/ statements I make every

Jim Tripp: The public individual dictado. Ask a student to stand up and take dictation on the board for a single word or sentence. Chances are you’ll have to correct them on spelling which allows you to talk to them about letters and directing them to the correct word/letter that needs corrected, in TL. This

Hi Ben, I hope you are well. I thought you might enjoy this excerpt that one of my students sent me below. I talked to my students a few weeks ago about how learning a language can feel like going down a hill on your bike very fast in order to get up a hill

I don’t know if anyone is doing the Jump into the Space! activity, the eighth of the eighteen step Reading Option A sequence (one way to approach Step 3 of TPRS). I just started using it in a real way lately myself, but it’s a sleeper – it’s really good. Here it is described and it