Robert’s email discussing Scope and Sequence with his district World Languages representative continues: 9. Acquiring a language is different from learning in nearly all other areas (Van Patten) because it is, especially in the early stages, essentially an unconscious process (Chomsky, Krashen). While one learns history by reading about history in the native language or […]

Robert’s email discussing scope and sequence with his district World Languages representative continues: 8. Brain-based research also shows that the brain craves and requires meaning and significance. This is why people see figures in clouds or the face of Jesus on a tortilla. Language that is not meaningful (and meaning requires comprehensibility) and significant will

I got this question today: …I am interested in seeing CI activities and or videos for upper levels. I teach Spanish III and AP. I am somewhat familiar with CI/TPRS for lower levels and am always working to incorporate these into my upper level classes. However, we have a fairly traditional program and our upper

Nathaniel Hardt sent this list of our Classroom Rules, but in Spanish, explaining: Hi Ben, With the talk about staying in the target language with classroom stuff (Australia Update), it made me think to share what I have posted for classroom rules. This is on the front, above the whiteboard. There are also the English

Robert’s email discussing Scope and Sequence with his district World Languages representative continues: 7. Brain-based research shows that the brain craves and requires two very different experiences. On the one hand, because active memory is limited to +/- 7 items, it is necessary to automate many functions and processes as well as “chunk” them together.

I just had the thought that teachers who are insecure with their abilities in teaching using comprehensible input can drop that thought, because really, if they just provide enough input to their students, those students will learn automatically in spite of any perceived shortcomings in technique or skills on the part of the teacher. No

Robert’s email discussing Scope and Sequence with his district World Languages representative continues: 6. Studies published in various professional journals such as “The Foreign Language Annals” (ACTFL), “Die Unterrichtspraxis” (AATG) and “The Language Educator” indicate that manipulation of the language before any sort of explicit grammar instruction leads to greater gains in fluency and retention

[This is really Look and Discuss made into a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with PQA, two twin strategies, but I am calling it a new kind of PQA because it a) targets structures to set up a story, b) asks for the personal opinions of kids about various topics and brings their own lives

Today I observed two middle school classes in a Learning Lab model hosted by Julie Soldner of Merrill Middle School in South Central Denver. (Learning Labs are the trademark strategy of DPS for training teachers new to TPRS and they are far more effective than anything else I personally have ever seen in teacher training

Robert’s email discussing Scope and Sequence with his district World Languages representative continues: 4. In addition, receptive skills precede and outpace productive skills. My observation – and it seems supported by casual research and listening to others – is that the skills develop in a natural order: listening, speaking, reading, writing. Asking students to speak

Laurie Clarcq posted an article on her blog about a week ago. A PLC member contacted me privately to share what an impact it had on her, since she has been going through a hard time emotionally at her school. This teacher wrote: Hi Ben, In relation to all that we’ve been discussing over the

Robert’s email discussing Scope and Sequence with his district World Languages representative continues: 3. Researchers (e.g. Asher, Krashen, Van Patten, Omaggio, Wong, Pink) agree that the single most important element that leads to acquisition is Comprehensible Input. (Of course, that means input that is comprehensible to the student not just to the teacher.) Terms such