We are all well aware of the supreme importance of the natural process that we call the Silent Period in language acquisition. But we teach in schools. There is always an expectation that speech output occur before the rose is not yet fully formed within l’abri de sa chambre verte*. We are told by people who […]

I’m gonig to stick this post on this front page for a few days so we can all get a chance to read and study it before it scrolls out. We need to figure out how it fits/blends, etc. with our current use of jGR. This will take time, of course, as many of us

In this article Chris comments on PQA and on a term made by James – BSITL – Bullshit in the Target Language: When I first heard of “PQA” I took it literally and I asked repetitious, boring “personalized” questions to and about students.  If it wasn’t for being mentored by Ben, that’s what I’d still

Check this out. It will be a regular part of my new routine: www.imtranslator.com I will publish an article about an expanded weekly schedule – one that takes more like two weeks to get through everything I want to do with a story – later, but basically instead of the Three Steps forming my weekly routine now,

I think that we tend to be overcritical of ourselves when stories don’t work. We think we are the master of ceremonies in some kind of circus. But we’re not. In any social setting, the quality of the interaction, the conversation, the art of it, depends on who is in the entire group. Our kids

Sharon shares a great analogy made by her principal: Hi, Ben… [My principal] and I have been dealing with a particular student who has had some major attitude issues since August.  The boy’s mother has been to the principal’s office where we all met in conference, and I have continued to communicate with her via

Carol sent to Diana – who then sent to her DPS teachers – the slideshow from her presentation Jan. 22 and 23. Diana adds:  [The entire thing] is too large to send through email so here is a link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mr6yjmkh6eqc6bu/DPS-day2.pdf The videos are not there of course but I hope this helps you as you implement some of

I’m happy that my guy from Congo – Gloire Gabell – is getting involved in the class. His entire unspoken message up until this point for the first few weeks with us was that he was not going to get involved. But today, I invited him to do dialogue (it helps when your actors doing dialogue in

I got this from a group member. Please respond if you have a rubric that you like for freewrites: Ben – How do you assess free writes?  Do you have a rubric? I would appreciate your help on this.  Links in the PLC would be great as well.  Thanks!

Re: the mixing of methods, to be clear, we can probably do some of the old grammar stuff and some CI in our classrooms, if we must or are new TPRS and it is freaking us out, but we shouldn’t employ the two at the same time in our classrooms. Do part of class with

Diane reports: Hi Ben – I am sending you the copy, without names, of an email I wrote for a parent who complained about jGR – to my supervisors, not to me – recently. (My administrators are great! They are supportive of me.) I share it in case others would be helped by it. Feel

Today I was informed by two kids on separate occasions that they now listen to French music. They are level 2 kids. My day is made. I think that the reason they are doing that on their own is that they understand. Makes sense – people would tend to listen to music that they can understand.