Adrianne is brand new to this and reports in after her first few weeks: Ben, I am loving how this method forces me into the TL. In the last week and a half, my students have heard more Spanish than last year’s group heard in a month. (what was I thinking last year??). Anyway, I […]
I have a list of about 125 French – sorry, they’re only in French – verbs on the posters page of this site (click on the Resources page). It is under Useful Information at the bottom of that page. I would like to get extensive repetitions on each one of those verbs over my two
I will add this to the list of student jobs and see if it works this year. I think it might. The kid who is the Bump 5 English Counter counts every time the teacher breaks into English. Not how long they do it, which could be up to two minutes if the teacher is really
When we read poetry, it’s not the words that set us dreaming. It’s the images, thoughts and feelings that they convey. When we listen to music, it isn’t the individual notes that transport us into another place. It’s the overall feeling of the totality of sound that releases our imaginations. So also, when we listen
Keith Rogers is a Classicist in England and is fighting a kind of one man battle against the traditional approach to language teaching in the UK. He is kind of like Judy in France in that way. Keith had contacted me to address a colloquium over there in November and I just refused because I
Nathan Black has this wonderful idea for starting the year (I assume with kids who have had CI instruction before): I’ll usually start out by having each student draw me a “postcard” about a highlight of their summer, and then I’ll put those on the document camera and we’ll spend the first two weeks working
I just posted an article here about the importance of staying in bounds and avoiding introducing any new structures to the input. I feel that the ideas expressed in that articles hold THE KEY to our successful implementation of comprehensible input this year. When I saw the flow of the discussion move away from those ideas
We just finished a complex discussion about a simple idea – that we must severely limit the use of Point and Pause if our fluency program is to be effective. What started the discussion was this from Leigh Anne: …eliminating or nearly-eliminating Point and Pause, and only teaching the three structures will keep the slower
I got this from Judy. Comments, additional ideas are welcome. Dear Ben, My proposition to present TPRS in a one hour talk has been accepted by TESOL France. It’s in November, so I have time to work on it. Basically, I’m going to be talking to English teachers who work, or would like to work
Got this from David Maust (Latin, Los Angeles) last week: Hi Ben, I’ve been really benefiting from the blog these past couple weeks. Great discussions. Here’s a topic on which I’m looking for some ideas: What are some introductory activities for students, especially in upper level classes. I have two large combo 3/4, high school level classes this
Skip has repeatedly admonished me to not post new articles on the weekends – as we decided was best last January – and on those few occasions when I listen to him I realize how important it is to not let this stuff absorb all of our down time. So, in keeping with that goal, I
