I was just watching a French film. The language moves so fast! I honestly haven’t a clue as to why a teacher would do anything but speak the language at every opportunity possible in class, if they are serious about actually teaching the language. Go watch a movie in the language you teach and you’ll […]

I was reading that bio link (see previous post) and read a comment by Grant that describes what we are really doing in our work in this very short and succinct statement, which gets to the core of my own purposes professionally, big time: …it should be an MLK-inspired peaceful coup. In many ways, it is

Bob Patrick sent this email. It describes the change we are now in regarding what it means to even be a teacher: Pondering some learning experiences I have had over the years in areas outside of language study—let’s just say, generally, in “the arts” of various kinds.  I find that our walking around, conscious, ego driven

If you are like me, you reflect on what you do in class sometimes more than you actually teach. It’s part of the change. It’s the dismantling of the old by means of allowing room in our minds and in our teaching practice for the new. This process feels strange to us, because it is genuine. We are not used

I wrote this in response to a question from Bob Patrick but decided to make it into a post as well for ease of reference. I can just refer to this next month in Breckenridge so I don’t have to think about it anymore. (Handouts for teachers attending iFLT will be the ones of my

Bob Patrick sent this: Hey Ben – Krashen is involved in an ongoing dialogue on the Washington Post right now.  He just gave an excellent response to two nay-sayers who are now down to whining– [saying things like]: but why does it always have to be your way?  Is there only one right way? Krashen

Michele sent these: Ben, I don’t know whether you’ve been following the Krashen bashing/support in the comments on the Washington Post article, but in the comments a site popped up that is giving me a lot to read. But here is one page you’re going to just love. http://www.focalskills.info/articles/dayreading.html You will love this article on

Robert shared a unique image to help our kids think more critically about what is happening as they learn in our classes. He uses it with upper level students, and I suspect that he is right to do that, but here it is for those interested: …one thing I do with my upper level students,

Love that expression – where the rubber meets the road. We design tires, go through an incredibly complex process to make them, but they aren’t tested until they are on a car that is on a road. Robert, of course, just wrote here about the need for the students to be completely unaware of the

I have posted these words from Blaine at least ten times on this list, and I apologize for that – it should have been a hundred times: “I believe people who are the most effective at TPRS don’t tell stories. They ask questions, pause, and listen for cute   answers from the students. The magic is

Tradition teachers who use books, and the new ones who use electronic books (they’re still books) – are like the old vacuum cleaner salesmen.  They go door to door (student to student) selling their boring wares (books). They go from neighborhood to neighborhood in an old jalopy.  They are outmoded and boring. Teachers who stress

This is a republication of an article that addresses the recent discussion about how to deal with recalcitrant kids. Note that it doesn’t deal with that specific kind of hostile silence we were talking about last week, but rather the brain dead kind of responses we see all too often:  If a student refuses to try, we