Noam Chomsky Noam Chomsky said, back in the 1960s: “Grammar [is] acquired by virtually everyone, effortlessly, rapidly, in a uniform manner, merely by living in a community under minimal conditions of interaction, exposure, and care.” Look at the words that Chomsky used there: community, care, effortless exposure, interaction. Such words evoke what Lev Vygotsky was […]
A Big Pill The idea that we have no control over how languages are acquired and cannot think our way to acquisition is a big pill to swallow for many language teachers. After all, many of us who are not native speakers learned our second languages by reflecting in high school and college on how
When we get observed, we often realize how truly out of touch our evaluators are. They don’t get the research. It makes for a very nervous few days of pre-observation and then the observation itself. It’s like a hospital administrator trying to figure out what a surgeon is doing wrong before a surgery – they
Personalized discussion provides the glue for the process. During the class we don’t go out of bounds – we keep things simple for our students by only introducing new vocabulary in the form of reading. When we only use language in class that they already know, we get the Din going (Krashen) because they understand
You are welcome to share this with anyone who wants to more about your work with CI: Despite huge expenditures of public funds, most language students in American schools are failures in their study of languages. It is not their fault. They are not aware that they are not at fault. The fact is that
Q. What does one do without the support of one’s colleagues when trying to make the change to comprehensible input based instruction? How does one react to a colleague who does not wish to implement a non-textbook approach within the same year grouping? How does one go about teaching TPRS to older students who have
Advice to a Teacher on the Fence with CI Instruction Read More »
According to the US Department of State, an academic program is rigorous when there is: depth and integrity of inquiry: Many teachers have expressed concern that there is too much curricular material to “cover” and not enough time to teach it in. Academic rigor implies that sufficient time be devoted to a topic or unit
If I’m teaching kids who are new to comprehensible input, I typically make four posters out of the facts below to help them understand how they should feel in a CI class. They deserve as much. My concept of rigor does not include more worksheets, more onerous, mind-numbing work, more memorization, etc. My concept of
Yesterday I got some specific questions from a colleague and want to share my responses to him with the group. Sorry for the long rant. I do that sometimes, more for my own mental health than anything else. My colleague writes: I am currently teaching at two elementary schools in South Korea. I have been
The way I figure it is that when we don’t include and encourage every single student, regardless of race or background, we will end up hating our jobs while at the same time trashing a lot of kids’ belief in their ability to learn a language, and that in exchange for a small monthly paycheck,
I’ve given up hope. Our profession is broken and useless. It pretty much always has been. That is my conclusion after being in the field for 45 years. If you disagree with this statement, if you feel that your life as a teacher has been a meaningful series of positive contacts with dedicated colleagues and
Much of what we focus on here in our group is our mental health – it is a major topic. A big aspect of protecting our mental health on a daily basis is dealing effectively with “concerned” parents. In one situation happening this week with one of our PLC members, a CI teacher whose kids
