We are not in our classrooms to do anything more than deliver L2 in an understandable form. We call that CI. We personalize to the degree that we can that day, in that class, and we do not fault ourselves if the story is not all crazy and funny.
The crazy and funny thing is a myth embedded into the current national perception of TPRS. The “kids running around the classroom laughing and learning the language” myth is nothing more that that, a myth, and it has served to drive away large amounts of teachers from the method. If we were to extract the myth from the reality, we would be left with an extremely powerful method of teaching L2, based in solid research, and fully valid just by itself without all the bizarre stuff we throw in there.
I therefore advocate a lessening of the “party time” expectations that we put on ourselves. We speak the language in the classroom and we personalize it and make it as interesting as we can. That is enough. This is a good thing to think about as we begin another year. Some days are going to be up and some down. It’s that way. CI can’t be wonderful all the time.
Just enforce the rules. Don’t let anyone in the room pull you down because they don’t want to sit respectfully or must use a cell phone in class. Enforce the rules and let the fun part generate itself, which it does.
The Problem with CI
Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and
