Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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Question About Online Language Programs
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7 thoughts on “Question About Online Language Programs”
I have a colleague who was teaching it for German for two students last year, I believe. I know she said she got paid very little for it. If I run into her, I’ll ask her more about it.
Since I got my MA at Middlebury I love the school, i.e., in the Summer language programs. However, I totally get your concerns about the online course. I’ve wanted to be able to preview it for a while.
A video on the Middlebury college website says the program is “task-based, projects, contextualized, immersion, authentic, fun.” There is mention of using all 4 skills from the very beginning. No mention of CI. There’s this about the middle school program: “Students are introduced to vocabulary themes, grammar concepts, sentence structure and culture through explicit instruction. . .” Explicit instruction, eh?
It looks much like a digital version of mainstream teaching.
Having attended Middlebury’s summer program (at the advanced undergrad level), I would say the keys to their success are the language pledge (only target language use with people in the program) and the immersion (24/7 for 7 weeks).
Having spent a summer at the French School, I would agree with Nathaniel. A TCI teacher friend of mine just spent a summer working on her MA in the Chinese School. She was very disappointed and frustrated with their failure to entertain the efficacy of TCI. I was talking with Teri Weichert and she said that the definition of what teaching with CI seems to be all over the place and I tend to agree.
My Middlebury friend wonders how we can share the CI message with our colleagues. I wonder if it is really our place to do that. Intellectual curiosity or honest reflection about what’s going on in their classes should be enough? N’est-ce pas???
“She is telling other students how good it is.”
I wonder why this student thinks the online program is so good. Perhaps she can move at her own pace, which may be something this student hasn’t experienced much in school. Perhaps she had a not so good foreign language class in previous years, like many of our students have had.
This makes me think about a French Club that has started in my school. The supervisor for the French Club is great young lady, a paraprofessional in the school that gets involved in all kinds of school programs, like website design… and the dozen or so students that have attended the meetings really like it. We have no French class in school.
I’m so glad that we have this French club. But, like that online program, they most likely will not acquire much French. They get to choose to be in the club, hang with their friends, talk in a safe space with their friends, imagine living in a French speaking world, but not acquire much.
Sounds like a cool hobby, and as Chris Stolz mentioned in the John Bracey thread, one of the best things a student can do outside of school is spend time tinkering around with a hobbie, not homework necessarily.
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The online thing grew out of a for-profit venture with K12 Inc. a charter school operator that specializes in online charter schools. a response to Rosetta Stone and an effort to tap the growing private sector markets in public schooling.
K12 Inc has the highest paid “educator” in the country, the CEO of the corporation. He makes millions “educating” kids online.
Midd faculty do not like this venture b/c it’s for profit and b/c of the shady practices of K12.
That said, I’ve heard it’s nothing special.
I read this comment by a French teacher from Vermont on MoreTPRS today:
I tried the Middlebury Language Learning in 5-8 last year and was dismally disappointed. The MLL contract was not renewed, and the board added the k-4 program back after a 4 year absence.