Our own PLC members Kristin Duncan and Chris Stoltz will be presenting on comprehension based teaching in Canada next month. Kristin reports:
Hi Ben,
The Second Languages and Intercultural Council (SLIC) Annual Conference is coming up on October 25 and 26 in Canmore, Alberta. Chris Stoltz and I will be both be presenting on TPRS and CI methods. Other than both of our sessions, no one else is presenting on anything even close to this topic. TPRS is not very widely used up here in Canada, so this will likely be the first time most of the attendees have ever heard of it. Many people that do hear of it often get it confused with TPR anyways, thinking that they are one and the same.
I will be presenting on the Saturday of the conference for 2 hours and since it is quite a long session, I am hoping to give a TPRS demo in Mandarin. I took Linda Li’s Mandarin class for 6 hours at NTPRS this year and for a few hours at NTPRS in 2011, and that is the only Mandarin I’ve ever had. I think if I can pull off a good demo, that will also help to lend credibility to the method.
I am a little worried that because I am still a relatively new teacher (starting my 3rd full year) that people may not listen to what I have to say. And while I am very comfortable speaking in front of kids, doing it in front of your peers is always a different story.
If there are any fellow Canadians on the PLC, I would love to see you at the conference! Registration and other information can be found here on the SLIC website: http://slic.teachers.ab.ca/Annual%20Conference/Pages/2012-Annual-Conference.aspx
Kristin