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Report From ACTFL
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14 thoughts on “Report From ACTFL”
Dittos, Kelly. ACTFL, from what I have seen is little more than “Output Are Us”; Six jillion ways to use wowza high tech and gimmicks that produce the same old output-based teaching.
I am heading back today, but i am not impressed, excedpt for Carol – ACTFL rejected her proposal, so she had to PAY as an exhibitor to present, yet hers was the biggest and most enthusiastically received presentation that I have yet seen.
It does say something when certain people with little experience and yet who have a gimmick (read: piece of clutter) are chosen to present, when Carol Gaab gets rejected and has to pay $600 just to be allowed to present. I asked Carol about that and she said that she really does feel that SOMEBODY has to represent the method at ACTFL. Who besides you and Kristy, Bryce, presents this week? Oh, here’s a good one – Jason Fritze, with whom we all got to have dinner last night, was also rejected as a presenter this year by ACTFL. That about says it all.
REJECTED?????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is not only ridiculous, it was a concerted and directed attack. I suppose that I could see ACTFL claiming that Carol is a “business” and should pay (barely, I can barely see this) but Jason too????!!! Ridiculous.
with love and taking deep breaths,
Laurie
This is SAD and MAD-makin’ news. I am very glad you guys were there. Your bravery and constancy are noted and deeply appreciated. Good for Carol for paying even though it makes me furious. ACTFL MUST have noticed the strong response to what she’s putting out there. They need their heads examined–or are they just scared or corrupt?
I am also tired of the clutter mentality. This is really a very simple thing–this language teaching. We need few tools. Elmo is nice, but some copy paper, a white board, pens, erasers, and books are all I really need (in terms of clutter) to do this job. Speech and text. That’s all there is. To me, all of this scurrying and tech madness is proof that what people are doing ain’t workin’. Anxiety and fear make us stupid. More, more, faster, faster. NOT, NOT. Ben: this rant thing is contagious.
Paul Kirschling told me last night that ACTFL’s failure to get the impact of Carol on their conference revealed that they are very self serving, very tied to old ways, and a good example of the overall society’s fascination with things that lack depth, as our entire country now is really in the strangest position of going for the glitz and ignoring substance. Why would it be any different in our field, was the point he made. Especially rejecting Jason. There were so many hungry and forelorn teachers walking around the Convention Center last night, with expressions of a kind of fear, pride and loneliness that is hard to describe but there were thousands of them last night that made me think of the movie Metropolis for some reason, who were, it seemed to me on some internal level, just SEARCHING for people like Jason and Carol, but instead got fed stuff all day about how to get kids to output early or how to use machines in class to teach languages.
Jody ranting is not an illness. It’s o.k. It wasn’t all right before we got this wall up to separate us from the general internet community – a very dangerous thing professionally – but now it is o.k. We need to express ourselves and I value every thought you have ever expressed here on this blog for all these years because you are so honest and direct and your vision is so unique and so wonderfully on target. Without your voice and the voice of the others who speak their truths here I would think I was alone and crazy. Now, I am going to drive down there again and see what I can see. My oh my this is a strange planet!
WTF was my reaction too. Someone posted a question recently about how TCI is rooted in the “standards” set by …ummm…ACTFL? So, WTF? How can the teacher speak 90% of the class period in L2 AND have student output be the focus? Not mathematically possible.
I feel kinda out of the loop our here at the end of my dirt road. I really have no clue what is going on in the outside world except for the news I get from you all. From this I know it is scary, but hearing the reports from ACTFL is truly puzzling. But maybe not. Again, Krashen has taken the pulse of it all and confirms what we all know to be true, which is the plain fact that all of this is part of the corporate/industrial complex.
In any case I can now state proudly that I have never been to an ACTFL conference. I used to be embarrassed about this, for like 20 years, because it showed that I wasn’t a real professional teacher. But now I can see that I wasn’t missing much.
I am truly astounded that Carol and Jason were rejected. ????? When you get a rejection, do they tell you why? Just wondering. Curious about the reasoning.
Huge shout outs to Carol, Bryce and Kristy (and anyone else I may have missed) for walking the walk deep in the dark territory. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
In solidarity,
Jen
Well let me tell you, I am seriously rallying East Coasters to submit proposals for ACTFL in Philly next year. If we can organize letter-writing campaigns to senators and congressmen, we can organize proposal-submitting campaigns to ACTFL.
with love,
and still taking deep breaths,
Laurie
So are the Powers that Be in ACTFL in bed with the big publishers? Seems like by rejecting TPRSers and promoting output-focused people, they are going against their own standards and mission statement.
After reading all the posts and comments about the ACTFL conference, I am very unhappy to report that here in the midwest, things are not any better.
I went to the 2011 International Education Conference held at the University of Chicago yesterday. The theme this year was Educating for Global competence.
As my student teacher and I went to the Foreign Language breakout session to find out if there was anything there for us to take back home, we were once again disappointed to find herds of output factory preachers . The blinds were leading the blinds. We were so disgusted , we left.
The Language Educator, November 2011, Vol 6, Issue 6, p. 38-39. “What experiences have you had as a language educator which have had the greatest impact on changing your instruction?” (p.38)
” I realize how controversial and polarizing this topic can be, but changing to primarily a comprehensible-input based approach has really transformed the way I teach. And yes, by that, I mean TPRS. I don’t mean 100% unadulterated, every day, but using primarily comprehensible-input activities has greatly changed what I do in class. ” Gary Schubert, New Trier HS, Winnetka, IL (p.39)
BTW “The Language Educator” is an ACTFL publication.
I echo Jen’s question about any reason ACTFL may have given Carol for rejecting her proposal? Ridiculous!
I will not attend another ACTFL conference – especially since having attended the NTPRS conference in St. Louis. ACTFL-irrelevant NTPRS – revolutionary!
Like Jen, I am way down my little dirt road and only am hearing about the big wide world through the lens of this blog. However, I am trying to stay on the pulse of what is happening education wise because it is so heavily legislated at this time. What I’ve just learned is that our former Gov. (Jeb) Bush is huge proponent of digital technology in learning. Turns out he has his hands in digital textbook companies. Doesn’t that just bite you? Kind of explains why our least articulate President in years was so BIG on education.
It is a shame that simple clean learning strategies such as comprehensible input should take a back seat to textbooks and dittos. But CI doesn’t take any glitz and gizmos to do. Just an intelligent teacher speaking and engaging students in conversation. No money there. Why they even have to assign a student to write the tests because the assessment has to be individual to each classroom depending on the conversation of the day! Shame on them.
There are days when I am aware that the business of education has nothing to do with the relationship of students and teachers. And then there are days like last Friday when I see the light of AHH-HAA! go off in a student’s eyes and I know that NO ONE will be able to crush the life out of that learning moment. That child understood and will now go a step further in making his new knowledge his own.