Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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Fire in India
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9 thoughts on “Fire in India”
Sorry to hear about your son’s negative experience with Spanish.
I think I would have inverted the metaphor, though. To me, the fire is in the TCI/TPRS classroom because that is where the passion is. Your son’s classroom is in the ice, frozen in time with a fossil from a bygone era, glacial in its pace of acquisition, frigid indifference keeping students in their seats, icy in its ability to engage.
The closes this comes to fire is the smoke and mirrors used to convince parents and students that this way of delivering instructional services has any value at all for acquiring a language.
The smokescreen is maintained by the ignorant/unwilling to reflect/consider/retool.
If enough teachers in a department learn, train and educate/defend the strategies to their supervisors and adminz, the tide will change. We’ve seen this again and again.
The difficulty is how to initiate the discussion. Departments are insular places. They dunno what they dunno.
Your son’s teacher, I’ll bet, isn’t rejecting a better way; s/he’s unaware of it, (or doesn’t care)
…Your son’s teacher, I’ll bet, isn’t rejecting a better way; s/he’s unaware of it, (or doesn’t care)….
In a vertical meeting this guy said “Hey, we all do comprehensible input!” Uhh, no. So I have thought about it and have been clear over the years that I do not mean to attack, that this is sheer ignorance. But the part that I never quite grasp is when surrounded by discussion about CI and with Linda Li in the house, it escapes him. There is not the slightest desire to teach in a way that aligns with the research. I don’t know what to make of that. I mean, this is this guy’s PROFESSION.
I had a teacher in a jobalike pull out a list of reflexive verbs and their English translation and say well isn’t this CI? The English is there to tell them what it means. People know CI is desirable but they often don’t have the vision of how to get kids to give a damn about listening to it. Nor do they have a notion of how it needs to be embedded in meaningful communication and repeated in varying contexts over multiple sessions. But to her credit she wants to learn. How can you teach on a hall with you three super heavy hitters and not want in on the party?
No way! You invest so much in other people’s children. How unfair for you and your son. Give your baby a hug from me.
Claire, this reminds of why i should “teach” French to my 4 year old. I should probably already be speaking French to my 8 month old.
Awww. Give your babies hugs too. Et un gros poutou.
He has dismissed Linda (and you) as “those Chinese and French folks.” It’s easier to dismiss – a lot less work than upsetting the dominant paradigm.
Kinda like kale for the uninitiated.
This is so sad on so many levels. Unfortunately, this is not unique to language classes. My son had wanted to be an architect ever since he could voice any ideas about his future. This year (he’s a junior in HS), he has an architecture teacher who managed to kill his hopes and desires to continue on this path in just a few short months. I will never understand why somebody like that entered the profession in the first place. No matter what you teach, it should always be your utmost desire and first priority to instill curiosity and encourage discovery. When will this change?