I got some questions from a group member who starts an evening adult class this week. Thought I’d share my responses. For those unfamiliar with some of the terms used in the discussion below, please go to the regular site here and click on resources/workshop handouts.
Q. Do you think starting with cards on day one and trying to get to everyone’s card within a couple of classes is a good idea? Or milk them for longer? How much time do you usually spend per card?
A. I spend as much time as the interest is there. Three days for one person if it’s fun. Three seconds if the person is a sourpuss.
Q. In a 2 hour class, maybe I should just mix up a bunch of different things like TPR, cards, mini stories, readings, etc.
A. Readings are best when they are made up of (personalized) facts from PQA, so keep that (personalization) piece in mind when thinking about choosing readings. Don’t forget to spin new PQA out of readings as well. Two hours is not very long, so what I would do is just start with a card, extend it as far I can, maybe all the way into a story, and then COMPARE what you got there with another card from someone else that you develop from scratch. Then write it all out for the next class and teach them to read. It’s not about activities but CI – more and more and more CI.
Q. For one word images with adults do you ask them for a word to do or do you choose one?
A. I ask them to give me a noun. It’s like Drew Carey asking the audience on Who’s Line.
Q. Do you think I should wait a few weeks before starting with these?
A. No.
Q. Jump right in?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you have some favorite words?
A. Car, fish, and dog. A fish One Word Image you can see at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47hWgbAN6Q. Car and dog are best, because you can then, once the image is done, ask them about their own dogs and/or cars, comparing, making their car better than yours or their dog or cat more attrractive and smarter. Stuff like that. See where that goes. People love to talk about their cars and dogs. Then, if someone has some kind of snarky weird pet, you get them in on it too, unless the pet is too snarked out. In an adult college class once we ended up with every person’s pet, of those who had pets, attacking a bear up on a mountain because the bear came down and picked on one of their dogs. It became a story. Watch their faces light up as soon as they realize that in this class the teacher is talking about thier little Fido with the greatest interest. It softens everything all up.
Q. My problem with cards is introducing too much new vocabulary… I’ll go back and refresh my memory by reading what you’ve already written. Any other advice?
A. Each card should be in bounds and all discussion limited to the person’s thing that they do and it should be slow as hell. It IS hell to you, that slowness, but to them they can barely hang on. I always say to circle new vocabulary so slowly that it annoys you greatly. Then and only then are you circling correctly.
Q. Maybe I can give a modified questionnaire with stuff like celebrities or something they have, want, etc.
OR just have them fill out a couple questions at the end of each class with a little evaluation of how the class is going for them… just thinking out loud…
A. Now you’re starting to think too much. You’re not trusting this process that we call comprehensible input. Your homework is to read this old blog post:
https://benslavic.com/blog/2011/10/14/lart-de-la-conversation-and-tprs/
I wouldn’t do the evaluation and the questionnaires may introduce too much new stuff too early. If you give space to this process, if you let things develop within that empty space, then the space will fill up nicely with input that is fully comprehensible, which is your goal. And it will have occurred naturally, which is another goal we have. As long as you don’t have too much planned and if you can trust in the moment (skill #22 in TPRS in a Year!) then you will have more fun and they will learn much much more as you keep the process unconscious, with your students focusing fully on meaning and not on its vehicle of delivery, which is how we learn languages, by keeping the language, which is merely a vehicle for something far greater, out of our conscious minds. So stay in the language with them so that they can focus on the meaning. Stay out of L1 – it only screws them up as their mind wonders what the hell it’s supposed to be doing.
Then this teacher signed off with these words of CI wisdom:
You are right on. I am too nervous and not TRUSTING! The fact that this method requires us to be in the moment and trust is a lot of why I love it so much… 🙂 Thanks for reminding me of this.