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We Teach Verbs
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5 thoughts on “We Teach Verbs”
This morning at the AFLA 2015 conference, Scott dumbfounded our curriculum director by saying that he spends five weeks on a unit that is organized around the Super Seven verbs. Our director asked whether those five words can constitute a unit.
Yes.
Scott then demonstrated, through assessment samples, that he is covering all the required “themes” that our director wants to see. He just doesn’t organize his lessons that way.
And, by the way, Bill Van Patten has been to our conference (he’s still here in Alaska, visiting Girdwood with Betsy Paskvan). I’ve blogged a bit about it, and Martina Bex has too, but here’s the big news: he said, “TPRS is absolutely an appropriate method to use in the classroom context.” He has a colleague who uses TPRS, and he has “been to several workshops.” We were all beside ourselves (we being the CI/TPRS side of the fence).
If our director were already not unhappy enough about that, the next keynote Bill gave, he said that we have no business grading language classes. He said it’s really hard to get lower than a B in his classes at U Michigan. Language acquisition is complex and messy, and we can’t actually teach language. People acquire it by hearing input that they understand. Some people acquire faster, but we don’t really know why, and some people get to higher levels in the language; seems to be connected to cognition. We can’t explain that either, but their L1 level gives us some correlation.
I’ll send Ben a picture of the reading list Van Patten gave us.
Chad from Kodiak should chime in here if he sees this.
Evidently Krashen was tweeting right back when Martina and I were sharing the news. (I tweet only from conferences when Martina is present.)
Hip hip hooray! In the shower this morning I was thinking to myself…hmmm I have not submitted any online lesson plans like I am supposed to. Hmmm. If anyone asks me what my lesson plans are what will I tell them? I will tell them that I am hammering the super 7. Which I am. My students seem to have never heard Spanish out loud so doesn’t matter if it is a level 4 class or level 1, they are all getting the super y but tailored / expanded if warranted by their comprehension.
So I am very happy to hear that my “lesson plans” are in alignment with some of the heaviest hitters in the SLA universe.
When I read the title, I thought: this is a defense against the criticism that if you do not do paradigms you are not teaching verbs.
This is a mission statement.
Today I was reflecting on the words the students wrote in their binders (to make them feel academic and to keep me organized). They were all verbs. At least, each structure contained a verb.
In authentic language, verbs don’t just get incarcerated in some little paradigmatic cell. They run with friends, whether they be subjects or objects. And they attract adverbs and phrases tied to prepositions. And they enjoy linking of with other verbs in a variety of ways. Yes, verbs. They are very social creatures. They are most appropriate for a social approach to language. It is sad so see them have to go sit in one corner or other of the paradigm. Indeed, they are the curriculum.
Van Patten’s videos and his lecture for us this weekend showed how linguists perceive how the brain makes connections among words. VP says all words are also grammar. With enough input, our brains connect all the words with “o” endings (verbs in Spanish) and all the root pieces, so that all those forms are connected, as well as “drinks” with “coffee” and “beer,” “drinks” with “eats,” “eats” with “cafe” and “dinner” and and and.
The verbs are never alone. They’re part of an ever growing network, unless people have to learn only conjugations. In that case, people never learn to speak the second language.
This goes along with my mantra for Spanish “One” during CWB: One student, one day (or two or three), one verb, one scene. I think lowering cognitive expectations like you’ve described will result in more relaxed teachers, and therefore more relaxed students who acquire more. But some days it takes a good reminder like this to feel confident in that approach.