Unlock with PatreonThe Problem with CI
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What Happened
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CI and the Research (cont.)
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Research Question
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We Have the Research
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9 thoughts on “What Happened”
Thank you for your words. They mean a lot, especially to me today as I just came back from a very tense meeting with my colleague, who does not support my methodology. I was very discouraged, and right now I have to say that I am still very tense. I am not sure if I am in the right teaching environment. We are at opposite ends of the language teaching spectrum.
I too believe that language learning, and learning in general, has to be grounded spiritually. This is a reason why my wife and I have decided to homeschool our four children, using a self-directed approach. I mean no disrespect and everyone is entitled to their own viewpoint.
You are right. It is difficult to get off the assessment train that our school has committed itself to. I am not always sure how to proceed after a stalemate meeting like I had. I remain hopeful that God has a plan.
…I remain hopeful that God has a plan….
My position is that He indeed has a plan and that it is not always easy because it intensely involves service to others. That is why I am so into this change in our field, so intense about it. I always think about the long term effects of teachers like your colleague on innocent children and it fuels me (has enraged me at times over the years) and so I don’t hesitate to give every ounce of my being to finding better ways to teach. If God weren’t in my heart helping me through all these too intense years, I would not have ever written one book, done one conference, started this community or the FB one. And that is the beauty of it – his help is there. If that sounds like a cliché, fine. At the root of all clichés is truth, and we could start talking about the Greeks about how laughter (the way we teach w the Invisibles) is at the heart of all life and learning, but let’s don’t. The time for philosophizing, the time for doing groundbreaking research, is over. The research is done. It’s time to work. But as Krashen always told me, his work is done but now somebody has to put it into practice. That’s us. As Chris Cuomo says, “Let’s get after it!”.
You’ll get used to those dinosaurs. You are threatening her very self-image to the core. No surprise she would respond like that. I could tell you stories!
There are many articles to put in her face if she will read them. Look first at these places on this site:
1. Primers (hard link top of this page)
2. The “When Attacked” category on the right side of this page.
3. The “Administrator/Teacher/Parent Re-education” category on this page as well.
They will give you solace and make you know that this lady is just scared to death because the entire body of research in our field, if she ever accepts it (probably not, is my hunch) is about to blow up in her face. Sorry, but it’s an explosive time. Just relax. You have the guns, and she doesn’t. God bless her.
The biggest issue I see in CI really on the practical level is not the debate between T and NT, but the fact that when a school transitions to CI (like mine has), CI (even though NT is easier to do) needs highly trained teachers to implement it. (Even new teachers coming out of college have no idea what to do if they don’t have the textbook and projects). If any of those teachers change jobs or move, you are left with a vacancy and have to start from square one.
Let’s face it, if you are getting into CI, it pretty much needs to be your life for about three years until you get the hang of it. You can’t just take new hires and send them to a conference and tell them to read a book and expect that they will run with it.
Perhaps it could work in higher-paying schools, but I think CI only works with those teachers who have personally bought in and have been convinced on their own.
For the rest, the most we can hope is that they do a novel or a Martina Bex worksheet and don’t do too much grammar.
Also, fighting with non-CI colleagues is very draining and it comes to a point where you just want peace and so you both reach a “you do your thing, and I will do mine” mentality. This is good because you are at peace with your colleagues but it ends up in a situation where you have a “slosher” department (Terry Waltz’s term- A “slosher” is a student who rotates through non-CI and CI teachers throughout their middle school and high school career).
Amen to this:
…you can’t just take new hires and send them to a conference and tell them to read a book and expect that they will run with it….
That has to be frustrating, Greg, since as a department chair you have been trying to steer your school’s WL ship in the direction of CI, but as soon as one teacher leaves, poof and you’re back to having the training piece raise its ugly head.
I think CI, as a movement, or whatever you want to call it, has to shift it’s focus to influencing student teachers. You can’t convince the dinosaurs.
We need to open our rooms to student teachers and expect them to teach with CI (so then their cooperating professors will have to adjust with what is actually going on in the field).
For the seminars I organized the last two years I had a “student teachers go free” policy.
We need to strike this problem at it’s root which is teacher training and the new teachers coming in. The education professors will have to adjust when they find out that CI is the order of the day in the real working world.
Greg said:
…you can’t convince the dinosaurs….
BAM!
Also from Greg:
…we need to open our rooms to student teachers and expect them to teach with CI (so then their cooperating professors will have to adjust with what is actually going on in the field)….
The thing I’ve noticed is that in many college programs the student teachers have cooperating professors who don’t even know the research. I’ve trained many grad students in language education whose advisors flat out didn’t know the research. That’s messed up. We are in one weird-ass profession.
Right now I am working with Sarah Johnson – who is making some videos about her experience with the Invisibles – and Sarah taught for 13 years before even KNOWING about what we do. So ironical that teachers are being prepared – let’s just say it – by uninformed people.
Here is a link to Sarah’s current work that she is blogging about:
https://cimadamej.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR3T3GSenSJX9MpfXYL0Ew82wa4VN9sQgTDq_ojIrgx-2SYSbHs_J1JOZCs
Related:
https://benslavic.com/blog/wp-admin/post.php?post=55579&action=edit