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World language teaching after the Babel fish

Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell July 28, 2016 6 Comments

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Seeking the future of world language learning at the intersection of comprehensible input, project-based learning, global education, and love.
World language teaching after the Babel fish
Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell July 28, 2016
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Do you remember Kodak and Blockbuster?  I do.  My students do not.

Listen to the man in the NYT video about the death throes at Kodak:

What if? What if somebody else would have been a little more innovative?  What if the board would have thought, let’s think a little bit farther out?

And Blockbuster?  When baby Netflix showed up and proposed a partnership, Blockbuster executives laughed the Netflix CEO out of the room.

Are we doing the same thing with world language teaching?

In the recent furious debate over whether computer coding could replace foreign language as a requirement for college-prep high school diplomas (NOOOO!), I joined the voices on the side of world language.  Like most language teachers I know, I got distracted by the cute kitty, the debate on whether or not coding was a language, and I completely missed the crouching Bengal at the door: why didn’t it occur to me/us that coding would nearly replace the need to learn a foreign language at all?

I need you to take off your language teacher advocate hat right now.  I had to pry mine out of the Gorilla glue that stuck it to my head and lose some hair and skin cells with it in order to write this post with the open mind I want but am so terrified of.

Is technology replacing the need for our profession?

Deep breath.

Yes.

That is, mostly, yes.  But take heart, we’re not alone.  Technology has been sounding the death knell on the traditional classroom for some time.  Don’t take my word for it.  Seriously, do your school and yourself and our profession a very important service and blow your mind for 20 minutes by watching this TED talk (my favorite, ever) from 2013.

Did you catch this quote?

The education system is wonderfully constructed.  It’s not broken.  It’s just that we don’t need it anymore.

Did you catch what the kids said about how much they needed a teacher to teach them language so they could talk to people around the world?

You’ve given us a machine that works only in English. So we had to teach ourselves English in order to use it.

Did you hear Mitra’s follow-up comment that ought to rock our education system to its core?

That’s the first time as a teacher that I heard the word[s] ‘teach ourselves’ said so casually.

Times they are a-changin’.

Come on, let’s take a deep breath and suck it up and keep walking where this is taking us.

Coding is not a language, but it won’t matter.

As reported by NPR, Florida’s world language teaching organization president is just one of the many, many educators who came out in this fight to show legislators that coding simply cannot count as a world language requirement:

World languages meet the needs of the business industry today…. [Business leaders are] in agreement. If they need to hire someone for a job, world language skill is going to trump any other skill they feel they can train them on the spot.

As reported by NBC, ACTFL’s 2015 outstanding Teacher of the Year Edward Zarrow adds,

I fully recognize and respect the place that technology and computer science has in 21st century education. Technology is no longer merely a tool for education — it is part of our educational culture. But to suggest that coding and computer programming ought to fulfill the world language requirement in Florida, or anywhere else for that matter, is wrong-headed and completely misses the point of why the study of world languages is a critical part of a 21st-century education.

I fear, however, that in focusing on whether or not computer programming could replace the credits, we’ve completely missed the point that the study of one may greatly reduce the need of the other.

And we forgot to listen to the kids:

Alexander Olson says he’s forgotten a lot of the Spanish he took for two years in middle school, and wishes he had learned coding instead: “This would have stuck with me a lot longer.”

And we forgot to listen to educators in other fields trying to give us a gentle nudge (from Edutopia):

Computer programming jobs are growing at twice the national average… So while our home state of Texas doesn’t count computer science toward math and science, allowing programming to count as a foreign language is a big step in the right direction. … Now that computer science is the highest paid career for college graduates, it is time to stop teaching students how to push the buttons and start teaching them how to make the buttons.

And we forgot to listen to the parents:

The majority of kids will never use the language they learn, nor will they ever become fluent in it. Giving them the option to learn a computer language instead could possibly open doors to careers in computer programming that might not have otherwise been an option for them.

In the broader marketplace are you more likely to be hired for your language skills or coding?

It doesn’t have to be one or the other, of course.  But in the economy of time, it may become that way, and we’d be wise to listen to this foretaste of things to come from a company-owning parent who is on our side (same NBC article), who “doesn’t think allowing substituting coding for foreign language study is appropriate” but “concedes that his own company is begging people with coding knowledge to work for them.”

We don’t want it to be one or the other, but we see Kodak and Blockbuster and though change outside the capitalist marketplace takes a lot longer, we know how this will turn out.  But we want to believe it can be both.  Take a look at educator Pam’s comment on Edutopia:

While I cannot argue that computer science is a valuable skill to have in the 21st century, I certainly wouldn’t replace learning a second language with that skill. I believe that there is room for both in today’s curriculum. In fact, I believe that both are necessary. We need people who can create new software, but we also need people who can communicate with people, not just machines.

She’s right.  Both are necessary.  But that doesn’t mean both will be necessary.

And this makes people sad and frustrated.  People like me and my heart that’s happiest when I’m teaching Spanish in some capacity.  People like commenter “Brim Stone” on that NPR article:

It is simply astounding that we have gone so far down the alienating, dehumanizing wormhole of modern technology that we are actually choosing to teach kids to speak to machines rather than to other human beings.

But here’s my question: what if the “dehumanizing wormhole of modern technology” is creating machines that enable kids to speak to exponentially more human beings than they could have otherwise, regardless of how much time or aptitude they could dedicate to language learning?

Here comes the Babel fish.

I don’t want to be Blockbuster.

(For those of you who don’t know why I keep talking about a Babel fish.)

I first learned that the Babel fish has already been invented from Melanie Stilson. “It’s kind of scary, right?” she asked.

Oh yes.

I’ll start burying my head in the sand and say, but wait, translators are terrible.  Everyone knows how badly they work… um… when you run them through 14 languages and then back through English again… and then still sometimes they work.  The truth is that even two years ago, Google Translate was so good that people had to either look very hard or run text through a dozen languages to get significant meaning problems.  It’ll happen this year too.  Around the back-to-school time, you’ll see posts and tweets about how to show your students that Google Translate doesn’t work.  Pull your head out of the sand with me.  Google Translate does work, and it works well.  And it can be used to communicate.  And it can be used on your phone, with a camera, to read in 29 languages.

Okay, that’s reading.  The text-to-speech has been much  more problematic.  Here I go, burying my head back in the sand… technology will never be able to translate spoken language in real time.  Will it?

But before I open my mouth to talk about how much no technology will ever replace the need to learn a language and get a mouthful of sand, let’s meet the Pilot. (Babel fish was copyrighted, I guess.)

I’ve wrestled with the arguments already.  They cost $200 a pair.  You can see the rich/poor disparity happening already right?  But let’s look at the facts.  The poor don’t go places where they need a new language.  The rich come to them with humanitarian aid and offers of help to go places where they will need a new language be able to afford Pilot.  And the rich bring Pilot with them.  “Put this in your ear,” says the nurse. “Can you tell me what happened, how you hurt your leg?”  You can see it, right?

Melanie asked, “How can we make learning languages as compelling as band?” After the invention of the Babel fish?  We can’t.  The ones who were intrinsically motivated to do it because it’s cool will do it anyway.  And what does that mean?  It means learning all world languages will go the way of Latin.  Kids will do it, but only the ones who would have anyway in the absence of nearly any external reason to do so, or the ones seeking to involve themselves in some highly specific niche such as producing more translations of (perhaps already over-translated?) ancient texts.

Will study of all languages go the way of Latin? They already are.

An analyst on the Kodak situation (Amer Tiwana, CRT Capital Group) gives us more insight on the real issue here:

The question isn’t tech-related, it’s competition.

And for us?  This question isn’t about what’s good for the brain.  It’s not even about the technology.  It’s about competition– not for a film product, but for time.  As Daniel Pink points out, people have a limited amount of time and effort to dedicate to their pursuits, and they have a lot of very good options to choose from.  When I have to choose between a gym membership and sleep, I buy a workout DVD stream a Jillian Michaels workout on my iPad because I can do it while my kids are awake, which means I can stay asleep as long as they do.  When I have to feed them three squares a day plus snacks and teach them the alphabet, the Rosetta Stone Russian goes on the shelf and stays there.  For years.

If it drives itself, why not face each other? With a Pilot in your ear, of course.

Should people give up brain benefits and connections super-personalized by the words leaving their mouths instead of routed through an earpiece?  Maybe not.  Will they?  Yes.  Because it’s 2030 and [functional programming on the thing that builds the thing that builds the car that drives itself while they play the 32nd step past Pokemon Go] is calling for their time and yes, they will.

So it’s the beginning of the end. What now?

I’m not going to lie, I’m scared, but not scared enough to deny reality and go be a hermit.  I want my fear to inspire me to figure out where we’re really going from here.  And a conversation with my friend Laura Sexton helped me navigate that.  She reminded me that a primary purpose of language teaching has always been to foster empathy, which reminded me of the one-word secret to teaching culture: inquiry.

ACTFL TOY Zarrow hinted at it as well:

There are numerous reasons why we study and learn world languages apart from meaningful communication.  If we want to prepare our students at every level to be ready for the challenges of a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and global society, we need to lead with world languages.

Melanie hinted at it, too:

We just have to adapt and figure out how to 1) use the technology to our advantage, and 2) make what we teach meaningful beyond what the technology can do.

I’m a little past the mind bending that came with all this information. Now, I’m prepared to say that if this means that world language classes become less about language and more about the intercultural empathy that will keep us human in the dehumanizing wormhole of technology, I can live with that.  I hope I can also work with that.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking about reserving my own pair of Pilots.

Problems technology
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Previous Where are the points of agreement in language teaching?
Next A call to #AuthRes August
Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell
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6 Comments

  1. Wendy says:
    July 28, 2016 at 12:55 pm

    Yikes! What a terrifying, but well-written, post!

    Reply
  2. Angela Gardner says:
    August 1, 2016 at 9:28 am

    http://www.lightninglanguagevlog.com/#!Response-to-Post-BabelFish-What-now-at-Musicuentos-How-can-we-keep-language-learning-alive-with-technology-poised-to-overwhelm-us/cmja3/579f4b1f0cf233f0ee8de0e8

    Many thanks for bringing this issue to the blog dialog. I think as professionals we need to acknowledge our fears and work to address them. Click the link above to see my full response 🙂

    Reply
  3. Maggie says:
    August 1, 2016 at 10:04 am

    Wow! What a lot to think about… You’ve given us the big question. Now I think language teachers need to come together in SOLEs to work out the future of learning that will start in our classrooms this month. Would you consider presenting these ideas (for discussion) at the Kentucky World Language Association Conference this fall? Thank you so much for sharing your insights!

    Reply
    1. Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell says:
      August 1, 2016 at 10:08 am

      Well, I’ll be at KWLA presenting a workshop and a session – anyone up for collaborating with me on a roundtable discussion on this topic? That would be a great learning experience, I think. I don’t have a lot of answers right now – just a lot of “what if,” and 2 new goals for the year thanks to them.

      Reply
  4. Looking to the future | Making Good Mistakes says:
    August 1, 2016 at 10:12 pm

    […] inspiration for this post came from something that Sara-Elizabeth recently shared on Musicuentos, the invention of the Babel Fish. She got a surprising amount of pushback on Twitter, because although she made me think about the […]

    Reply
  5. How proficient language speakers get there, and how it changed my goals | Musicuentos says:
    November 28, 2019 at 10:37 pm

    […] please hear me out.  I have a lot of reasons for saying this, mostly having to do with advances in technology and motivation.  I believe the primary goal of our language classes is […]

    Reply

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      • Book Club '14: George Müller & Bruchko
      • Best of 2014 #1: Every language teacher's biggest mistake
      • Best of 2014 #6: Carol Gaab's rebuttal to my TPRS critique
      • Book Club '14: Creating Innovators
      • Best of 2014 #2: Where I depart from classic TPRS
      • Book Club '14: Stella Bain, Gemma Hardy, & a bittersweet hotel
      • Best of 2014 #7: What I love about TPRS
      • Book Club '14: Monuments Men, With the Old Breed, In Pharaoh's Army
      • Book Club '14: The Kite Runner
      • Best of 2014 #3: Sample homework choice systems
      • Book Club '14: Crazy Busy
      • Book Club '14: The Hobbit & The Scarlet Pimpernel
      • Best of 2014 #5: How I use verb charts
      • Book Club 2014: Amazing Grace (Kozol)
      • Book Club '14: A Step of Faith & Walking on Water (The Walk series)
      • Best of 2014 #4 & #8: Curriculum planning outside the textbook
      • Book Club '14: Five Days at Memorial & Men We Reaped
      • Best of 2014 #9: Genius hour isn't a great idea for novice classes
      • Book Club '14: The Painted Veil & Life After Life
      • Best of 2014 #10: The new JCPS curriculum documents
      • Happy Cyber Week! Resource sale Dec. 1-3
      • Musicuentos Book Club 2014
    •  November (4)
      • Lessons from ACTFL '14: if they have all the answers, they're trying to sell you something
      • What's ahead: ACTFL, best of '14, and the book club
      • Linguacafé: The idea that rocked my interpersonal world
      • What we learned at IFLTA '14: Everyone struggles, Culture leads
    •  October (5)
      • Communicative teaching in the shadow of [grammar-focused] common assessment
      • More multi-tasking children's lit
      • Next on my PD list: New proficiency videos
      • What we learned at KWLA: share, think, respect
      • The game-changing authentic resource guide for Spanish 3+: it's here!
    •  September (4)
      • Three days and then...
      • The technology that's making us irrelevant...and more relevant
      • Thank you, reflective teachers
      • See you this year? Conferences & Camp Musicuentos
    •  August (6)
      • How I teach La ciudad de las bestias
      • Putting homework in their hands: Sample systems
      • The First Day Story: Empowering with CI
      • Keeping games communicative
      • Let's talk tacos: Informing parents & students on proficiency
      • Regreso a clases! Ciudad on sale
    •  July (2)
      • Oso de Mantequilla: A tribute
      • It's coming!
    •  June (7)
      • What we learned at Camp Musicuentos
      • Lesson plan: Indirect objects and celebrations (template too)
      • New Podcast: What kind of corrective feedback works?
      • New resource: Educating parents and students on proficiency
      • Another resource: JCPS new curriculum documents (K-12)
      • Introducing the past tenses together
      • Time for you to get feedback?
    •  May (9)
      • Upcoming workshop (IN): Proficiency-based lesson planning
      • Stop calling this easy & fast
      • Revisiting Photopeach for the AP Final
      • Stop stressing: It's wrong to do the best you can
      • Three tasks for crafting an effective message: Black Box Podcast episode 4
      • A Year in a Day: Camp Musicuentos 2014
      • Taking care of business: Summer collaboration for a successful year
      • 4 ways to tweak the exit ticket
      • Black Box Podcast episode 3: To Sell Is Human, part 1
    •  April (9)
      • Top 25 Spanish novels
      • Let's play
      • New activity resource: Tweetfest!
      • Black Box Podcast episode 2: Circumlocution
      • An impromptu "langcamp"
      • See you at ACTFL '14
      • 4 ways to keep curriculum relevant
      • Tutorial on the best free PD you'll find in your own home
      • The Musicuentos Black Box Podcast: IT'S HERE!
    •  March (11)
      • Authentic visual illustrations of proficiency (Spanish)
      • Curriculum planning outside the textbook, Part 2
      • A week or more of working with Vivir mi vida
      • Resource release: Complete verb pack
      • Curriculum planning outside the textbook: Part 1
      • Corrections to simple verb pack
      • Musicuentos is on Pinterest!
      • Is this the best we can do?
      • Writing a restaurant review: Activity from Bethanie Drew
      • Putting a number grade on proficiency-based assessment
      • Resource release: Simple verb pack
    •  February (7)
      • My favorite source for restaurant (and other) reviews
      • Guest post: A TPRS rebuttal by Carol Gaab
      • TPRS strategies I don't put in my toolbox
      • What I love about TPRS
      • Repost: Valentine's #authres from Twitter
      • How I use verb charts
      • Guest post: What students need- A leader (David Seibel)
    •  January (10)
      • Every language teacher's biggest mistake
      • My new favorite digital storytelling app
      • Why Genius Hour can't work in a novice classroom
      • Website review: Geoguessr
      • 2014 resolutions #5: Use more authentic sources.
      • 2014 Resolutions #4: Take a step outside the textbook
      • Reviewing 2013: Five blogs to watch
      • 2014 Resolutions #3: Survey your students.
      • 2014 Resolutions #2: Collaborate with someone
      • 2014 Resolutions #1: Read a book
  •  2013 (110)
    •  December (13)
      • The #1 Musicuentos post of 2013 (and the six years before that)
      • Best of 2013: #2 - Tips for the new AP
      • Best of 2013: #3 - Choice in homework, updated
      • Best of 2013: #4 - Novice song for Spanish Class Idol
      • Best of 2013: #5 - Can you control vocabulary?
      • Best of 2013: #6 - Is your lesson plan out of whack?
      • Best of 2013: #7 - Four habits that enrich vocabulary
      • AP Spanish final exam: Controversia navideña y Vacunas para niños
      • Best of 2013: #8 - Novice high vs. Intermediate low
      • Best of 2013: #9 - Using assessment to inform your teaching
      • Best of 2013: #10 - Spot-checking conversations
      • First-ever Musicuentos ebook: Reader's Guide to Ciudad de las bestias
      • Happy December!
    •  November (8)
      • AP Spanish essay - Obamacare
      • Vote: Musicuentos proposal for ACTFL '14
      • Setting goals
      • Don't go to ACTFL '13 without TELLing
      • Repost: A story for demonstratives
      • Listen to some Grammy music
      • Caring about the Really Big Deal
      • Calm before the excitement!
    •  October (4)
      • Using assessment to inform your teaching
      • Just some fluff: Makeup for busy mom teachers
      • Top 3 mistakes teachers of novices make
      • Book review: Teach Like A Pirate
    •  September (7)
      • Interacting with authentic materials: a guide
      • Using audio-lingua
      • Seven keys to a great story
      • Stations: Exploring music
      • It's a myth: Equipping students to communicate with... themselves
      • Turn a Novice Song into "Spanish Class Idol"
      • Is your lesson plan out of whack?
    •  August (12)
      • Children's literature for the world language class (Helena Curtain)
      • App review & Giveaway! High School Spanish
      • Choice in homework, updated
      • Back to school: Proficiency posts
      • App Review: Storykit (bonus - meet my family!)
      • Back to school: Evaluate traditions
      • Back to school: Blogs with great ideas
      • App review & giveaway: Word Magic dictionary and thesaurus
      • My authorized AP syllabus
      • Back to school: Musicuentos "first days" posts
      • Back to school: Give them signals
      • Going back to school with Musicuentos
    •  July (6)
      • Tips for the New AP
      • Don't be fooled! What the AP does and doesn't measure
      • Illustrating proficiency with a laugh
      • Snag some free apps while you can!
      • Stop asking for unnatural language
      • Fun video: Animals, present, feelings
    •  June (9)
      • Targeting problems with a pop quiz
      • Song, irregular present, part 4: Tengo tu love
      • It's my birthday - check out our presents!
      • A meaningful approach to grammar
      • Websites for creating online magazines
      • A world with no magazines
      • Guest post: Coaching with choice
      • Screencast: Photopeach
      • Communicative grading made easier
    •  May (10)
      • Health infographic: Novice - Intermediate Activity
      • A lesson in finding authentic sources easily
      • Tips and songs for past participles
      • Foster higher-level thinking from the beginning
      • Summer: Language for the fun of it
      • Novice high vs. intermediate low
      • E-magazines with learner appeal
      • Step outside the textbook: Tell a story
      • Repost: Novice description with Jengibre and Pin Pon
      • Interpersonal communication by choice
    •  April (11)
      • Novice speaking: Describing self with Sie7e
      • Can you control vocabulary?
      • Activities from authentic resources: Future tense
      • Why I love mistakes
      • Maternity leave!
      • Lots of your class gone? Pick up a book.
      • Abandon the multiple-choice question
      • Songs for future tense
      • I choose béisbol: sample "homework" report
      • 300 times thank you
      • Reporting like kindergarten
    •  March (11)
      • Training in circumlocution: Ban the dictionary
      • Fun activity #9: A leer
      • Last tips on avoiding burnout
      • Cortometraje for narration
      • Make developing curriculum even easier
      • Even more tips on avoiding burnout
      • Authentic resource: trivia games
      • Still more tips on avoiding burnout
      • Two more ways to ease into developing curriculum
      • Song, irregular present, part 3: Carmelina
      • More tips on avoiding burnout
    •  February (10)
      • Intermediate news activity for all three modes
      • Easing into developing curriculum
      • If you don't pay attention to comprehensibility...
      • Burning out or burning bright?
      • Keeping the class engaged: Change activities
      • Fun activity #8: A cantar
      • Twitter/relationships activity, just in time for Valentine's
      • Tech tools gone wrong
      • Grading regular free-topic writing
      • Add more music to homework choices
    •  January (9)
      • Spot-checking conversations
      • Song, irregular present, part 2: Hace tiempo
      • Four habits that enrich vocabulary
      • Paragraph form
      • Myths 8 & 9: I don't do it because they can't handle it.
      • Assigning homework
      • Song, irregular present, part 1: Sigo con ella
      • More choice every day
      • A novice cross-curricular activity from authentic materials
  •  2012 (39)
    •  December (2)
      • 5 New Year's resolutions for every WL teacher
      • It pays to have a focus
    •  October (2)
      • Best and worst games I've seen
      • Example: authentic text for novices
    •  September (7)
      • Success with Stations
      • More student choice in homework
      • Prezi: The Choice is Theirs (KWLA 2012)
      • Prezi: Kick the Vocab Quiz (KWLA 2012)
      • Take the leap to standards-based assessment
      • Fun activity #7: Conecta cuatro
      • A song for feelings
    •  August (11)
      • Screencast: Edmodo
      • Myth #7: Spanish Mike is a taco.
      • A study in motivation, part 2: Self-assessing abilities
      • It's my blogiversary - but you get the gift
      • Menus
      • Reading guides: Cajas de cartón & Esperanza renace
      • A re-post for your first days back: Abecedario
      • Screencast: Finding authentic sources for prompts
      • Maintaining personal proficiency
      • Ideas for the first days of school
      • AP redesign: Units & EQ's
    •  July (9)
      • A study in motivation
      • Advice for teachers in training
      • More uses for Amor de mi tierra
      • Book review: The Talent Code
      • Songs for 'duele'
      • The Case for Commands
      • Got idioms?
      • Like Musicuentos? Like it on Facebook.
      • Very short times with very young kids
    •  June (1)
      • 5...4...3...2...1... LAUNCH!
    •  March (4)
      • Another change: Survey says...
      • Design your own final exam
      • What I'm changing this week
      • Repost for CSC12: Increasing target language
    •  February (1)
      • A storytelling success story
    •  January (2)
      • Not going to ACTFL again, but for the best reason ever
      • Free Ebook for WL educators
  •  2011 (57)
    •  November (1)
      • Dear novice-learner teacher - love, an AP teacher
    •  October (3)
      • Learning from #langchat
      • Not your average health unit
      • Presentation: Target Language: Expect More, Say Less
    •  September (6)
      • Spanish 3 assessment documents
      • For KWLA 2011: Media from Reel to Real
      • Accuracy vs. proficiency: an illustration
      • Fun activity #6: A escribir
      • App review: Tour Wrist
      • Myth #6: Memorizing vocabulary
    •  August (5)
      • Trending topic = authentic comprehensible input
      • Got the rubric!
      • New year, new units, new assessments
      • Jumping on the Animoto bandwagon
      • Rethinking "late" work
    •  July (1)
      • A song made for early Spanish 1
    •  June (9)
      • Proficiency & tacos
      • Proficiency levels shouldn't be a secret
      • Flipbook illustration
      • Ethics in the language class - we aren't their parents
      • Activity #5: Gira la botella
      • Symbol Illustration
      • Connecting your classroom
      • Myth #5: The textbook is all I need
      • Taking paperless to the blog
    •  May (2)
      • Combat the 'este tiempo' monster
      • Children's DVD giveaway!
    •  April (6)
      • Activity #4: Drama Inmóvil
      • Myth #4: The Time Whine
      • Have you used PhotoPeach?
      • The myths aren't going to ACTFL
      • Fun activity #3: ¡Arriésgate!
      • Fun activity #2: A conversar
    •  March (3)
      • Dismantling Myths 2 and 3: Learning about language and its cousin, Grammatical Terms
      • Activity 1: Cuento poco a poco
      • (Trying to) Make learning fun
    •  February (10)
      • Two new options for out-of-class fluency
      • Great resource from la Sra. Birch
      • Dismantling Myth #1: What's a qualified teacher?
      • Keep singing: 189 pages of Spanish lyrics
      • #Charlando para aprender
      • Vote for this week's #langchat topic
      • It's time for them to use their time
      • For tonight's #langchat: A game for description
      • Short listening activity tailor-made for beginners
      • Ciudad de las bestias: Guides public & streamlined
    •  January (11)
      • Instead of the vocab quiz
      • Best songs for stem changing irreg. present
      • Do something drastic - kick the vocab quiz
      • Topic for #LangChat 1/27
      • Topic for the first #LangChat 1/20
      • Low-level learners can't understand authentic media, what?
      • They can't speak, and it's our fault: Dismantling the myths
      • Don't teach a health unit without this song
      • New: A language teachers' weekly chat on Twitter - choose our first topic!
      • Since I stopped teaching to the [AP] test
      • Faith and Culture: help me decide our AP topic
  •  2010 (38)
    •  December (4)
      • 9 ways to increase students' TL use
      • I love collaboration
      • The problem with translation (from a student)
      • Why music is more powerful than anything (& how to use it)
    •  November (2)
      • iPad giveaway!
      • A collaborative project for our Spanish-teacher PLN
    •  October (2)
      • And the winner is...
      • In the spirit of open source: Ciudad de las bestias
    •  September (10)
      • Books recommended as 'easy'
      • Pure present tense & at least 22 repetitions of 'ya no'
      • For a conference attendee: resources in math
      • Searching BBC Mundo
      • Prompts with Power: writing/speaking prompts
      • Prompts with Power: Prezi
      • Prompts with Power: German & French resources
      • Prompts with Power: Dating in high school
      • KWLA Presentation: PLN-ology
      • Tweet with double objects
    •  August (6)
      • Interactive comic creator using Maya & Miguel
      • Ads of the World | Creative Advertising Archive & Community
      • Added some great new links
      • First 12 days of Spanish 1
      • My supply list
      • Scope & sequence, word list for Spanish 1
    •  July (4)
      • 5 tips for increasing (your own) target language use
      • A warm-up from @samocamila: por vs. para
      • Camila's all on board! (well, on Twitter)
      • Getting vocabulary from a tweet
    •  April (3)
      • Huge toy giveaway from SpanglishBaby
      • A case for avoiding "pet" grammar
      • Authentic audio with future tense
    •  March (2)
      • Interesting blog post about iPod as language lab
      • News article: appeal + subjunctive for influence
    •  January (5)
      • A high-interest exercise for imperfect/pasado continuo
      • A song with 17 verbs in past subjunctive
      • My corporate Spanish links, all in one place
      • "Adora la Exploradora"-the week we didn't feel like a boring past-tense review
      • My level 1 and 2 stories (for Bethanie, and whomever else)
  •  2009 (80)
    •  December (2)
      • A song with 37 repetitions of "más que"
      • Switch to a communicative set-up
    •  November (10)
      • Print & audio sources for AP synthesis essay re: efficient energy
      • Two songs for voy + a + infinitive
      • A case for free-topic blogging
      • It's 19 de noviembre!
      • Camila's new single: "Mientes" (release date 11/24!)
      • A case for pleasure reading
      • Noviembre - a popular month for songs
      • Zachary Jones's "Clozeline"
      • Two songs + resources for Ojalá + subjunctive
      • A song just for @mamitati
    •  October (13)
      • You can't buy this in a textbook
      • Cultural connections: Four songs to explore using Google Earth
      • David Bisbal's YouTube channel
      • Correction on Pin Pon in Shrek
      • Four songs for contrasting que & lo que
      • Nominados en la 10a entrega de los Latin Grammy
      • Story and songs for subjunctive: indefinite/negative antecedent
      • AP sythesis essay sources: Los indocumentados y el sistema de salud
      • Blog that does what I do, only better
      • My October playlist
      • We must not ignore the Paz Sin Fronteras (video)
      • Build your perfect tenis (en español)
      • Video with por, haber, past participles, commands, from Coca Cola
    •  September (10)
      • Latin Grammy website gets a cool makeover... and nominations!
      • Songs for the elusive 3rd pers. sing. preterite
      • I just made my first Yodio
      • KWLA Fall 09 Conference presentation
      • Found Juanes on Twitter
      • For you French teachers
      • Bilingual toy giveaway, gracias a @mamitati
      • Keeping your eyes open for gold nuggets
      • CNN launches Latino in America
      • Bob Esponja on Mundonick
    •  August (4)
      • A correction on the correction of La Frase Tonta
      • I am in technology heaven
      • An AP oral presentation, with past tense: "Consecuencias"
      • I love crossover songs
    •  July (2)
      • Raimundo, the bilingual Latin American snail
      • A song for object/refl pronoun 'te'
    •  June (6)
      • A song for your hip-hop fans
      • Developing world citizens
      • Follow me on Twitter
      • Aquí Estoy Yo: video oficial
      • A new group on my radar
      • Two months later, back to the blogosphere (with a companion)
    •  April (5)
      • A most fantastic performance at Premio Lo Nuestro
      • The heroes speak Español
      • A brilliant pair of songs contrasting por/para
      • Useless grammar I used to teach
      • Adding some links--check 'em out
    •  March (7)
      • Negative commands + culture
      • Winds of change
      • Our students aren't the only ones who have speaking problems!
      • Activity: News interaction (present perfect)
      • A new smash hit with a subjunctive benefit
      • A shout out for Jacob & Joshua
      • El campesino y la princesa (a Spanish 3 story test, with a bit of subjunctive)
    •  February (15)
      • More interactive websites, courtesy of my students
      • A product I love
      • Good stories for commands
      • a story for imperf. vs. pret. and subjunctive influence
      • Interactive websites: practicing house/location/color vocab
      • Subjunctive for doubt: Story, song, activity
      • A good story for 'tiene'
      • A song for subjunctive/nosotros commands
      • A story for demonstratives
      • Rules in a communicative class
      • Cause and effect
      • Relating everything to English
      • A correction on La Frase Tonta
      • Equipping and informing, for free
      • A project based on motivation
    •  January (6)
      • "How much is estuvo de pie?"
      • One more song for subjunctive
      • A couple more subjunctive songs
      • An example of vocab
      • Internet scavenger hunts
      • A Spanish 2 story test
  •  2008 (51)
    •  December (7)
      • Videos from Jesús Adrian Romero
      • Alex Campos's YouTube channel
      • A story test
      • A video for Navidad
      • Great new song for subjunctive
      • ¡Nueva música!
      • A fantastic blog post
    •  November (14)
      • Ever heard of Patito feo?
      • Two groups you just can't go wrong with
      • Things to be thankful for
      • Grammar learning vs. acquisition
      • Forced to give grammar tests?
      • High aptitude is a beautiful thing
      • Another Spanish 1 reading
      • New media list!
      • At the ACSI conference in Dayton
      • Story success: Huevos verdes con jamón
      • Another story source!
      • Words we don't use
      • Song success: Hace tiempo
      • El carro de sus sueños
    •  October (12)
      • Overgeneralizing, again
      • Spanish 2 Story: La llama se llama...
      • Song success: Me voy
      • Not posting lately
      • overgeneralizing
      • The outcome of Pin Pon
      • Pin Pon in Shrek?
      • Best practices
      • Reading in Spanish 3
      • SCORE!
      • My media list
      • Awesome YouTube video
    •  September (18)
      • KWLA '08: Assessing comprehension without English
      • Song success: La llave de mi corazón
      • Spanish 1 Story: Insectos grises para el almuerzo
      • Finding stories
      • How do I find the music?
      • Modeling the billingual lexicon
      • Summaries of some classroom SLA articles
      • Love/Hate Krashen
      • Another article that rocked my world
      • More sunshine
      • When it's not all coming up roses
      • What on earth is going on here?
      • So, what are the cuentos?
      • The verdict on pop test 1
      • People I love
      • A pop test
      • Some assumptions
      • Starting to share my journey

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