TPRS
November 18, 2019
Drum roll… IT’S ACTFL WEEK! I skipped ACTFL last year because let’s face it, it is not cheap to try to pull that trip off when you don’t have institutional or corporate support, and I gladly admit I had zero FOMO – and you shouldn’t have it either. ACTFL is a great experience, and I’m […]
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October 24, 2019
One thing at a time: Step Five.
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Someone, somewhere, is going to comment, I can’t believe she put this one last. It’s ok. Everyone has their cross to bear, and I’m that person’s. You see, I think that before you make big changes, you need to know sound research principles involving how people acquire and learn languages (that was step one). I want you […]
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February 21, 2019
I pledge allegiance to teaching with comprehensible input. Truly, I do. Though I have perhaps a bit infamously blogged about where I depart from classic TPRS, including modifying translation as a way to establish meaning, where I land on the points of agreement/distinction in world language teaching, and how we need a couple of cures […]
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August 30, 2018
This podcast on productivity was the last straw for me. Near the beginning, the host reminded me of the research on how much better the brain works when you not only see something written down, but you wrote it there. Sacrificing a good idea on the altar of a new idea I don’t remember when and […]
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April 23, 2018
Since I developed a student handout with the highest-frequency Spanish words organized by type and including translation and rank, and recently posted about how we put our most helpful high-frequency words and phrases on our shower-curtain word walls, it stands to reason that I’m a big fan of high-frequency words. Well, I am and I’m […]
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August 5, 2017
Sound off: authentic resources or learner materials? Uau, that’s a can of worms. Most teachers I know would say that the answer is a resounding yes. That is, we use both, and we talk about it, a lot. In fact, in the same week (long ago) that I started drafting this post, Carrie Toth blogged a […]
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December 6, 2016
I tell you what, I’ll not be terribly sad to see 2016 go. It’s been a tough one. How would I label this year? It’s been- The Year of Confused– about my teacher and professional identity. The Year of Bridges Burned– when I stopped being an island I discovered this: When people discover I get it […]
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July 20, 2016
When I graduated from my master’s program in Linguistics with an emphasis on Second Language Acquisition, I suffered from a fundamental misunderstanding. I thought that there was a consensus on the general principles guiding how language acquisition works, what that means the second time around, and what that understanding ought to mean for the classroom […]
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July 5, 2016
Ever feel like the world and our profession are changing so fast you can’t keep up? Which of those five new tech tools appearing on your Bloglovin’ feed is the one that you should use to finally start your students on proficiency portfolios (and where will you find the time to figure it out?)? It’s […]
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April 14, 2016
Have you ever felt like as much as you know your students need more comprehensible input than they’ve been getting, the strategies you’ve tried have fallen flat in your classroom? How about we explore what’s up with that together this summer? Kim Earley and the administration and world languages department at Liberty Christian School in […]
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April 5, 2016
This post was authored by Justin Slocum Bailey and posted on Indwelling Language in response to my invitation for conversation on the learning vs. acquisition dichotomy, particularly in the context of translation, in the post Better acquisition by altering (not eliminating) translation.” (Finally! Someone is willing to talk about this!) Justin and Indwelling Language co-sponsor […]
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March 22, 2016
I think I’ve come to the end of the acquisition vs. learning distinction for the purposes of language learning in a classroom. Rewind. When I first started investigating second language acquisition research, I was blown away by what I learned about how people really learn languages. It revolutionized my classroom. It brought me to incorporate […]
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