Discipline Preceeds Instruction

Recently I have been getting too lax with my discipline. I never knew that it takes discipline to apply discipline. It really does, though. I decided to start fresh today with a new seating chart. That improved things incredibly! Then I started enforcing my rules again and it had an immediate effect.
One class was really [...]

Great comment from Norm Veilleux

Here is a great comment from Ben Slavic’s Blog
Don’t remember where I read this, but it was by a biggie in the SLA world (VanPatten I think) who believed that learning styles do not apply to language acquisition. There is only one way to acquire language and that is by comprehending messages. Language acquisition is [...]

To correct or not?

Corrections have been something I have thought about lately. There is this part of me that wonders how much good it really does in terms of language acquisition. In my experience so far, I think that mostly it does little to nothing. The people that it may help are the 4%ers. So what does that [...]

Entering the 4th Quarter

Well, I am entering the 4th quarter of my first year of teaching. I must say that I feel like I have been through a lot. So much has changed and I now see the value of experience. It is something that really can’t be taught, but just has to happen.
I have known a lot [...]

The look of engagement

I love seeing the look of engagement in my students eyes. It is a mixture of authentic excitment with happiness. It is not there all the time, but when it comes out it is wonderful. I long for this look. It is what keeps me going. It is what lets me know that I can [...]

The greatest obstacle in TPRS

This week I had a student teacher observe my class. It was wonderful to see someone who was interested in TPRS and how it worked. I am sure that I overwhelmed her with too much information. I can’t help it, I guess.
When I observed Ben Slavic’s class, I observed for a little bit  and then [...]

We bring life

We bring life into the classroom. But we have to be careful how we do it. It must happen with CI and P. The CI is a little complicated. It involves going slow and then going slow some more. Taking time to let the brain acquire the language. The P is also a little complicated. [...]

CI and P

It is so amazingly simple. Almost too simple. As long as you have CI and P, you will acquire a language. That is so wonderful and scary at the same time. I get the CI part, but I struggle sometimes with the P. Finding out what they really like and turning it into repetetive CI.
Don’t [...]