I used my iPhone’s voice memo app and taped class today, 18 April 2017. It’s a challenging class because the 10 students tend to want to chat off-topic ‘EN ANGLAIS’ all the time. What I have learned in the almost 3 years with them is to accept what I can’t change and simply to translate their… Read More Reflection having recorded French 8 class
A more amplified and significant question is this: Why include output if research shows it doesn’t aid much in acquisition? What? Aren’t students supposed to produce the language? Isn’t that why they are in our classes, to learn to speak and write French, Spanish, German or Chinese? Yes and no. There is a place and… Read More Does output lead to acquisition?
I HATE bombing a class. The cognitive dissonance between reality and how I like to think of myself as a teacher hurts. But once my bruised ego has recovered, a pearl usually emerges. Either a lesson or a new idea. On Fridays I like to plan something a bit lighter for my classes. It’s a pleasant… Read More Best lessons from failures
I tried something new last week. I needed a stand-alone activity that would last about 3 days. Many TPRS (teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling) practitioners have written about using a piece of art or a photograph as the basis of a story. So I thought of the most interesting French painter I knew… Read More A short lesson plan based on a French artist
I spent half a period the other day leading an activity that was totally unplanned. How was I able to deviate without stress? Thanks to the TPRS (teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling) methodology, I have freedom to maneuver and take advantage of what pops up naturally in my French classes. Emma, pictured above, is… Read More The beauty of the spontaneous moment
One of the benefits of acquiring a language naturally, that is by constant repetition of comprehensible language, is that phrasing and language chunks start to FEEL right. TPRS (teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling) is the best methodology I have found for teaching a foreign language. I don’t teach much explicit grammar. Instead we use… Read More Teachers as learners
I’ve trained my students to answer this question correctly: Whose fault is it if you don’ t know a French word? The correct answer is ‘my fault’! – that is ‘me – the teacher’ Shocked at first because they anticipated that I would say it was THEIR fault as students, I quickly follow up with… Read More Interesting observation about rates of acquisition