Coaching from the Brain

by | Oct 17, 2015 | General

I am not taking anything away from this new “Coaching from the Heart” strand of coaching technique. Please don’t take this that way. However — let’s not characterize it as “the” new way to coach, or the only way to coach...

Mind your tone

by | Oct 8, 2015 | Chinese-specific, Methods, Speaking/Listening

We don’t teach tones. (By “we”, I mean myself and the people who’ve trained with me. There are still TPRS people who insist on teaching or drilling tones, not realizing that it’s no different from drilling spelling. It’s still...

The 90% formula

by | Oct 5, 2015 | General

In the comments section of a language teaching blog following a discussion about correction through recasts, the following appeared: “I agree with you when it comes to full immersion language programs or any other learning contexts where there is a lot of...

Curiosity Killed (By…)

by | Oct 3, 2015 | General

In a recent online chat, the following was offered: Ss have to be ‘taught’ to be curious in TL and in first L! Whaaaat??? I just have no words. What child have you ever met who wasn’t naturally curious? What 3-year-old’s most frequent, and...

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

by | Oct 2, 2015 | General

In a recent discussion between language teachers, the following came up: [I made] students today TELL ME how to say something in the past based on a series of examples before them. [I made] THEM figure it out. This is excellent, outstanding teaching…if...