by Terry Waltz | Jul 7, 2016 | Assessment, Outside Forces
As in, does one give rise to the other? I’m sitting in a workshop about the ACTFL standards. The task before the trainees is to place certain functionalities, content and control of language or comprehensibility into each level of ACTFL proficiency (Novice,...
by Terry Waltz | Mar 24, 2016 | Drift / Is This TPRS?, Outside Forces, Reading
There’s a reason there isn’t one of these in every American living room these days. Besides the fact that we’re now looking at DVDs and not VCRs, that is. On a teachers’ list during a discussion of cold character reading, a teacher recently...
by Terry Waltz | Sep 24, 2015 | General, Outside Forces
A topic announced for a language teachers’ chat group has gone out: How can we create authentic class experiences that tap into the 3 modes of communication? Hmm…well, if we stick to the “accepted” definition of “authentic”, that...
by Terry Waltz | Jul 25, 2015 | Methods, Outside Forces
Authentic resources are great. They’re what our students will probably need to deal with…some day. High-speed speech is also great. It’s also what our students will probably need to deal with…some day. There are many things that are great and...
by Terry Waltz | Jul 24, 2015 | General, Methods, Outside Forces
So, every year we play this game. Evaluators from Well-Known Organization (face to face): Wow, what a great program! Everyone is enjoying it! They know so much Chinese! Look how they can read 130 characters in two weeks of class! You put out a daily newspaper at their...
by Terry Waltz | May 15, 2015 | Methods, Outside Forces
I believe that presenting analytical exercises AFTER the language in question is firmly acquired is completely in line with CI principles. We present SOME limited analytical input (pop-ups) during acquisition, but the important thing is that analysis is not even close...
