A poster to a teachers’ e-mail list recently commented: My first class of the day is a tough one. They argue amongst each other. Many are consistently late. They hold entire conversations while the rest of the class is waiting for them to be quiet. They complain about the activities. They don’t do/ don’t turn […]
Archive for December, 2014
Why is this tough class tough?
Posted by Terry Waltz on December 31st, 2014
Posted in General, Methods 
Tags: classroom management 
Comments Off on Why is this tough class tough?Vocabulary Lists and Items and Proficiency
Posted by Terry Waltz on December 30th, 2014
There was some discussion of “the most important phrases to learn” in a new language (as there always is) recently on some “how to learn languages” blog, and the list — no need to link to it, it was quite ordinary and predictable — provided a great many questions and absolutely no way for […]
Posted in General, Methods Tags: Acquisition, Vocabulary Comments Off on Vocabulary Lists and Items and ProficiencyHow do I keep kids from using online translators?
Posted by Terry Waltz on December 9th, 2014
The question came up on an online mail list: how can we get 1:1 students to stop using online translators to work on writing assignments? I’d say the first step is to look at your writing assignments carefully. Many times we are tempted to just say “write something”, and when we do that, the students’ […]
Teaching history and math with TPRS
Posted by Terry Waltz on December 8th, 2014
I really don’t get how people seem to want TPRS to do things it is not designed to do, such as in a recent discussion on an email list about using TPRS to teach other areas such as history. TPRS is used to teach language. Not facts. Whenever you attempt to teach a body of […]
Do adult TPRS learners need fewer repetitions?
Posted by Terry Waltz on December 7th, 2014
On a language teachers’ list, the comment was recently made: [for] mature adults … the transition from TPRS to TCI … may occur much earlier than in most high school students. I have not found that the transition from TPRS being the tool of choice to general TCI being the best choice occurs earlier with adults — […]
Posted in Methods, Speaking/Listening Comments Off on Do adult TPRS learners need fewer repetitions?Non-targeted CI: best thing since sliced bread?
Posted by Terry Waltz on December 4th, 2014
On a language teachers’ discussion list, a comment was recently made that “the idea of targeted structures in inconsistent with what we know about language is acquired.It also makes in hard to make input interesting”. I think it could be. But only assuming that the input CAN otherwise be natural TL, unfettered by any need to “hit” […]
Posted in Curriculum, Outside Forces Comments Off on Non-targeted CI: best thing since sliced bread?