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 “now”, quite yet. I’m certain there are many people for whom this method works […]
Archive for October, 2015
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Mind your tone
Posted by Terry Waltz on October 8th, 2015
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 rules-and-output.) And don’t even get me started on “traditional” teaching, where the student sits in the language […]
The 90% formula
Posted by Terry Waltz on October 5th, 2015
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 exposure to the target language. I was specifically talking about classroom teaching and […]
Curiosity Killed (By…)
Posted by Terry Waltz on October 3rd, 2015
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 endlessly repeated question, wasn’t “Why?” What kid isn’t constantly asking about […]
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
Posted by Terry Waltz on October 2nd, 2015
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 you’re teaching a content area subject. For language acquisition, not so much. This is […]