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 […]
Posts Tagged ‘Vocabulary’
Vocabulary Lists and Items and Proficiency
Posted by Terry Waltz on December 30th, 2014
Posted in General, Methods 
Tags: Acquisition, Vocabulary 
Comments Off on Vocabulary Lists and Items and ProficiencyStories with time words?
Posted by Terry Waltz on March 8th, 2013
Someone recently asked on another list for ideas for stories that have time words in them. In my way of thinking, there are two types of “things” in language: things that occur in sets, and things that don’t. Things that don’t become the “meat” of stories. They are the events that occur in the stories, […]
Fluency in Reading
Posted by Terry Waltz on January 22nd, 2012
The fluent reader is “one whose decoding processes are automatic, requiring no conscious attention.” (LaBerge and Samuels 1974) How fluent are the readers in your FL class? What do they need BEFORE they can be fluent readers? They need language. And they need to have acquired it, not just feel like maybe they’ve heard that […]
Posted in Reading Tags: Cold Character Reading, Fluency, Frontloading, Vocabulary Comments Off on Fluency in ReadingThemed Units and Curriculum Tagging
Posted by Terry Waltz on October 27th, 2011
One reason why some folks aren’t keen on TPRS® is that it doesn’t embrace the themed unit. Most textbooks and curriculum documents are organized into themes. “My Family.” “School and Home”. “Celebrations”. Those are great, if you believe that giving people the ability to say a whole lot about a very little is the way […]
Posted in Curriculum, Outside Forces Tags: Curriculum Tagging, Thematic Units, Vocabulary Comments Off on Themed Units and Curriculum Tagging“Oh, I do TPRS®, I just add some extra words.”
Posted by Terry Waltz on September 30th, 2011
Lots of people out there these days saying they “do” TPRS®. What has to be happening to make a statement like that true? Teachers who teach using TPRS® are using Comprehensible Input. There are other ways to teach using Comprehensible Input. TPRS® is just one of them. The main hallmark of TPRS® is the insistence […]
Posted in Methods Tags: New Teachers, Theory, TPRS, Vocabulary Comments Off on “Oh, I do TPRS®, I just add some extra words.”What if they…?
Posted by Terry Waltz on March 10th, 2011
My concern is that if these students were to transfer schools and go on to level 4/AP (which our school doesn’t offer yet), would they be totally lost? When is education going to stop playing the “what-if” game? This isn’t a strike against the teacher who posted the above comment on a language teachers’ list […]
Posted in Curriculum, Methods, Outside Forces Tags: Criticisms of TPRS, Vocabulary Comments Off on What if they…?