The problem of the +1
Together forever...another happy match from a +1 that wasn't left lonely!Photo by Jeremy Wong Weddings No, not for the wedding...or to fool the Chinese parents over Spring Festival...that's been solved with all the useful rent-a-date services out there. (See...
read moreComparing not-CI and…huh. It’s not-CI too!
Photo by Ben White So I'm reading this article the other day. "A comparison between teaching words through mere comprehensible input and through comprehensible input plus pushed output and corrective feedback was made." Naturally I'm intrigued. The authors were quite...
read moreR U a gud langwije teecher?
Correct orthography and usage are of the utmost importance to a highly qualified and effective teacher of world languages. How many errors can you spot? It's amazing how many words we can just look at once and KNOW right off are misspelled...or, in my case, how many I...
read moreStop with the bad Chinese already, please!
All you people who've had a couple of Chinese lessons -- please, please -- and I am not saying this to be mean -- stop generalizing your experience with Chinese to the broader field of language acquisition and particularly to teaching Chinese. Immediate output is not...
read moreJust you and me: adapting classroom practice for 1-on-1
Many teachers are beginning to take distance students using Skype or other technologies, and increasingly there are questions about what needs to be done to have a successful 1-on-1 class using TPRS. It's true that there are a few things that should, or can, be...
read moreCI Myth #97: You can’t follow student interests if you target
What people do not get is that it is entirely possible to discuss topics students are interested in while targeting. High frequency, you know? We are focusing on high-frequency language, supposedly. It's perfectly feasible to simply add a few words (making them...
read moreIt’s a method! No, it’s an approach! A philosophy!
It's not any of them. CI is a lens. It's a way of looking at things. Not only a way of looking, it's the compulsion to look at everything that happens in the classroom and ascertain whether it is providing Comprehended Input in a way that will get students to listen...
read moreWow, this list of 100 English fairy tales is great for Level 1 TPRS!
Except they really aren’t. They are not (for the most part) familiar stories, which means you can’t use background knowledge. They are not simple stories, which means lots of words are needed. IMO these stories don’t belong in a Chinese L1. You might get away with...
read moreLeveling up
Paraphrasing a post I saw on another group recently. A teacher was very dissatisfied with her own performance in implementing TPRS. She had been to a conference, watched all the videos she could find, and practiced, but still she felt inadequate. Even though her...
read moreToo many voices
Lots and lots of people are going to workshops and conferences and starting to do TPRS or to try to teach with comprehended input. And that’s great. And those same people are out on the internet, looking for more information. More things to do in the classroom. More...
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