Category Archives: teaching grammar
The Power of the Picture Dictionary
This year, I added another comprehensible input element to my classroom –The Picture Dictionary. I had heard about it for the last few years and considered it a great idea, I just never implemented it. Over the last few weeks, … Continue reading
Using the Visual Modality for Directions
Once every chapter or so I do a dictation in my classes. It is a great listening assessment that helps to get in some grammatical practice. There is a bit of a process to learning how to do a dictation … Continue reading
Filed under Mixing it Up, Teaching Discoveries, teaching grammar
Frequency words
I have been getting a lot out of Michel Baker’s blog! In the blog below she identifies two really helpful tools by Mark Davies. I was aware of his frequency dictionary, but not the online corpus. What a helpful resource for … Continue reading
Filed under teaching grammar, TPRS Basics
More Dialogue This Year
One of the many goals that I have for this year is to have more dialogue in the class stories. It’s through dialogue that the students get repeated exposure to the “yo” and “tú” [first and second person] forms as … Continue reading
Filed under Storytelling tips, teaching grammar, TPRS Basics
Lomb Kató
One of the greatest DVD’s I ever saw on second language acquisition was the Krashen Seminar. It was produced by Blaine Ray in the late 90′s and on the DVD Krashen, in a very light and informative manner, outlines how … Continue reading
How Well Do They Really Know It?
When I first started using tprs I had the idea that if we used a phrase or structure in class, it was acquired. I have since learned that this may not necessarily be the case. As I work with students … Continue reading
Filed under Storytelling tips, Teaching Discoveries, teaching grammar
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the basics of teaching
Take a look at this Bobby McFerrin clip. Then if you have time watch it again and think about how he teaches and what makes him a good teacher. We as language teachers have a lot in common with music … Continue reading
Great comment from Norm Veilleux
Here is a great comment from Ben Slavic’s Blog Don’t remember where I read this, but it was by a biggie in the SLA world (VanPatten I think) who believed that learning styles do not apply to language acquisition. There … Continue reading
Filed under Teaching Discoveries, teaching grammar
To correct or not?
Corrections have been something I have thought about lately. There is this part of me that wonders how much good it really does in terms of language acquisition. In my experience so far, I think that mostly it does little … Continue reading
Filed under Teaching Discoveries, teaching grammar
Teaching multiple tenses
Today I started the road to teaching multiple tenses. It is freeing to me to present the language as a whole and not in segments. The wonderful thing was that the student completely understood the difference. It seems terrible to … Continue reading
Filed under Storytelling tips, Teaching Discoveries, teaching grammar
