keeping it in the target language talia block [email protected] taliablock.weebly.com...
TRANSCRIPT
tinyurl.com/ICTFL2015
Website
Agenda
Introductions and Overview
Breaking it Down
Activities
Work Time/Questions
Wrap-up and Evaluations
“language educators and their students use the target language as exclusively as
possible (90% plus) at all levels of instruction”
http://www.actfl.org/news/position-statements/use-the-target-language-the-classroom-0
What does ACTFL suggest?
providing comprehensible input
making meaning clear through body language, gestures, and visual support
conducting comprehension checks
negotiating meaning
teaching students strategies for clarification or assistance
offering feedback to assist and improve students’ abilities
http://www.actfl.org/news/position-statements/use-the-target-language-the-classroom-0
What does that look like?
What does the research say?
“target language promotes natural acquisition and that use of the mother
tongue (L1) undermines this process by diverting attention from the object of
pupils’ learning”- Peter Dickson
Benefits • Sustained foreign
atmosphere• develop competence by
hearing sustained communication
• Improved student confidence
• Develops positive attitude toward L2
• Lowers student anxiety• Subject matter is in their
face• Proficient speaker
available• Students are quieter
• Student resistance → Perturbation
• Classroom management
• Time and energy• Advanced knowledge
of the language• Building relationships• Humor can be tough• Tough to explain
abstract concepts
Challenges
What does it entail?1. Build curriculum grounded in theory
2. Create a respectful community that encourages risk-taking
3. Encourage learner reflection
4. Use comprehensible input
5. Teach concrete learning strategies (circumlocution, chunking, graphic-organizers, etc.)
6. Celebrate errors and self-correction
7. Show enthusiasm for students’ learning and achievements
8. Integrate technology
9. Use extrinsic motivation and move toward intrinsic
10.Teach grammar inductively
Moeller, A.J. & Roberts, A. Keeping it in the Target Language.
Curriculum Based in TheoryLearning Targets - “Can Do” statements
Backward Design
Content within Context
Activities created with learning targets in mind
Formative checks and assessments
Summative assessment (IPA)
Elementary School
Middle School
Krashen’s Affective Filter Hypothesis
Comfortable and low affective environment
Model
Bring bits and pieces of your life into the classroom
Help the students get to know one another
Creating Community
How do you establish a safe and inviting environment for students to take risks and
not fear failure?
1. Write 3 or 4 ways you create a safe environment in your classroom. One on each Post-It.
2. Get in a small group of 3-4 people.3. Cluster all of the post-its in any way that makes
sense to your group.4. Walk around and pick the 5 most common
themes.
Buddy Bingo
Creating Community
Encourage Risk-taking
More risk more reward
Time to work with language and figure out how to put the
pieces together
Learning from “failures”
Respectful correction
Moving toward self-correction
Meta moments
Reflection
Answers the “How?” and “Why?”
Self-correction
Helps build trust between teacher and student
Encourage Learner Reflection
Game time!
Shimon Omer
Support oral language with gestures, visuals, and
sounds.
Create a context
Activate background knowledge/personal
experiences
Allow students to create their own images or
gestures
Comprehensible Input
Circumlocution
Chunking
Graphic Organizers
Self-assessment
Concrete Learning Strategies
Errors as progress
Reflect on the process of error correction
Self-correction is better than making errors
Help students become aware of errors
Return to common errors with direct teaching
Celebrate Errors & Self-Correction
Encouragement motivates
Non-verbal encouragement
facial expressions
body language
Builds confidence
Enthusiasm for Student Learning
Opportunity to create environment for authentic
communication
Relevant and meaningful
A tool, not the lesson
Opens possibility for collaboration and
communication
Integrate Technology
Incentives for using L2
○ Tokens
○ Points
○ Pesos
Loss of participation points for L1
Reward for L2 outside of class
Extrinsic → Intrinsic Motivation
Great for grammar instruction
“Crack the Code”
Make them become “investigators”
Encourages active learning, engaged participants
adjectives
Teach Grammar Inductively
Activities
Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel
Listen to the description and hold up the letter (color/shape) of the
person being described.
Listen to the description and choose the correct
family.
Write about how these families are similar or
different to yours.
1000 Families by Uwe Ommer
My Favorite Things...
Tic-Tac-Toe
20 Questions
I Spy
Taboo
Do not use:
Orange
Vegetable
Rabbit
Los Monstruos
Fortune Teller
Spot the Difference
Evaluation Survey
tinyurl.com/q29yd8e
Resources Dickson, Peter. (1996) Using the Target Language. A
view from the classroom. National Foundation for Educational Research: Wales.
http://www.actfl.org/news/position-statements/use-the-target-language-the-classroom
http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/TLE_pdf/TLE_Oct12_Article.pdf
http://www.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/best%20of%20bilash/targetlanguage.html#benefits