The Need for Level-Appropriate Authentic Resources

(The following is my own opinion and does not necessarily reflect the views of the CI/ADI community at large)

Lately one of the major buzzwords in World Language has been authentic resources, i.e., resources which have been written "by native speakers for native speakers," and their importance to the world language classroom. I wholeheartedly agree with this, since I think that it is key for our students to interact with resources which can give them any cultural insights, views, and perspectives which cannot be properly delivered except from a native speaker in that target culture. Authentic resources can demonstrate real-world usage of the target language, as well as infusing a culturally-responsive framework into one's curriculum. HOWEVER, I will add my own qualifier: level-appropriate. These authentic resources need to be level appropriate.

Before I continue, I need to explain the lens through which I view second language teaching: as a CI/ADI facilitator, my first and foremost priority is the delivery of understandable messages to learners and for those messages to be properly comprehended. We acquire that language which we understand. When language is understandable for learners, this lowers their affective filters (stress levels) which allows for the acquisition process to operate. To me, all of these are non-negotiables.

Therefore, when it comes to authentic resources, I need for these resources to be level-appropriate and to be 100% understandable to my students. Our novice-level L2 students are roughly equivalent to native L1 toddlers in their reading proficiency considering how little interaction our own students actually have had with the target language, hence what we truly need are authentic resources which were created by native speakers for those native learners who possess that same proficiency in that target culture as our own students - those native students who are learning to read and speak in their L1! 

However, instead we get caught up in having novice students read authentic menus and bus schedules (much of this has been influenced by a misusage of the ACTFL Can-Do statements) or the authentic resource WAY EXCEEDS students' current L2 reading/listening level, which ends up then (as an experienced CI/ADI teacher said to me) students just scanning for recognizable text/vocabulary and inferring from pictures. In other words, not a true interaction with the authentic resource.

By no means am I saying that we should exclude authentic resources - di immortales! However, it does mean that as a teacher if I wish to use an authentic resource which is above my students' proficiency level, then the burden is on me to scaffold a lesson building up to it via previewing vocabulary and structures (even if it means through a silly story or a reading based on a Movie Talk) so that it is 100% comprehensible to them. But bigger picture - I want level-appropriate authentic resources so that I do not have to jump through the previous mentioned hoops! Personally I am not a fan of me adapting complex authentic resources and texts, because while I may be making the resource more understandable for students, am I unknowingly changing cultural meaning and authors' original intent in my simplifying of it with my own choice of words to use, thereby inserting a bias of which I am unaware?

While I was at CI Iowa, I attended Eric Herman's presentation "A Critical Review of ACTFL´s Pedagogy," where he addressed authentic resources and academic SLA research related to the subject. I leave you with this quote:

This [reading authentic resources] confuses the goal with the way to get there. When one starts to play the piano we do not start with Rachmaninoff’s Third, nor do native children start reading with Shakespeare, nor do we learn to drive in a Formula 1 car. (Nation & Waring, 2020, p. 25)

What are some level-appropriate authentic resources which you have found, i.e., authentic resources created by native speaker for those native speakers who are at the same development of language proficiency as our own students?

Comprehensible Iowa and "Dos Eric"

I have returned from this past weekend's Comprehensible Iowa conference, and wow, what a great experience I had! This local CI conference has been held in Iowa for the past 8 years, and over the years I had heard much about it. Twice in the past year, Eric Richards had mentioned to me that I should consider presenting there (since he had presented there last year, really enjoyed it, and would be presenting again this summer). I was very hesitant to submit a proposal, since I did not want to impose myself into this conference as a "southerner" if it was designed to be a local, Midwest gathering. However, I am so glad that I did (my proposal on Communicating Purposefully was accepted), because I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this conference! Here is what made it so great for me:

• Small in nature - CI Iowa is a grassroots, homegrown conference born from a desire among Iowa teachers to learn more and to grow in their development as CI/ADI facilitators. About 70-80 teachers attended this weekend which led to a very comfortable, welcoming, and relaxed setting - such a different feeling from state and national conferences. CI Iowa did not feel big at all. Everyone was so friendly and hospitable! 
• Time of the year - Because I have just started my summer break, I am still transitioning from a work frame of mind. Having a foot in both summer vacation and school modes allowed me a desire to still learn about how to become a better C/ADI teacher but also with the perspective that I was now on break!
• The people - I could not get over how inviting everyone was! Is it because I was in the Midwest lol? All of the conference organizers were so incredibly warmhearted and absolutely gracious. Speaking of the Midwest, this was my first trip to Iowa. When I stepped out of the Des Moines airport, there was a sudden dust storm. All I could think was, "Ok, this is pretty much confirming my stereotype of Iowa..." lol. 
• Workshops and presentations - There were so many great presentations and workshops offered to participants (I will address these later here)! Although CI Iowa was only 1.5 days, there were so many offerings. I always hate when there are other good presentations going on at the same time as mine, because I want to say to the participants who come to mine, "Hey, we are all going to go to _____________'s presentation right now, because I want to see it. I'll put my presentation in the Google folder for you to look at later." This is a good problem for a conference to have!

One of the promotions this year was "Dos Eric," since both Eric Herman and Eric Richards were the featured Friday workshop presenters.

I can definitely say that Dos Eric did not disappoint at all. Here is my write up about their presentations:

• Eric Herman (3-hour workshop) - Acquisition Research and Implications for Syllabus, Assessment, and Classroom Activities: This was a tremendous workshop about SLA theory! Previous to this conference, I had never before met Eric Herman, but I had heard his name mentioned very often any time the topic of acquisition theory and research came up. Like many CI/ADI facilitators, my knowledge of input language acquisition theory has been solely limited to Krashen, but Eric discussed research related to "CI" which historically predated Krashen. For a newcomer to CI/ADI, this workshop may have felt like drinking from a firehose since so much was presented, but for me who possessed some knowledge of SLA theory (Krashen, theory of ordered development, Bill Van Patten), everything which Eric discussed reinforced what I already knew and greatly filled in the gaps of what I did not. Eric then showed how this ADI theory should be manifested in our syllabi, assessments, and activities (of which he demonstrated many). Eric presented this material in manageable, bite-size chunks, and I felt that 3 hours was just scratching the surface of what he could have discussed. If given another 3 hours, I still would have been attentively listening! On this topic, Eric is such a great presenter, because it would be easy to come across as a know-it-all, but Eric has such a humble and modest demeanor that one feels very comfortable discussing these topics with him in spite of him being the expert.
• Eric Herman (50-minute presentation) - A Critical Review of ACTFL´s Pedagogy: The best way to explain this presentation is Eric's program description: 

Have you ever questioned ACTFL’s position on grammar and authentic texts? Ever had second thoughts about the proficiency guidelines and Can-Do statements? If not, then you will after this session. I’ll reveal the sources of these practices and examine how they measure up to what we know about second language acquisition.

This was an EYE-OPENING presentation about ACTFL's pedagogy (proficiency guidelines, Can Do statements, authentic resources), on what "research" (note the quotation marks implying doubt) it is all based, and how it is being packaged/marketed as the authority for us world language teachers to follow. Eric did a wonderful job of documenting and citing the research! I walked away from this presentation with my mind totally blown away and my ACTFL foundation to a degree kicked out from under me - just how truly accurate are the ACTFL proficiency guidelines on which I have based my grading rubrics?? I am definitely going to be reviewing my notes on this presentation. If you ever get the chance to see Eric do this presentation, GO!! 

• Eric Richards (50-minute presentation) - Using the Target Language on Day One: In this presentation, Eric demo'd what Day One of his German 1 class is like - he made it very clear that he does not begin Day One with a discussion of rules, syllabus, expectations, etc. Instead, he dives right into German with his students using TPR gestures, sheltering vocabulary, whiteboards, personalized questions and answers (PQAs) and a short reading in German at the end. At the end of his presentation, I felt very successful with what German I had acquired in those 50 minutes! Even though I had seen Eric do this demo at the CI Summit last summer, I really wanted to see again how he does this, since I will be teaching Latin 1 this upcoming year for the first time in 8 years.  Plus, I always learn so much from observing CI/ADI labs in a language which I do not know. Eric is another master presenter - his incredibly positive, inviting attitude sets a very calm, fun, and comfortable classroom environment. I love how he begins his German 1 class on Day One, and I am going to see how I can model Day One of my Latin 1 class like his!

I got the chance to hang out with Dos Eric both at the conference and outside of it while in Iowa - they are great guys, and I definitely look forward to seeing them again!  

So next summer consider attending CI Iowa! Like I said, I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. Although one can learn much at an in-person weeklong CI/ADI conference like the CI Summit or Fluency Matters Conference, there is something to be said for the smaller, more intimate conferences like CI Mitten and CI Iowa in that they offer intangibles which I do not find at the larger ones. I am already looking ahead to attending CI Iowa next summer - I hope to see you there!

Immediate Immersion - Scott Benedict

I have been out for summer break now for a week, but I am still in somewhat of an academic mode as I transition to summer. One of the major changes which I wish to make to my CI/ADI classroom next year surrounds truly grading in a proficiency-based manner, and I was already familiar with this concept through working with Acquisition Boot Camp with Martina Bex and Elicia Cardenas. Since I am still reflecting about how this past school year went, I was wanting to see how others in the CI/ADI community were implementing proficiency-based grading. I came across Scott Benedict's Immediate Immersion channel on YouTube - wow, he has SO many videos here for the CI/ADI classroom on so many different topics and so many types of videos (short, regular length, lengthy live sessions). I have been viewing a number of them, and I am learning so much. Plus, because I am now on summer break, I can view them at my own leisure and not be distracted by a work-mode mindset.

I encourage you to take a look at his playlist - lots of good stuff presented! Also, check out his website and course offerings. If you are unable to attend a CI/ADI conference either online or in-person, this is some really good professional development!

Latin College Enrollment Numbers - MLA Report 2023

(This blog post draws from a presentation which I co-delivered at the 2019 American Classical League Summer Institute. The presentation was titled "Putting Latin in the Ears of Your Students (When You Don’t Know How To): A Presentation by SALVI" - this blog post has been updated to reflect more current information and data).

The Modern Language Association every 3-5 years releases a report on world language enrollment numbers at US colleges and universities - Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education. The most recent report was released in 2023 and reflects college enrollment numbers from 2021. 

World language enrollment numbers at the college/university levels have been in a constant decline since the first report published in 2009. Between 2016 to 2021, while there was only an 8% decrease in college enrollment, there was a 16% decrease in overall language enrollment. Languages which saw an increase from 2016 to 2021 were ASL, Biblical Hebrew, and Korean, while most languages saw a decrease (see page 49 of the report for table of language enrollment for individual languages over the years).

Below are the enrollment numbers for Latin at the college/university level between 2009-2021.

• 2009  32,446
• 2013  27,209 (16.1% decrease)
• 2016  24,810 (8.8% decrease)
• 2021  19,472 (21.5% decrease)

Overall decrease from 2009 to 2021 is 39.9%!!

There could be a number of reasons for this rapid decrease in enrollment in Latin courses at the university levels:

• Colleges and universities are closing Classics departments (as well as world language departments), hence fewer students are taking Latin at the college level.
• Fewer students are taking Latin courses at the college level, hence colleges and universities are closing Classics departments.
• Fewer colleges are requiring language as part of their graduation requirements.
• Students are taking other languages instead of Latin.
• Students are already entering college with Latin credit from AP/IB, thus they do not need to take language in college.
• Changes in language trends as a whole.
• Changes in high school curricular trends (STEM, work/career-centered academies, etc.) are now manifesting at the college level.
• Latin in its current model is not seen as relevant in today's world.

Whenever the topic of the decrease in Latin enrollment comes up and the possible solutions are discussed, I always feel like (to borrow a Biblical adage) "we are pouring new wine into old wineskins." Maybe it is time for new wineskins when it comes to Latin at the college level.

I leave you with this quote from Nancy Llewellyn's article "Why Speak Latin?"

“All those of us who teach have known or have taught a few outstanding students who could read extremely well and yet do not speak. But for every one of these, how many others have we lost? How many talented kids have we seen quitting after only a few weeks, or getting bored after a year or two and moving on to something they can internalize and really make their own, such as Arabic, French or Spanish?...What we call the traditional method can work tolerably well for the 50% of our class which is composed of visual learners (indeed, extremely well for the top 2% of these), but what about the rest? What about the auditory and kinesthetic learners, whose primary learning modes are so rarely and scantily addressed?”

For further thought, please also read Kenneth Kitchell's article "Into Upper Level Latin - A Conversation."

Why FVR Fails at Times

(This blog post is a continuation of a series on literacy in the language classroom)

I have a confession to make: I have never been a big fan of Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) in my classroom. However, I do not oppose the concept at all, because I see SO MANY benefits of it. Krashen is a huge advocate of reading as a necessary part of the language acquisition process: 

• "Our reading ability, our ability to write in an acceptable writing style, our spelling ability, vocabulary knowledge, and our ability to handle complex syntax is the result of reading."
• "The ability to speak is the result of listening [and] the result of reading." 

Krashen also advocates the need for pleasure reading in the target language (known as FVR) and defines it as “reading because you want to, no book report, no questions at the end of the chapter. FVR means putting down a book you don’t like and choosing another one instead.”

So if there are definite language acquisition benefits to FVR, then why am I not a big fan of it? Because I see my own students struggle with it. Further, I do not see my students as the problem but rather the FVR novellas/materials which I have provided for them to read.

What is wrong then with the FVR novellas/materials which I have provided for them?

1. Much of the FVR materials is beyond students' current L2 literacy levels. When reading for pleasure, most people tend not to gravitate towards readings which are above their literacy levels - instead it is the opposite! When reading for pleasure, people will drift towards materials which are below their level of reading. This is why I do not read scholarly articles for pleasure! For example, People magazine is written at an 8th grade reading level, and most journalists will write articles at a 10th grade reading level. We need to remember that our own students still possess a novice level L2 literacy rate even after a few years of our language classrooms.
2. The amount of unknown vocabulary is way too much for my students. If the name of the game is reading for pleasure, well then there is nothing pleasurable at all about reading something where you do not know the meaning of the majority of the words. While we 4%ers may possess the resolve and be meta enough to refer back constantly to the glossary at the end of the novella to establish meaning of unknown words, most students are not. This is by no means the fault of our students - we 4%ers are the weirdos! Whatever we want our students to read, they need to know 95% of the words so that students are spending their time actually reading and not decoding.
3. The material is not compelling enough to hold their interest. In addition for novellas/readings to be comprehensible, they also need to be compelling enough for students to want to persevere in reading them - remember in FVR, because students can choose what they want to read; they are not bound to continue reading if the topic is not of interest to them. In a research study, Cho and Krashen found that a group of Korean English language learners who had read Sweet Valley High books for pleasure made more progress in their language acquisition than those who had not read for pleasure. 

So then is my not being a big fan of FVR the fault of the authors who have written Latin novellas/readings? No, rather it is my choice of materials which I have offered students. HOWEVER, while there is emerging a large number of Latin novellas being published, I will also say that I have found very few Latin novellas out there truly written for novice readers. 

My next post will cover what I would like to see in novice-level Latin novellas. 

Experiencing L3 Literacy Myself - My Reading Experiment

(This blog post is a continuation of a series on literacy in the language classroom)

Recently, I purchased some novellas for teachers in my department, and among them, I bought a single copy of many novice-level Spanish novellas written by Margarita Perez Garcia for my teachers to peruse for possible future use. Margarita had presented at the virtual Voces Digital Spring Conference about reading, and she mentioned many of her novellas which were written for novice-level students and aligned with the proficiency levels as outlined by the Extensive Reading Foundation. I was very intrigued by the novice-level Spanish novellas which she mentioned in her presentation, especially due to the low headword count in them.

When the novellas arrived, I decided to read them myself. I know very little Spanish, and if you have ever been in a CI/ADI coaching session which I have led, I am ALWAYS the "barometer student" in a Spanish demo. Since these were novice-level Spanish novellas, would I be able to read and to understand them with my limited knowledge of Spanish? The answer is a resounding YES!

Observations

1. I began with El Ultimo Arbol and then read Mosca, Mosca, Itipuru, Arroz con Cosas, Mosca en Leche, and Juliana in that order due to the headword count. That was very important, because I was able to build up slowly to longer sentences and more vocabulary.
2. Immediately I could tell that my brain was trying to make some type of sense and meaning of this L3 (Latin is my L2!) into my L1 (English) - what L1 meaning my brain was able to latch onto, it kept; that which it was not able to, it tossed aside. Luckily, due to the frequent repetition of words/phrases and predictable nature of the sentence structures (a key component in any novice readings!), I found that my brain was able to create meaning after awhile.  
3. In the beginning, there was some degree of decoding happening (i.e., stopping at individual words to look up the L1 meaning in the glossary), since there were many Spanish words which I did not know. However, as I progressed in the novellas, I found that this occurred less and less due to the repetitive nature of sentence structures and vocabulary. 
4. When reading sentences in Mosca, Mosca like Mosca no tiene talento. Tiene problemas, my first instinct was to translate it as "The fly has no talent. Has problems." In other words, because the first use of tiene had a specific word serving as a subject, I knew to translate tiene as "has" but not specifically as he/she/it has when used the second time without a stated subject. This is exactly what I see my own students do with Latin verbs when there is an understood repeated subject - they will not add in the subject implied with the verb ending. In other words, this is normal in the language acquisition process!
5. I loved that even though these novellas were novice-level, culture was definitely embedded in them, nor did I feel like the culture was forced into the plot; it seemed very natural.
6. The plots in these novellas are definitely compelling and engaging! I felt some type of emotional connection to the characters in each of the novellas and truly wanted to know, "Will they succeed in their endeavors?" 
7. Formatting of the text played a HUGE role in my being able to read the novellas. As a novice-level reader of Spanish, I definitely appreciated in Margarita's early novellas that instead of writing paragraphs, she wrote each sentence as an individual line. This made it so much easier for me to read and kept my affective filter low. This is something which I need to remember with my novice-level students when I create readings. 
8. When I began reading Juliana, I noticed that the font was now smaller and that the story was written in paragraphs. I will admit that my affective filter rose quite a bit! Now I know how my students feel!
9. HOWEVER, Margarita has a very specific style of writing which carries through each of her novellas, so while Juliana is formatted in paragraphs and smaller font, the sentences continue to follow her style and the choice of vocabulary from previous novellas. That made the paragraphs very easy to read, Krashen refers to this as narrow reading and states that narrow reading actually is a great way to deliver comprehensible input: "Since each writer has favorite expressions and a distinctive style, and each topic has its own vocabulary and discourse, narrow reading provides built-in review."
10. I cannot tell you HOW SUCCESSFUL I felt in reading these novellas! Even though they were novice-level readings, I was actually reading Spanish and not translating/decoding but READING!!
11. I can honestly say that as soon as I finished one of the novellas, I grabbed the next one to read!

Now, I can no way by any means say that I know Spanish as a result of reading these novellas. Nor based on the reading can I say that I acquired any grammar rules. BUT I CAN READ some novice level Spanish with success, and I want to read more! In fact, I had some of the novellas on my classroom desk, and in the last 10 minutes of my 6th period when I had finished teaching, often I would pick up the current novella and read. My Latin students who were heritage Spanish speakers were shocked that I was reading a Spanish book (since they cannot read Spanish even though they speak it at home) - one of them said, "Every day you've been reading a new Spanish book!" What else could I say but that these Spanish novellas were comprehensible and compelling!  

Maximas gratias, Margarita - I look forward to reading more of your novellas!

NYT Connections - Why Establishing Meaning is Important

As part of my daily morning routine, I do Wordle, Connections, and the Mini Crossword Puzzle on the NYT Games app. For me, it is a great way to start my day and helps me keep my mind honed rapier sharp. I would say that I am probably 90%-95% successful every day in completing each game. However, I was not very happy with yesterday's Connections! 

Connections is a game where there are 16 random words, and the goal is to create 4 groups of words, with each group of words having something in common. Also, each of the 4 groups differ in difficulty of commonality. Because it was April Fools Day yesterday, Connections had a different look to it - it used emojis.

While I do enjoy a challenge, I found myself getting frustrated, because I had difficulties interpreting the pictures: was the bread emoji communicating bread, loaf, or slice? Was the emoji of a brain expressing brain or mind? Was the sheep emoji signifying sheep, lamb, or ewe? In other words, WAY too much ambiguity for the meaning which each of the emojis was conveying! If you play Connections, you know how important it is to know the meaning of the words provided in the game! Because there were too many possibilities of meaning with the emojis, I ended up giving up after awhile.

In the same way, it is VITAL that we establish meaning of unknown L2 words to students. When the brain encounters unknown L2, immediately it will attempt to create meaning of some kind in L1; that L2 language for which the brain cannot create meaning, it will discard. While some students are meta and tenacious enough to keep at it in determining meaning of unknown L2, most students are not. Like me with trying to decode meaning of the emojis and experiencing frustration, that is how most students will react with unknown L2. The easiest way to establish meaning is by simply providing the target L2 word and its L1 meaning, referring back to it when needed, and moving on.

For the record, today's Connections was back to using words, and although it did require some thought, I formed all four groups!