Does CI Work? H*ll Yeah it Does!

Today is the final day of IFLT, and it has been such a great conference. Yesterday morning, I got the chance to observe Linda Li teach Mandarin, and if you remember, I took a 20-hour Fluency Fast Mandarin class from Linda back in 2017. Even though it had been two years since I had done any Mandarin and I did not remember much, I still wanted to watch Linda perform her CI magic with her students. However, after just watching Linda interact with her students for 5 minutes in Mandarin, I was ABSOLUTELY FLOORED at how much Mandarin suddenly came back to me. Suddenly, I was completely understanding what Linda was saying, even though it had been two years since I had interacted with the language. Linda even asked me to participate in a game in Mandarin with her students, and I was able to take part in it fully.

To be honest, I have absolutely NO IDEA how that language got there in my mind so deeply, especially since it had been two years since I had even thought about Mandarin. I cannot tell you how I was able to recall all that Mandarin after two years. All I can say is that the Mandarin must have gotten there subconsciously two years ago, because I certainly have made no active effort over the past two years to learn any Mandarin. If you read my post about learning Mandarin from Linda in that 20-hour class in 2017, you will learn that we never did any oral practice drills or used flashcards. All that Linda required from us was that we listen to her, pay attention, and interact with the language in a comprehensible manner in so many different ways. Seeing Linda teach Mandarin yesterday suddenly re-activated that part of my brain where Mandarin had been stored away subconsciously, and it all came back in a POWERFUL way. 

That is the difference between learning and acquisition. Learning is active in nature, and in a language class it involves conscious, explicit learning, such as memorization, flashcards, grammar drills, oral repetition practice, and forced dialogues. That is not to say that material is not learned this way, but it is stored in a different part of the brain which holds temporary memory. Acquisition, however, is different, because it is subconscious,"passive," and implicit. This is not to say that a learner in a CI classroom is not learning or engaged in the material; the material is just delivered differently in a way so that it does not mirror explicit learning. Learning becomes subconscious, and as a result, it is stored in a completely different of the brain. Based on my own personal experience from yesterday, I can say that this is true.

So do I think that CI works? Since I have experienced it truly myself first hand as a student and realize now that Mandarin is so deeply inside of me in a way that I am unable to explain after yesterday's experience, all I can say is H*LL YEAH IT DOES!

The Forgetting Hypothesis

The following is taken from a recent presentation "How to Put Latin in the Ears of Your Students (When You Don't Know How to)," which I co-delivered at the American Classical League Summer Institute.

One of Krashen's key components of Comprehensible Input is that language acquisition occurs when messages are not only understandable but are also compelling in nature. We wish to listen to messages which are compelling to us. If the message (regardless of whether it involves targeted or non-targeted vocabulary) is compelling, then language becomes secondary, i.e. students "forget" that it is another language due to their focus and interest on the message itself. Krashen writes:

In fact, the "forgetting hypothesis" requires that the messages not only be interesting but also compelling, with all attention focused on the message to such an extent that thoughts of anxiety do not occur...When you get compelling input, you acquire whether you are interested in improving or not.

In a CI classroom, I think that for us teachers, delivering comprehensible messages becomes so much of a focus that we forget to deliver compelling messages. And to be honest, delivering compelling messages is difficult: what is compelling for one student is completely boring to another. Some students love PQAs and being asked about their lives, while others hate the attention. Some students love culture discussion in the target language, yet others find it boring. Some students really enjoy story asking/story listening, while others tune out.

As Carol Gaab always says, "The brain craves novelty," and she is completely correct. As CI teachers, we need to be mindful of this and to switch up activities in order to keep the compelling factor going. Rachel Ash's statement "We want repetitions without being repetitive" rings true about the need to keep things compelling in our classroom. The key is to vary activities so that the slower processors get in the necessary repetitions, while the faster processors get the novelty of a new activity in order to avoid boredom. This also allows for you as the teacher to appeal to as many students who have varied degrees of interest in a topic. 

Here are some examples of activities which I have implemented in class where I have seen "the forgetting hypothesis" occur, i.e., students focused more on the task/activity due to interest and the language became secondary due to the task's compelling nature:

• PQAs - Personalized Questions and Answers. Luke Henderson, a Latin colleague in California, once said to me, "Students want to talk about two things: themselves and money. And since we are not going to talk about money, we are going to talk about them."
• Movie Talks - I could base my entire curriculum on Movie Talks. Everyone loves a good story, and a good movie talk will achieve that. I used to struggle with doing movie talks, because I had never experienced one as a student. It was not until 2016 when I saw Katya Paulova demonstrate one using a Budweiser commercial involving a puppy and a horse that I understood how to do one properly. Katya demonstrated it in Russian, but I was so engrossed in this commercial that I did not really think about her speaking in Russian. Katya says that the best movie talks are those which appeal to the emotions. I also feel that there needs to be some kind of twist at the end of the clip which students did not see coming - I see this as a "reward" for those students who hate sitting through movie talks.
• Optical Illusions/This Day in History - These are quick 5-minute activities where students get so focused on the task that they want to know the answer. At the same time, overuse of these can destroy the novelty.
• Find the Disney/Pixar Character

Whenever I am observed, I love it if I am doing one of these activities, because even the observer becomes engaged in the activity. 

What activities have you used which leads to students to "forgetting" about the language?

Stand Up/Sit Down Brain Break

Here is a quick 5-minute activity/brain break which I learned from Alina Filipescu at NTPRS in 2015. It is a simple listening activity which involves movement (standing up/sitting down). This is an activity which I have used in the past with great success but had completely forgotten about in the past 3-4 years until this past week when I was preparing my presentation on Spoken Latin for the ACL Summer Institute.

The basis for the activity is very much patterned after "Never Have I Ever" but in a much more POSITIVE and STUDENT-APPROPRIATE fashion and is quite simple.

Directions

1. Make a list of statements (around 10-15) in the first person in the target language which could be true about your students. Examples: I am wearing sandals, I have a dog, I drank coffee this morning, etc.
2. Have all of your students seated.
3. Explain to students that this activity involves either standing up or sitting down.
4. Explain to them that you are going to read a statement. If that statement is true about them, then they are to stand up.
5. Read the first statement. Any student for whom the statement is true should stand up.
6. Now explain to students that you are going to read a statement. If that statement is true about them, they are to do the OPPOSITE activity of what they are doing now, i.e., if they are standing, they are to sit down; if they are sitting down, they are to stand up. BUT if the statement is false about them, they are not to do anything.
7. Read the next statement.
8. Continue to read the statements. Students will be standing up, sitting down, or not moving depending on the statements.

Observations

1. This is a great way to focus on a particular structure, such as "I have," "I am wearing," or "I like," since those tend to introduce personal statements. You can get in a lot of repetitions of these phrases since you will be saying them over and over again. As students become more familiar with these phrases, it becomes less necessary to focus on just one, and you can to mix them up in your statements.
2. It can be rather confusing in the beginning, so I usually will demonstrate it in English first so that students understand what action they are supposed to do.
3. Keep the statements simple. For some students, too much is going on in having to hear the statement, to understand it, to determine if it is true of them, and to respond with the correct action. 
4. It is a great brain break in the target language!

Latin examples of statements:

1. Habeo animal domesticum (I have a pet)
2. Habeo fratrem (I have a brother)
3. Habeo crines longos (I have long hair)
4. Habeo canem (I have a dog)
5. Habeo sororem (I have a sister)
6. Habeo duas aures (I have two ears)

1. mihi placet legere Harry Potter (I like to read Harry Potter)
2. mihi placet comedere Takis (I like to eat Takis)
3. mihi placet bibere caffeam (I like to drink coffee)
4. mihi placet dormire (I like to sleep)

Reflections on the School Year

I am now officially on summer vacation! Today was the last day of post-planning. My classroom is all boxed up, grades have been turned in and finalized, and I have completed my scavenger hunt of getting signed off by various school administrators, department head, and the bookkeeper. I always find the last day of work to be rather anticlimactic. In my mind, for months everything has been leading up to this day, and now that it is over, I feel a bit let down. I have always said that the end of the school year is like being on a runaway train. The train is not going to stop whether I like it or not, so the only thing which I can do is just hold on. And then suddenly, the train stops, but due to the laws of physics, I am still in motion and am hurled forward. 

One of the caveats of which I have to remind myself at the end of the school year is not to dwell on my perceived shortcomings and failures for the year. Yes, I can definitely look back and see where I failed as a teacher in terms of CI, spoken Latin, student engagement, creating a community, etc. But if I only look at where I fell short, then I cannot see my successes. I am reminded of what Rose Williams once said to me in the past, "(In spite of where you fell short), your students still loved you." And for where I fell short with my students? That is what next year is for - I can go in with a plan already in mind. The new school year brings hope.

As I decompress from this school year and process everything, I am excited for this summer break. I am continuing with my graduate studies in Instructional Technology, will be presenting at the American Classical League Summer Institute, and will be serving as a cohort leader/presenter at IFLT 2019. I am excited for these two conferences, since I did not attend either last summer, and I have also taken 1 1/2 years off from presenting at conferences. I am definitely ready to present again.

Thanks to all of you who read my blog. I am always taken aback when people whom I have never met before (especially non-Latin teachers) come up to me and tell me that they enjoy reading it. I am so appreciative that people find value in what I have to say and that it has aided them in their teaching. I feel so validated!

Here's to my next two months of summer break! 

Dragging Myself over the Finish Line

Yep, it is the end of the school year - I have roughly one more week with students. I absolutely hate it. I hate how I feel like I cannot get much done any more. I hate how disruptive the daily schedule has become due to standardized testing - state tests, AP exams, and district assessments - and how every year, that testing period seems to grow in length - this year it is now four weeks! I hate how my lesson plans have now become suggestions due to not knowing on a daily basis just how many students will be absent due to testing. I hate on days when I do see all students that I feel like I am fighting against students who have already mentally and emotionally checked out for the school year. I hate how physically tired I feel with trying to finish up everything in the next week. I hate how there was so much which I wanted to do this school year but did not. Mostly of all, I hate how that I am feeling all of this - this has been the norm for this time of the year over my past twenty years of teaching, so I do not know why I am always so shocked when it happens. One would have thought that I would have learned my lesson by now.

I am so ready for a break away from the classroom and from students.

But here's the kicker: I also know that after a two-month break, I will be ready to return to the classroom. I know that I will feel refreshed after having a summer break. I know that being a part of a conference like IFLT will get me excited to being back with students again and will reignite my fire as something like IFLT or NTPRS always has. I know that the beginning of a new school year will wash away whatever failures I feel about myself now at the end of the school year. I know that I need to do anything NOT school-related. I know that I need time away from being "Mr. Toda" and time to be just "Keith". I know that I need a huge distance away from the classroom, but I also know that distance is healing. 

How do I know all this? Because this is exactly how it goes every school year. I drag myself over the finish line, battered and bruised, but come August, I am refreshed and ready to teach again. Teaching is not a sprint but a marathon. All that matters is that I finish the race, not necessarily win it. Although I absolutely hate and loathe the end of the school year, the thought of starting again in August fully rejuvenated is already exciting to me. 

This is how i know that I have been called to be a teacher.

Random Helpful CI Tips

This week, I was previewing some vocabulary with a few of my classes, and some things came to mind as I was doing it. Here are some random but hopefully helpful CI tips about vocabulary:

1. If you are trying to pre-teach a number of vocabulary words via storytelling, circling, pre-reading activities, etc., use a lot of proper nouns in English to aid in narrowing and focusing the target words for learners. This is especially helpful at the lower levels.

      Let's say that your target phrase is "goes to" 

• Example: The girl is going to the store
• Better example: Cardi B is going to Burger King

     While I am sure that example #1 is comprehensible in the target language, example #2         allows learners to focus only on the phrase "goes to" in the target language, since Cardi  
     B. and Burger King are proper nouns in English.

   2. When defining an unknown word to students in the target language, be aware that      
       some students will take the definition literally and not make the connection which we 
       are intending. Therefore, do everything you can to establish meaning. This is why I 
       always establish meaning in English, even if I define the word in Latin. I need to ensure 
       that everyone in the room is on the same page with the definition.

       Example: Years ago, I attempted to define the word tristis = non laetus. Now to me and 
       a number of students, the "obvious" meaning was sad, yet other students thought that 
       the word literally meant not happy, while others thought it could mean angry or scared. 
       Afterwards, I had students ask me, "So what word means sad in Latin, if tristis means 
       not happy?" A better way for me to have done this would have been to also put an 
       obvious picture, like a sad emoji, to give double input to establish meaning.

       Example #2: Years ago in Latin 1, when I was doing a TPR lesson, I was 
      demonstrating the command porta (carry). I did not formally define the word, because I 
      thought that the meaning was obvious, so I was telling students "Porta (this) ad ianuam, 
      "Porta (that) ad me," etc. At the end, I asked students what they thought that porta 
       meant. While most students said carry, one student replied, "To walk with something 
       while holding it." If I had established meaning from the beginning, this student would 
       have been on board with the definition from the start.

Using CI without Knowing It

This past weekend was Georgia's Junior Classical League convention. As tiring as the weekend is (I usually subsist on 6 hours of sleep the entire weekend), I look forward to attending due to the professional camaraderie, and it gives me a chance to see and to interact with other Latin teachers in the state. This weekend, I had a number of Latin teachers say to me, "I really enjoy your blog. Even though I do not agree with Comprehensible Input at all, I use a lot of your activities. My students really enjoy them!" My response (with a smile) was always, "Although you may disagree with Comprehensible Input, the reason why these activities work for your students is because of Comprehensible Input."

Having been a grammar-translation teacher (and a good one at that!), I can understand the reluctance which many have to CI. However, if I can get grammar-translation teachers to implement CI unknowingly and through a back-door method such as the list of CI activities on this blog, then maybe these teachers will be more open to a discussion on CI since they have seen it in action in their classroom (without knowing it). 

A few years ago, i wrote a post called "The Power of Sharing Ideas" which touches on this subject - it is good to see that this post still holds up!