keeping it in the target language talia block tblock@district30.org taliablock.weebly.com...

Keeping it in the Target Language

Talia Blocktblock@district30.orgtaliablock.weebly.com

@WescottSpanish (Twitter)

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

Interacting with

videos and songs

My Favorite Things...

Tic-Tac-Toe

20 Questions

I Spy

Taboo

Do not use:

Orange

Vegetable

Rabbit

Los Monstruos

Fortune Teller

Diademas

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