Things That Foreign Language Teachers Need To Do More

There are a lot of things that push us to get better as language teachers, and many of them are things we forget we can do, or forget to incorporate on a regular basis. The ideas listed below are either things I've done to great success or have seen other people do with great success, and that I think really need to happen more.




1. Remember that a language is for everything.

We need to incorporate other disciplines into what we do. I teach math lessons in Latin - division, percentages, chart reading, comparison of types of things across the board. When we interview each other about how we feel, I can teach ablative absolutes with chart reading: ask people how they feel under certain circumstances. Record that information. Get together with a group, and graph how people feel in certain circumstances. Then we'll pin charts to the board and ask of the people who do this, how many are...?

I teach numbers, I teach distributives, I teach money and prices and degree by which things differ. When we talk about shopping, we talk about how much things cost, and by how much something is more expensive, and what's too expensive, and what it should cost, and how many x can you get for $y. I have had kids pull out a calculator during an assessment and bewildered an administrator.

I teach etymology. I ask the English teachers for their etymology lists, and I try to support that in some of my vocab and in my intentional etymology teaching.

I teach science in Latin. We test theories, make hypothesis, and test things. I teach anatomy, viscera, humors. My fours read Celsus last year, as well as some other authors who talk about cures for things, and so my students predicted what each one would do, noted what they found actually happened, read the text, and compared it to their own experience. (please note these were things like drinking salty water, drinking warm water, tasting honey, picking something up several times, walking briskly in the cold - things that are safe. :D)

I teach art in Latin. We look at statuary, mosaic, paintings, music. We talk about the artists and the stories and the history, and I ask them to assess what things look like, how it makes them feel, why two paintings of the same idea are different.

When we incorporate those other disciplines, we allow students to feel that what we're doing is applicable in other parts of their lives. We also pull it interests from other places. They all have a favorite class, it's not always Latin, and letting them experience those other disciplines in your language gives them buy-in. We also demonstrate the real use of language - which is to do everything - and we give them a wider range of what they're capable of with the same language they already know.

2. Remember that we can teach the same material repeatedly, and it doesn't have to be obvious. 

I think FL teachers often underestimate how many times our kids need to hear something. They need the material recycled early and often - they aren't simply going to have it at the end of a lesson. They'll need it for days, for weeks, and ideally, they'll need it in a number of contexts. But it's boring if you insist on just the same eight words for two weeks, and there are a number of ways to do this quietly. We do it all the time - recycle our material - but often we get stuck in our 'language goal' and forget that in the process of teaching our new material, our old material is still applicable, and we can use it to support what we're doing now - and it doesn't always have to be in an obvious, rehearsed way. (or we forget there are other ways to do it!)

For example, if you're working on comparatives, group your students that way. Ask that "people who exercise more often than four times a week sit over here. People who sleep longer than four hours a night, go over there." When you tell a story, start by describing the characters with words you haven't used for a while. Include old vocab and old structures in your warm-ups, or in your games.

You can set up routines for giving instructions so you always say a particular thing the same way, or so you give instructions using particular language. I always tell my kids to go get their free-reading books using a supine, and I always instruct them to do it in Latin. They get used to hearing instructions in Latin, and it lets me not only recycle material, but also give them a different style of input - that is, not intentional 'teaching' input, but just practical input. They don't feel like we're "practicing the same thing," but they're still hearing it over and over.

3. Remember that even when they become stronger language speakers, phrases are still better than individual words.

The more language support they have, the more able they are to stay in the TL, and this is especially true for colloquial things.

My upper-level students like to yell about sinking the starry world into eternal chaos. That's because I taught them that phrase (because Apuleius uses it in something they were learning). I could have taught them each of the individual words, but there's a good chance they'd have lost one here or there, and maybe missed the meaning of the phrase when they hit it. When we teach the whole phrase, it's one chunk of knowledge, and they can use it as a chunk. You can rehearse reusing various parts of it so they don't just get stuck with one useless phrase, and instead they have a framework instead of struggling to find places to use 'deep endless dark chasm' (which evidently has more uses than you'd think...).

I teach my students idioms. My wall is covered in them. We pick one every week at every level, we rehearse and teach it, and then I tell them I'll give them candy every time they use it correctly and in context. They're never tested on them, but once we've acquired them, I do use them. Then when they don't trust each other, they have the ability to yell, "Iuppiter orbus!" at each other, and when they are incredulous, they have "ain' tu?", and they like to tease each other when one kid is just being silent by asking, "Estne bos in lingua?" They abuse this joyfully, and that way even the kids not choosing to use it are still getting the repetitive input from someone not me, and the kids don't have the output pressure, because it's already whole for them. They're able to hold colloquial conversation because they have the complete phrases to do it and don't have to piece everything together. Then they also have the framework, when they're able to, to adapt the phrase as necessary to their own purposes, or to steal from the phrase for other uses.

4. Remember how much support they need.

They need growing support to be able to accomplish a linguistic goal, and it won't happen quickly. We have to provide really narrow reading, narrow speaking (that is, create limits, shelter for them), and remember that just because they understand something doesn't mean they have control over what we want them to control. We cannot simply declare, "Okay, it is your turn!" Rather, we say, "Great, looks like it's your turn!" when they have begun to demonstrate their control. We support them all the way 'til that point (and in fact through that point). That can mean standing next to them and sotto voce saying everything we want them to be about to say. That can mean repeating after you, doing backwards build-ups a la John Rassias, creating a routine for the idea, telling stories with it, creating giant speech bubbles and holding them up for the kids to say - whatever it takes. But we should not push our students from one level to the next level (e.g. hearing to repeating, repeating to producing) before they provide palpable evidence that they're ready for that.

We like to do the weather. From the first day of Latin one a few years ago, I did the weather for several days. I'd ask individual kids about the weather: "Pluitne? Pluit, an non pluit?" and provided them with answer options so they didn't need to figure out what the answer was. And then I started asking the whole class those questions without the answers provided. Then I'd ask individuals those questions and pause before I gave choices, to see whether they answered without the choices. Then I'd invite individual kids up to do the weather questions. I stood next to them and in a loud voice whispered what they were to say. And I did that every day until they simply starting doing it without me whispering, and that's when I let them fly on their own. We cannot push them to a higher plane until they've got footing on the plane they're on.

Starting day one, I've got a kid whose job it is to yell QUINQUE MINUTAE RESTANT! And we all practice this repeatedly. And then I'll give that kid a white board with the words on, so that s/he has it and can rehearse it and look at it. Periodically throughout class, I'll loud-whisper asking what they're supposed to say when it's time. They need repetition, they need support, they need reminder, and they need it consistently.

5. Mix it up.

Stand in the back of the room. Have them switch seats. Wear a different color. Play music. Do something different than you usually do regularly and often. Routine is huge, but the brain craves novelty, and without it, they sink into stupor. When they're stupefied, nothing gets in or out, and management can become an issue as well.

6. Give them power, and validate them.

I have found that the more power I give my students, the more power I have. Give them jobs. Trust them to do things. And instruct them on those things in the target language. Give them choice - actual choice, not fake choice. Let them misdirect class (usefully) sometimes - follow their lead a little when they're showing you where they want to go.

And then validate them - honestly validate them - when they do them well. Train your students to praise each other and applaud each other. When a group does something well, make their reward applause. Remind kids how well they did at something. Tell them that the person who gives the best compliment today gets to go first. Praise often and praise sincerely, and remind them of how awesome they are. Give them tasks you KNOW they can do without making it feel false - it validates what they already know and gives them capability before you push them a little farther. Start your frogs in cold water - they'll get used to it and warm up with the water, instead of running away in a panic when you drop them into the already boiling stuff.

Reward them positively as well - give them good reasons to behave well for you, and when they do that, reward them with things they want that are still things you want them to have. Time is a great one. Fred Jones writes about Preferred Activity Time, and it's my favorite thing in the world. Go look him up. Bryce Hedstrom has some great ideas about this as well.