Notes from Michele Whaley’s lecture“Top 5 for CI”.
Tools for Teaching with Comprehensible Input.
Why do I use an octopus to represent this session?
When I use the Top 5 Tools, my students feel they are on the water, not drowning in it.
There are always more tentacles.
What is CI?
CI, or comprehensible input is a philosophy of delivering language. If you are a parent or an aunt or uncle, you have delivered CI to young children. You have spoken to them in words that they understand.
When we teach with CI, every student can learn any language.
When do we acquire language?
When we understand what we hear.
When we understand what we read.
When we are interested in the message.
When we are comfortable.
By Linguist Stephen Krashen
How do teachers help students understand what they hear and read?
Some CI methods, techniques, and strategies:
Where are Your Keys? One-word stories, Embedded Reading, MovieTalk, Traditional TPRS, Write and discuss, Draw and discuss, Song circles, Special Person Interview, Natural Approach, Tell me a lie, StoryListening.
To be effective, all methods and strategies require CI tools.
Acquisition of language means that we can use the language in a given context.
Speaking, writing, and grammar are not required for acquisition. Only comprehensible input is.
Five top tools for delivering CI
Parents already use these tools.
Be a language parent for your students, even if they are older than you.
1. Establish meaning through gestures, visuals and shared language.
a. Pros and cons of gestures
Pros: you can use gestures while you are talking to students. You can come up with them with students or you can just tellt hem what they are. You can also ask a class for a gesture. Make sure that a gesture means the same to all.
Cons: when you use a gesture, your students may forget what it means or don’t understand it. You need to check and review from time to time.
b. Pros and cons of visuals
Pros: pretty clear and you can just hold a picture.
Cons: some visuals may cause confusion.
c. Shared language: only with literate students; not applicable for very young learners.
Ms. Whaley learned to teach with CI by asking her students to help her work on one skill at a time.
E.g. She set a skill “Point and pause” and wrote on the board. She explained to students this
skill would help her go slowly. Please watch and help her when she forgets in
the lesson.
2. Do comprehension checks. Find out whether—and WHAT—they understand.
a. What did I just say?
b. How would you say…? (if you are dealing with grammar.)
c. What does…mean?
d. Ask questions. Yes/no, either/or, who/what/when/where/why. (Differentiate different levels of English in class. “Yes/no, and what” are simpler, and “why” is the most difficult and you can ask more advanced students.)
Note: Give students some wait time. It’s good for the whole class. Some students can process very fast.
3. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repeat answers, correcting as needed and expanding to make more complex sentences. Repeat ideas that have been discussed.
a. “circle”, or ask about parts of the info.
b. 3-for-1s
c. Tell different stories with the same vocabulary. /Tell the same story but ask students to draw. /Repeat again, using pictures this time. More input, same vocabulary, but confirming the images.
You might even want to check that some critical vocabulary is clear.
Review all the structures one more time before our planned story.
Interview different people.
4. Speak slowly,more slowly than you have ever spoken before. It is almost impossible to go too slowly in a beginning or intermedidate-low group.
a. Point andpause.
b. Separate words with space.
c. Draw pictures.
d. Write the story.
5. Be sincerely interested. If you are interested, you will end up personalizing instruction for the students in front of you.
a. Believe your stories.
b. Believe your students.
c. Say it like you mean it.
More tentacles: personalizing, following upwith reading, student actors and artists…
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