On the simplest level: after having established a small part of a class story with the class, the teacher asks a student to “describe the situation.” The teacher asks in the target language, and the student responds in the target language.

For instance, imagine you have just spent the last 5 minutes establishing that your student Juan likes to eat chicken tacos but his sister does not like to eat any tacos, she only eats carrots, and you the teacher likes potato tacos. Your have asked many choral response questions and your students now respond with one word choral responses at the speed of a native speaker. They understand immediately when you ask “who does not eat tacos?”, “what kind of tacos does Juan eat?”, “how many tacos does his sister eat?”, and they can even add new information when you throw a curve ball and ask questions that require some imagination: “where does Juan eat tacos?”, “when does the teacher eat tacos?”, “why does the sister eat carrots”.

Students are passively responding quickly. Even if they respond in English, they show that they understand the spoken language without hesitation.

At this point some CI teachers might have students turn to a partner and do a paired retell for 60 seconds. The paired retells are private moments when students play with the language without any feedback from the teacher. The point is more affective; students enjoy playing with the language and CI teachers generally believe that the mistakes they make in output do not have to be corrected because they will correct themselves with time and more exposure to the language.

Blaine, on the other hand, would choose one student to describe the situation in front of everyone and Blaine would provide immediate feedback, especially concerning verbs. If the student correctly said, “Juan likes to eat chicken tacos”, Blaine might respond, “Do I like to eat chicken tacos”. Often the student would respond retelling the story, “No, the teacher likes to eat…” and Blaine would say, “you’re speaking to me”. The student has to adjust and say, “you eat potato tacos”. “Who eats potato tacos?” “YOU EAT potato tacos”.

In a “Describe the Situation” Blaine does not allow one-word responses as we CI teachers often settle for in choral responses. The student responds with the proper conjugated verb. This is never a simple retell because Blaine makes sure to ask the student about themselves so that the first, second and third-person forms are used.

I once participated as a student in a German demo that Blaine taught. He was focused on one verb which he had written in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person forms on the whiteboard. At first, I became confused quickly. He asked, “are you a man” and I responded, “I is a man”. Blaine pointed at another student and said, “He IS a man. I AM a man. ARE you a man?” Then he pointed at the board. I caught on and said (in German), “Yes I AM a man”. But Blaine did not stop there. He kept asking questions about our story, using the same verb to ask about each character and returning to me until I used the three verb forms correctly.

The rest of the students were watching and listening, and I believe they acquired by following the exchange, but it was strangely empowering to not only be able to process the language quickly but to also then respond using the verb just as quickly.

In my own teaching I do not use “Describe the Situation” as often as Blaine does. I am satisfied to develop a fast, passive response among my students knowing that they will begin to produce accurately with time. Yet I am beginning to work in “Describe the Situation” more often when I have a student who is enthusiastic about the process. Some students would hate having the focus on them in class, and I am happy to have mostly choral responses and an occasional question posed at a specific student which they answer with one word.

But when you have a student that thrives in “Describe the Situation”, I think the whole class benefits from watching and listening to the exchange.