Oh, what a fool I was with those songs of the day!

In my last post, I thought I had cleverly found a way to give painless repetitions of low-frequency vocabulary that would not eat into my class time. I forgot how students would “watch” the videos once inside the classroom: with blank stares or completely ignoring them as I stood at the door greeting students. After 25 years, I should have foreseen that!

Well, it worked for one person. On Saturday morning I found myself singing aloud: “Martes, martes, it’s Tuesday again!”

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Repetitions

There may be no quick fix for the acquisition of low-frequency vocabulary (especially since my classes are fully focused on acquiring the highest-frequency language that will lead to quick strides in fluency). But there are tried-and-true strategies to fall back on. When my plans fell apart, I didn’t get angry, chide my students, or trigger their counter-will.

Instead, I deviated from my lesson plan and grabbed a piece of butcher paper while I started Monday PQA (Personal Questions & Answers) about the weekend. PQA has been my starting point all week since I still don’t have space to set up my classroom library. I didn’t draw the whole calendar immediately, just the outline and labels for the weekend and Monday. Over the course of the week, we completed the first week of the calendar—messily, I’ll admit. In fact, it was such a mess that I think I’ll start over on Monday. But yes, combining Calendar Talk with morning PQA is the way to tackle all sorts of low-frequency vocabulary.

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The greetings at the door, before they enter:

Me: Hola, ¿cómo estás?
Student: Estoy bien, ¿y tú? (If they don’t ask how I’m doing, I pout and place my hand against my chest to prompt them.)
Me: Estoy bien, gracias. Bueno, muéstrame _____.

Then I ask the student to gesture one of the phrases we have been using in class. At this point, they are all high-frequency verbs (I’ve added some verbs to the Sweet 16 that just make my class buzz). If a student cannot complete the conversation, they step to the side and watch a peer complete it before trying again. The English teacher across the hall has even jumped in to demonstrate when a student is in a pinch. She’s a fast acquirer.

Here is the other thing about repetitions: there are ways to give meaningful repetitions, but there are also plenty of ways to give meaningless repetitions. Those daily videos were meaningless because my students were not tracking them. When I am a good language teacher, I am very aware of the flow of language between myself (or my videos) and my students. If I cannot keep students open and receptive to the message, then language acquisition isn’t really happening… regardless of how good my “show” may be.

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Meaningful versus meaningless

Let me delve into this point by looking at the impact of gesturing vocabulary. The first time I gesture “tiene” (has), I hold my cupped hand in front of me and with the other hand I point and say “tiene.” Then I point to the poster on the wall, then back at my hand and say “tiene.” “Class,” I say in Spanish, “show me ‘tiene.’” And they all repeat the gesture, some quicker than others.

I got them all to respond, BUT acquisition of the word is still pretty shaky. If they are sitting in rows with the feeling that they can hide behind peers, my guess is that 80% are mimicking their classmates without understanding what they are doing. That is a meaningless repetition.

So, I ask my students to stand up and form a circle. This is one of the reasons I have fought for a deskless classroom. All chairs against the wall: now, in the circle, there is nobody to hide behind. They are still watching their peers, but there is something almost tangible about how they hold themselves accountable when there is nobody sitting between them and me. “Now stand up”, and the feeling is even more intense.

I slightly change the prompt. “Show me ‘tiene un taco,’” and I watch some of their hands narrow as they imagine holding a taco. I do the same, take a look at my imaginary taco, and take a bite out of it. I do this because language is acquired when meaningful messages are communicated. Gesturing a single vocabulary word, even one as important as the word has, is fairly meaningless.

I step back to the whiteboard and write the words “bebé = baby.” In Spanish I say, “Show me ‘tiene un bebé.’” Students cradle their imaginary babies in their arms. I do the same and then, just like the taco, I raise my hands to my mouth and take a bite! The looks of horror and amusement across the circle show me that a meaningful message has been communicated.

Here is a key aspect of CI instruction: new vocabulary that you expect your students to fully acquire must be embedded within a meaningful message that is 100% comprehensible. All of the other words in the sentence should be transparent in meaning.

A vocabulary list doesn’t work. It’s not a message. Passive exposure within a reading may lead to acquisition if the student is interested in acquiring that word. But if it is a word that the entire class really must acquire now, then that word has to be carefully embedded within meaningful messages. In the first weeks of level one, that is the Sweet 16 verbs for me.

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The crucial final step

I am still in the circle with my students. We are working on gesturing high-frequency verbs. So far, we have changed the class setup so that my students feel like they have more of a 1:1 experience with their teacher. I have also changed my prompts so that the words evoke an image in their minds (i.e., they are meaningful, full of meaning). However, based on observations from the next step, I estimate that nearly 50% of my students are still relying on cues from their classmates and not fully processing the language when asked to gesture.

I have a ball that we now pass across the circle. While the ball is in the air, I call out a gesture in Spanish and the individual who catches the ball must now do the gesture. Before we did this for the first time, I tracked several of my students who I thought might simply be watching their peers instead of processing language. Half of those who gestured correctly in whole group were caught completely at a loss when they caught the ball.

I quickly call out “¡¿Clase!?” and everyone does the gesture. Then back to throwing the ball for individual accountability. We repeat the same verb several times, and I watch how long it takes before they react without hesitation.

A few students acquire well the very first time I gesture a single, abstract word like “tiene.” But almost half of them needed the entire process to trick their brains into acquisition. Almost half will persist in finding ways to complete the activity without acquiring language—by watching their classmates—making it a meaningless activity… unless the teacher pays close attention to the flow of language.

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The evolution of my opening class routine

This emphasis on individual accountability has existed in my teaching before (hello, daily exit quizzes). But in the past, I provided a lot more input before putting anyone on the spot.

Here is something that a CI teacher might object to: during morning PQA I have begun to ask my students to respond orally using the verb (that is written on the board).

Yesterday we were talking about food we make when we are hungry. In Spanish, I asked Ethan: Do you make pancakes? (¿Haces panqueques?) The words “HAGO = I make, HACES = you make, HACE = he/she makes” were written on the board. I pointed to “HACES = you make” and then wrote underneath “do you make.” He responded with sí. I pointed at “HAGO” and he finally said, sí, hago panqueques.

I then turned to another student and asked in Spanish, “Does Ethan make pancakes?” (demanding a response with the verb). Then (in Spanish): “Do you make pancakes?” Another response WITH THE VERB. “Ask Sarah if she makes pancakes”. “Who doesn’t make pancakes?” WITH THE VERB! After asking different students about their pancake-making habits, I said, “Clase,” (they all respond by saying “¿sí?”), “how many students make pancakes?” Choral responses fly by without the verb, but then I turn to an individual student and ask the same question expecting an answer… you guessed it. With the verb. It is becoming part of the class culture.

These first 15–20 minutes of my classes mix PQA, Calendar Talk, and questioning techniques that I have learned from Blaine Ray’s TPRS 2.0.

Last spring at the Mitten CI conference I sat in on a TPRS teaching demo by Craig Sheehy. I sat in the back row and planned on multitasking, but that wasn’t Craig’s plan. He called on me. I even had my computer open, ready to multitask. I was one of my own students, the kind who try to cheat the class while thinking about other things, but he insisted on language acquisition. And within 20 minutes I could feel the automatic response in my brain to the Chinese demo, my eyes no longer drifting up to the slide with the words defined when he asked a question. It felt really good!

My impression is that many CI teachers have drifted away from the TPRS questioning and storytelling techniques that once defined CI instruction. In one class, my “What do you make to eat?” routine included all sorts of foods: scrambled eggs, pasta alfredo, ramen, hamburgers… anything that the kids mentioned. I was sticking to the verb hacer (to make), but I think my instruction was weaker than the class in which we simply talked about pancakes.

One of the things that the TPRS techniques keep vivid for me is the need to limit the vocabulary so that students have the cognitive space to move from listening comprehension to active speaking. When we were simply talking about pancakes, students moved quickly from yes and no responses to saying, “Hago panqueques. Ella hace panqueques.” Adding more nouns, their responses dried up to sí or no responses. They had to think more and developed less of an automatic response.

Earlier in the week I tried to include two verbs in my routine, before they had developed automaticity with one verb. What I mean is, they could comprehend both verbs fine and fairly quickly, but they were not responding aloud with the conjugated verb. They were responding with yes or no, mostly. That works if you are playing the very long game. And most of my career has been the long game. But how satisfying it is to get them so quickly responding in full sentences!

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The Cheshire Cat

On our first day of school I started walking around the room using the verb “es” to identify students. Yes, I said in Spanish, “She is a girl, he is a boy,” and then I stopped and apologized for being such a clumsy old man by calling out people by gender. I walked back to the board and, under the words chico and chica, I added chique (non-binary). Then I started walking around the room pointing out las personas (the people). Es una persona, es otra persona, otra persona… until I reached a student that I thought I could play with.

Sitting down in the chair next to her, I told the class that, what I really want to develop, is a class that imagines.

“IMAGINACIÓN,” I said in Spanish while tapping my forehead with my index finger. “For example, everyone thinks that Edith is another persona, but I suspect that under that human mask…”

I walked over to the board and wrote gato = cat.

“Edith es un gato.”

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