Blog - Ben Slavic

The Problem with CI

Ben Slavic — Sat, 03 Jun 2023 17:01:13 +0000

Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and that people in the U.S. are not. Extending this (what I consider to be a) fact about the two nations to the teaching of languages, we can say that many […]

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CI and the Research (cont.)

Ben Slavic — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 23:01:39 +0000

Admins don’t actually read the research. They don’t have time. If or when they do read it, they do not really grasp it. How could they? They aren’t language teachers. Mike found out that the jackpot money ball slam dunk was to stick to the talking point of ACTFLs 90% TL usage. This is ALL […]

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Research Question

Ben Slavic — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 19:30:45 +0000

I got a question: “Hi Ben, I am preparing some documents that support CI teaching to show my administrators. I looked through the blog and found some great articles but was wondering if there is a list of research based links/articles that blog members have access to. I am building a case to defend CI […]

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We Have the Research

Ben Slavic — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 08:47:52 +0000

A teacher contacted me awhile back. She had been attacked about using CI from a team leader. I told her to get some research from Eric Herman. Eric shared this: …I’m dealing with the same ignorance in my district. Your idea to keep it about research sounds logical, but these people are not logical. They […]

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The Research

Ben Slavic — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 18:54:26 +0000

We don’t need any more research. In academia that would be a frivolous comment, but as a classroom teacher in languages I support it. Yes, perhaps we need more research in other fields. No in languages; we already have enough research, at least for the foreseeable future. What we need to do is IMPLEMENT the […]

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WL Teacher Attrition Rates

Ben Slavic — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 05:30:35 +0000

1. 16% of WL teachers leave the profession after their first year. 2. 47% of WL teachers have left the profession by the end of their second year. 3. 62% of WL teachers have left the profession by the end of their fourth year. 4. 86% of WL teachers have left the profession by the […]

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A Pathology of Disengagement

Ben Slavic — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:55:54 +0000

In my opinion, one reason that kids don’t engage in our comprehensible input classes is that we don’t engage them. We get going too fast. We don’t invite them into the proceedings. We make it difficult for them. Maybe we get nervous about the method because we just haven’t got the experience we need with […]

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Everything Will Go Swimmingly

Ben Slavic — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:55:54 +0000

Q. What does one do without the support of one’s colleagues when trying to make the change to comprehensible input based instruction? How does one react to a colleague who does not wish to implement a non-textbook approach within the same year grouping? How does one go about using CI to teach older students who […]

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Thinking Outside the Box

Ben Slavic — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:55:54 +0000

How odd that the power of the old guard and their influence on administrators, in the face of the actual research, is enough to keep teachers down, in a defensive posture, on their toes. The teachers are only trying their best in a failed system to employ comprehensible input in their classes. In the movie […]

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Can Anyone Say “Helicopter”?

Ben Slavic — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:55:53 +0000

A CI teacher has again locked horns with a parent simply because he uses best practices in foreign language instruction. Are there any CI teachers who have NOT had to deal with confrontations like this? James’ mother starts off her email to the teacher with: Bonjour, I wanted to follow up a bit to gain […]

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Instructional Minutes – Less Important Than You Think

Ben Slavic — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:55:52 +0000

I got this question from Michelle in Australia: Q. I really struggle to match the effortless way you stay in L2 and I feel like I’m not giving enough CI. A. Your point here is a valid concern, of course, but not if you think about it in terms of how much time it takes […]

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Communicating with Doubtful Parents – Example 2 of 4

Ben Slavic — Wed, 08 Jun 2022 00:55:52 +0000

Example 2: Nathaniel Hardt once received this letter from a parent. It is typical of the kind of letter teachers sometimes receive from parents who expect our comprehensible input-based classes to resemble other classes, with lots of memorization and homework, which they decidedly do not for the simple reason that in our work we have […]

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