Top 5 CI Mistakes!

5 - Not providing enough CI

Many teachers think that because they teach lower levels, they can't stay in the target language for too long.
WRONG! Just make sure you're being comprehenDED and your class will be acquiring language at lightning
speed. Write unknown words on the board with their translation.

4 - Focusing too much on grammar

As Bill VanPatten says, language is too complex to reduce to simple rules, and it’s much better to acquire
grammar rules in context than to try to explain them. Instead of talking all about the grammar of the
language, expose your students to a wide variety of sentences and grammar in context so they can acquire
how the language works naturally. If a student asks a grammar question, answer just the question they ask
and refrain from going into a long grammar explanation —I’m guilty of this all of the time. :(

3 - Focusing on thematic vocabulary

Thematic vocabulary seems really easy to teach, but it tries to expand a students’ vocabulary way too fast
and often with words that are not high-frequency or have a high usefulness. Themes makes sense. You learn
the word for kitchen and it seems only natural to learn all the rooms of the house at the same time. It may
sound natural, but it’s nothing of the sort. No parent in the history of parenting teaches their children
language that way.

2 - Not being comprehensible

Terry Waltz always says that it’s not enough to be comprehensible, you have to be comprehenDED. Just
because you think that you’re being comprehensible, if your students are not comprehending, you’re not
being comprehenDED. And language that is not comprehenDED is just noise. Using visuals, board
translations, and actions, we can make the language we use more comprehenDED for all students.

1 - Not going slowly enough

Going slow is one of the hardest things for a teacher to do, but it’s extremely important for the success of all
students. We often talk too fast and students can’t keep up. And going slowly doesn’t just mean your
speaking cadence, but also moving through material. Pacing guides can often be problematic when we
allow the calendar to dictate the pacing of our lessons instead of listening to our students. Less is often more,
especially when it comes to acquiring a language.

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