How to Keep your Language Skills Sharp as a World Language Teacher
As language teachers, language atrophy is a real concern. The old adage of, “If you don’t use it, you lose it!” is particularly true with languages, especially for World Language teachers who teach beginner and intermediate courses. And given that we are expected to be fluent experts in the language we teach, there’s a certain level of unspoken pressure placed upon us to maintain (and even advance) our current language capacities. In this blog post, I’m going to share some ways you can keep your French, Spanish, Italian, or German skills sharp to stave off language atrophy and maintain fluency.
Avoid These Five Common Mistakes Made by Novice World Language Teachers
Last year I had the privilege of mentoring the new French teacher in my school, and serving as mentor was an illuminating and rewarding experience that allowed me to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of novice World Language Teachers. In this blog post, I discuss five common mistakes that I see new teachers making, and offer practical solutions to help them refine their teaching practices and improve work-life balance.
Retrieval Practice Strategies in the World Language Classroom
To learn a language, students need to acquire massive amounts of vocabulary and be exposed to many grammatical structures before they are able to decode and communicate in the language effectively. In this blog entry, I’m going to talk about retrieval practice, which is one of the most effective ways to help students bring previously-taught information to the front of their minds, review high-frequency vocabulary and core language structures, and provide students with multiple opportunities to access curricular content. I define what retrieval practice is and offer three practical strategies that you can implement in your World Language classroom to help students retain language in a more durable, long-lasting way.