15 Common Target Language Mistakes & How to Fix Them

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This is a special insider episode where you get to see what it's like to be a part of the Practical Proficiency Network! Join us for this amazing insider look and masterclass workshop on target language. 

Find out more about the Practical Proficiency Network here: https://lalibrelanguagelearning.mykajabi.com/join-practical-proficiency-network

This workshop reveals 15 common mistakes language teachers make when using target language and provides practical solutions to create a more immersive, interactive classroom experience.

• Avoid making interaction a memory test by focusing on successful communication rather than vocabulary recall
• Interrupt yourself every 30-60 seconds to check for understanding through questions, visuals, or activities
• Shift from content obsession to student-focused interactions by being a "party host" instead of just covering material
• Create a "pool party" environment with appropriate scaffolding instead of throwing students into an overwhelming "ocean" of language
• Celebrate language attempts instead of constantly correcting errors, especially with beginning learners
• Focus on making everyday classroom moments happen in the target language rather than worrying about exceptional circumstances
• Slow down curriculum pacing to allow students to play with and internalize language before moving to new content
• Make cultural lessons more accessible through comprehensible resources rather than defaulting to English
• Keep classroom routines consistent to build confidence in target language use
• Match assessments to classroom practices by evaluating interactive communication rather than just form

If you'd like more support implementing these strategies, join the Practical Proficiency Network for regular workshops, resources, and a community of language teachers committed to effective teaching practices.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Devin here.
This is a very special episodeof the Practical Proficiency
Podcast.
I'm so excited to introduce toyou a very special workshop that
previously only those who aremembers of the Practical
Proficiency Network had accessto.

(00:21):
But after this hot fireworkshop, I decided this needs
to be shared with everybody.
So I'm going to give you aspecial sneak peek into what a
hands-on workshop looks likeinside of the Practical
Proficiency Network on thisall-important topic of 15 common

(00:41):
target language mistakes whenyou're trying to use more target
language in your classroom andhow to fix it.
So this workshop is going tolet you in onto a meeting, like
you're a PPN member, where we'regoing to go in depth, beyond
just the intro layers of how toadd more target language to your

(01:03):
class.
We're really going to tweak,refine and help you move towards
a lot more target language alot easier.
By looking at these 15different aspects, I guarantee
you that one of them at least isaffecting you, if not a lot
more, because I know that thereare these 15 common mistakes
because I used to make them all,and when I work with schools,

(01:26):
districts and individualteachers, we're usually
addressing at least three orfour of these 15 things.
So buckle up for a bit of alonger episode, because this is
a masterclass on how to add moretarget language or to increase
the target language you'realready using and help you to
avoid these common mistakes.
Let's dive in.

(01:47):
I hope you love it.
Welcome to 15 Common TargetLanguage Mistakes and how to Fix
them.
Very appropriate.
So this month's challenge, as Iwas just saying here, is that
we're focusing in on increasingyour target language use, and as
I was thinking about whatshould be our hands-on topic for
this month, it occurred to methat target language is

(02:10):
something that we actually isour focus as world language
teachers and we talk about allthe time.
But since it's something thatwe talk about all the time, it's
beneficial for us to look atthis in a level two context, and
what I mean by that is you allknow that target language is
important.
You all know that targetlanguage is the way to get to
your goals of seeingimprovements in your class as

(02:34):
well as having a better timeteaching.
All of that, like targetlanguage, is the vibe, it's the
deal, it's what we're all goingfor.
So today I'm hoping to addresswith you 15 of the most common
I've made them all targetlanguage mistakes, so that we
can get into the detail thataffects you, because, more than
likely, you're doing a lot ofthings right.

(02:57):
You're doing a lot of thingsthat are really moving the
needle in your class and youdon't even realize it, but these
common mistakes will be themaybe the one thing that's
making it a lot harder than itneeds to be.
So my first one for you inhoping to think about this topic
a little bit differently is,sure, like we know that you know
, teaching to the eyes isimportant.

(03:18):
Checking for understanding isso important.
Practicing being comprehensibleis so important, but here, I
think, are the 15 things thatare going to get in your way.
For me, when I work withschools, this is the number one
thing that I encounter.
So this is number one on thelist, and that is number one.
Making interaction a memory test.

(03:39):
This is really common, becausethis is the way that we're
taught how to teach, like weknow that our students are with
us if they know the vocab.
So when we're talking aboutinteraction, though, and when I
I'm going to use the wordinteraction a lot today, and
what I'm saying with interactionis any moment that you are
asking a student a question inFrench or in Spanish for Diane.

(04:04):
Any time that you're asking astudent a question on a
worksheet and you're expectingthem to respond to you, anytime
that you're talking to yourstudents in the target language
and you just want them to showyou that they're understanding,
anytime that those moments arehappening, if you're making it
about individual word recall,you're going to lose out on the
magic of what interaction reallyis.

(04:25):
So here's how to fix it.
With each mistake, I'm going toshow you some ways that I think
you can fix it or troubleshootthis.
How to fix it?
Well, we've got this notion asteachers that we should be
checking all the time and likeholding kids accountable to work
, and that's very true and thatcan happen in other areas of
teaching.
But interaction is not the bestplace to do it.

(04:46):
Should they know it?
Honestly, it doesn't matter.
Like do they need it tounderstand your question?
Do they need it to answer you?
Then you should give them theword Like write it down,
translate it, draw it, becauseinteraction is when you're
putting together all of thethings that you're working on in
class.
It's all of the skills puttogether in one.

(05:07):
There's so many processeshappening in the brain that it's
already difficult on its own.
You don't need to make it amemory recall thing, which what
I mean by that is often when I'mobserving teachers or talking
about their classes, I hear alot of like, oh, like, we're
going to use the verb estar inthis lesson.
Tell me what you remember aboutthe verb estar, like, when do

(05:28):
we use it?
What's the differences betweenthat and ser?
And like, cool, but all of thatstuff that you're doing, you
probably have to do in Englishand you know what's actually
better, using estar in context,when you say ¿Cómo estás hoy?
How are you doing today?
¿dónde estás?
When you say como estas hoy,how are you doing today?
Donde estas?
Where are you Like?
That works so much better thanrecall anyways.

(05:50):
So I would say the one of thebest things you can do with this
is don't choose memory recallover interaction Like.
Don't choose the, the your,your go-to thing of like.
Let me quiz them and make surethat they remember these words
or these concepts.
It's not words and it's notconcepts.
You're interacting.
You're helping students getbetter at interacting with you.
That's the educational goal ofthis.

(06:13):
So I would say, instead offocusing on memory recall, do
this instead, give kids all thelanguage they need to understand
and interact with you.
Make your end goal theinteraction.
Make your end goal theinteraction.
Make your end goal the response.
Number two when people say becomprehensible in your class, I

(06:34):
feel like we should break thisdown a little bit more and I
wish somebody told me this whenI was trying this out in my
class, because it would havesaved me so many awkward
silences out in my class,because it would have saved me
so many awkward silences.
Number two is if you aretalking for more than a minute
and you haven't interruptedyourself at some point, you're
losing them.
You're making a mistake.
So, like, this is the crucialtime frame.

(06:57):
I would say it's actually evenshorter, like 30 seconds really,
but every 30 seconds or so youshould be interrupting yourself
with some of these things.
You should be constantlychecking for understanding,
asking a student a question,interacting in some way with
students that might neverrequire their response.

(07:20):
Like, maybe you are handingthem things and they need to
grab the right thing, or you'repointing to things and they need
to all point there with you.
Or maybe you're pausing to drawsomething, maybe you're pausing
to write something, maybeyou're pausing to point to some
of the scaffolding around yourroom.
So, instead of letting yourselftalk or sign for a minute, like

(07:42):
once you hit 60 seconds, Iwould say earlier, if can
interrupt yourself withsomething Like find some way to
add in whatever the scaffoldingis All right, put here in the
chat.
What are your suggestions forinterrupting yourself?
Like, what are the things thatyou do that help you know that
your students are with you andthey understand you?

(08:04):
I want to see what those are.
We skipped it by accident.

Speaker 2 (08:14):
All right.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Number three this one's a little bit.
Oh.
What is CFU?
I'm so glad you asked.
That is my shortening for checkfor understanding.
Thank you, you're so welcome.
Oh, courtney, I'm so glad tosee you.
You remember that from when wewere doing the live PPNs Light
bulb moment, courtney just hadone.
That's so good.
So I would love to continuethat trend.
Thank you for reminding me ofthat, courtney, because this is

(08:36):
a good CFU that I like to dowith you checking for
understanding.
If you have something that is alight bulb moment for you, like
ooh, that's really me, or I'mexcited to talk about this, or

(08:57):
yeah, like this is a big shiftfor me, put light bulb if it's
something that you're learningfrom.
Number three is we, as worldlanguage teachers and teachers
in general, we're really guiltyof thinking the floor is ours
all the time.
So we have a lot of one-sidedconversations and we have a
little bit of content obsession.
What do I mean by that?
This mistake, number three iswhen you are got, you're
entirely a part of theconversation and you're not ever

(09:18):
asking for a student'scontribution.
It's very different from thewhole concept of teachers
talking most of the time toprovide input.
We're not talking about that,because that is still a thing.
That is what you have to do,but how you do it doesn't have
to be completely one-sided.
So here are some things tothink about to prevent you from
being really content obsessed,or I like to call, like you know

(09:42):
, like the overcoverer, when youare like you have this really
and it's probably not your fault, but you have this really
intense, crammed list of thingsyou have to cover, quote unquote
, in this unit.
So you're always presenting newinformation and you're obsessed
with making sure that you coverit, like because for many
reasons, maybe there's a testcoming and you want your kids to

(10:02):
do well, but when we get tothat content obsession, then you
miss all of those moments foryour students to actually
develop communicative fluencyand interaction, because your
kids probably have a lot tooffer and bring into the subject
.
So if you don't take time toslow down in a unit, for example
when you're talking aboutpersonal preferences and

(10:24):
opinions, if you get too lost inthe sauce of talking about the
differences between me gusta andte gusta and me gustan, like,
if you're too focused on that,you're missing out on
opportunities to ask yourstudents what do you like?
What do you like?
What do you not like?
What does your mom really like?
What does your best friend like?
Does that help bring youtogether, like though you're

(10:44):
missing, that you're missing outon those moments?
So I would say a way that youcan fix this is and we'll talk
more about ways to fix thisbecause it's complex that all
exercises that you do withstudents should be inquiry based
and question based.
That means that if you're doinga unit on personal preferences
and opinions, then, like theentire time that you're using

(11:07):
personal preferences andopinions, make it a question and
an excuse to talk about thethings that your kids like to do
and the things that the peoplein their environment like to do
and what you like to do, and askstudents if there's anything
you have in common, like my.
Do this instead is going to befor this one.
Be a party host, like beactually interested in your kids

(11:29):
and what they're bringing tothe subject.
Another way that this happens,when we get content obsessed, is
we often, when we're workingwith cultural artifacts or
resources or authentic texts,we're trying so hard to make
sure that our studentsunderstand, like the importance
of a festival or the perspectiveof this or that, that it

(11:50):
becomes a lot of recall, itbecomes a lot of interpretation
of facts, it becomes a lot oftrue, false responses.
So how can you bring thestudent experience back into
this?
Because this is really what thefive C's of culture is about,
which there's a whole anotherworkshop on that, so I won't go
down that whole rabbit hole, butthere is a whole workshop to
dive further into this conceptof the five C's.

(12:13):
But with this, if you're tryingto help students find cultural
connections, to make that bridge, then you're looking for
experiences, opinions,connections and yes, you can do
that in level one.
The questions just have to bedifferent.
So try to make any time thatyou're interacting with students
student-focused and notcontent-focused.

(12:35):
It's different, it hitsdifferent.
It's a whole differentclassroom vibe.
Any time that you are talkingabout nationalities, how can you
make the conversation aboutyour students or your students'
experiences, instead ofpresenting that this nationality
is gonna look like this whenit's masculine, this nationality
is gonna look like that whenit's feminine.
Like which one do you thinkyour students are actually gonna

(12:56):
wanna talk back to you with andtalk back to you in the good
way?
Oh, diane says I think Iinterrupt myself all the time.
Yes, I stop and ask questionsor I say things the opposite way
and incorrectly.
All of these are like textbookthe things going down the list
of how to check forunderstanding and pause for them
to correct me.

(13:16):
That's a great way to do it.
I really like that.
So for this one, we're talkingabout like being obsessed with
content or with covering things.
You'll get a lot more targetlanguage use if you're a party
host instead and if you make itmore student focused.
Ok, this one's really hard, butit's very true world language

(13:40):
classroom and set it up reallywell, with lots of posters, with
, you know, kids facing eachother and sitting in tables
instead of in rows, and theyspeak in French the whole time.
They're using a lot of Spanish.
They're bringing in their ownnationality background often,
which makes it so interestingand brings the language to life,
but they forget this missingpiece, this missing concept that

(14:05):
we need to talk about in worldlanguage, and that is you can't
expect interaction with yourstudents in another language to
happen, naturally when theyconstantly have that buoy of
English or the L1 to hang on to.
So I honestly say, look, we'regoing to talk about the pool as
a metaphor quite a bit today.
So if you're talking about yourlanguage classroom as a pool and

(14:27):
you're asking students to,you're really asking students to
dive into the pool instead ofstaying on the outskirts and on
the pool chairs.
The pool chairs is English Like.
If you want them to be in thelanguage which is the water,
then you really really need toremove the chairs, which is
English Like.
You need to find a way that youcan create opportunities for

(14:49):
interaction, and it also meansthat you need to take a very
close look at how dointeractions happen in your
class.
How many times do students feellike they need to use the
target language?
If that answer is not very much, then that's one of the reasons
why you're not getting a lot ofinteraction.
What do we got here?
Oh, this is great too, dianesays.

(15:13):
Sometimes the interruption turnsinto a redirect for a student
who's distracted.
So I stop and ask thedistracted student a short,
specific question Brilliant, itgives them time to think as I
ask the question of the class inthird person, like maybe about
the student.
And then I return to thestudent and ask them the
question again, which is like apersonal interview, and then we
share it again the student'sresponse to the whole class in

(15:34):
third person.
That's really smart.
I like that Very, very specificresponse to this.
That's great.
That is how you are taking, Iwould say.
This is a really good exampleof this.
One, diane, is when you'reexpecting interaction to happen.
Naturally, you know that youhave to create interaction, so
instead of just redirecting thatstudent, you turned it into an

(15:56):
interaction opportunity, whichis a great example of what we're
trying to talk about here.
So where this gets a little bittricky, and why we're all having
such a hard time with this inworld language, is that our
world language class really islike a backyard pool party and
we have to draw students towardsthe water, to get into the

(16:16):
water, get wet, get into thelanguage, because if you all
have a common language to relyon, like we all do, then this
becomes especially difficult,and your students, who are
already kind of nervous, are notgoing to want to get wet,
they're going to want to staydry.
So you have to convince them.
You have to convince them, butalso I would say more than
convincing them you have tocreate a scenario where English

(16:38):
is not feasible, like can youtake away the chairs?
You know things like that.
Can you make sure that there'sa party happening in the water
so the kids want to jump in?
Can you create games so thekids want to jump into the water
?
So you have to intentionallycreate this environment where
students expect to and they wantto interact in the target

(17:00):
language.
They want to be in the waterwith you.
Students will master what youspend time with them on.
So if you're spending a lot oftime telling students stop using
English, stop using English,pay attention, all of these
things like then maybe we needto look at what does your pool
party look like?
Like, what does the setupreally look like here?

(17:22):
Because if they feel like theycan spend most of the time out
of the water in your verywater-driven classroom for
language, then we need to workon that.
For doing this instead for thislesson, I would say can you make
interaction a lesson planpriority?
Can you make it something thathappens for the majority of your

(17:42):
class day or something thatyou're always working towards?
This is a profound shift fromthe idea of covering content,
because when interaction andcommunication is the priority in
class, you don't need to followunits and lessons as much.
They're just there to guide you.
They're just there to provideopportunities for interaction
with your students.

(18:03):
Okay, let's get back tocomprehension checks and CFUs.
Our new favorite acronym,number five, is when you test or
check comprehension with output.
This actually will freak kidsout a lot and it will also make
for kind of a difficult time ofactually gauging what your

(18:27):
students can understand, becausethey can understand a lot more
than they can say.
This is a really, really commonthing that teachers do.
I know I used to do it a lot.
I actually got called out on itin a lesson what's it called?
Oh, in an evaluation.
Somebody was in my classroomand I usually get stellar
evaluations, so I was like alittle bit butthurt that I got a

(18:49):
comment about like, oh, there'ssomething wrong with your
lesson here.
Here's what you did, because Ididn't usually get comments like
that.
So what this administrator saidwas you spent the whole class
teaching with a song how to saycomo te llamas with these sixth
graders.
They loved it, they were withyou, they kept saying como te

(19:11):
llamas, they kept answering withtheir names, and then the thing
that you asked for as the exitticket was write your name in
Spanish, like write me, llamoJuanita.
And she said when did you teachthem how to spell that?
When did they see the wordmeyamo?
When did you practice how towrite that?
Like that's the wrong CFU forthe lesson you just taught.

(19:34):
And I was like, oh my god,you're right.
Like I spend all this timedoing como te llamas and me
llamo, and not once did we talkabout how to spell it or what it
meant.
Like writing was not theappropriate cfu for that for
that lesson.
So try this instead, because youstill need to check for

(19:54):
understanding and exit ticketsare like low-hanging fruit
they're literally free gold inyour class.
So try this instead.
Time you check by maybe sortingsomething or doing a true-false
or an either-or question, orhaving students circle the
correct answer out of a fewchoices.

(20:14):
So writing an output is themost common CFU that we use, but
it's not the most appropriatefor interactions.
So keep that in mind, becausethat might be one of the reasons
why your students are havingtrouble with whatever CFU that
you're doing.
Or you think that you've usedthe word meyamo a million times,

(20:34):
but actually you haven'twritten it on the board once and
now you're asking kids to spellit.
So keep that in mind, that thathappens quite a lot with
interaction-based lessons.
That's a simple and easy gimme,one that you can fix really
quickly.
This one is tough, however.
Number six is and we all dothis.
It's something we're allworking on.
It's very difficult.

(20:55):
Number six is when you're usingcomplex language and excessive
vocabulary, when they're simplesituations.
I'm going to give you like adirect example of what this
could look like.
It's a Spanish one.
I'll see if we can come up witha French one as well.
So you're trying to keep targetlanguage as a focus in your
classroom.
So when there's a student whohas their feet up on the desk

(21:18):
and like maybe this bothers youand you're trying to get it down
.
So I was talking to one of theteachers I used to work with at
uh, in the school that I workedat, was a native speaker and she
just rattled off withoutthinking like, which means like
take your, take your legs offthe, off the desk.
Um, while she was talking tostudents and you know, she kept

(21:39):
like pointing to la pierna andthings like that and was trying
her very best to make it verycomprehensible and was doing all
the things like staying in thetarget language even when doing
a redirect, like it's all thethings that you would want to
see.
Bajame la pierna means please,take your like, take your legs
off the desk.
Well, not off the desk, butjust take your legs down.
So I thought, well, could youmake that a little bit simpler

(22:04):
in the language that you'reusing?
Thinking back on the samescenario where her student had
trouble understanding her, whatif you could do la pierna and
just point to it, like, and showlike what part of the body that
is, point to your leg and thensay en el escritorio, which is
familiar language, in the deskor on the desk, and then you can
point to your leg and then sayen el escritorio, which is
familiar language, in the deskor on the desk, and then you can
point to the desk, point toyour leg and say no, like.

(22:27):
That's what I mean by oftenbecause we are, we're proficient
in this language that we'reusing A phrase like bajame is.
It's not that the grammar isactually difficult for them, but
it's actually the idea of Baha.
They might have not seen itbefore, like put down or take
down.
They might not have seen thatbefore, but you would be able to

(22:48):
have students understand youbetter if you did, probably both
, even Like if you broke down,hey, bring your leg down for me.
And you showed the nativeversion of how people would say.
And then you said your leg onthe desk, that's a no.
Your leg on the desk, take thatdown, that's a no.
Like you're probably going toneed like six phrases to make
that comprehensible to yourstudents, so hopefully that

(23:11):
helps to illustrate ways thatyou can do shorter.
Bring in some shorter phrases,bring in some familiar phrases
to help out with a new idea thatyou're exploring, because you
can still do that in a level oneclassroom.
If you got a kid who's beingwho's, maybe let's say, sleeping
in class or like putting theirhead down when it's not an

(23:32):
appropriate time, like like enfrançais, you can say something
like which means to wake up.
They're not going to understandwhat you're saying in a French
one class, right.
So you might be like whichmeans to wake up.
They're not going to understandwhat you're saying in a French
one class, right.
So you might be like well, whydon't I just tap on their desk
and say it in English?
What could you do instead tomake that comprehensible to your
student?
Like how can you bring the ideaof wake up to them.

(23:54):
I want to hear your ideas.
Now.
Let's do that.
This is the hands-on part.
How could you make this ideamore comprehensible in French to
your student?
How could you say in a way thatthey would understand or make
it happen Ooh, stacy, what doyou think?

Speaker 3 (24:08):
I well, I actually do this because I have a lot of
tired students and um, we cameup with um, not quite like a
hand signal, but we came up witha motion that means open your
eyes, and so you know, it's justyour hands opening up as if
they're the eyelashes, and I'llsay and so they know that's what

(24:31):
they're supposed to do, becausethey've learned the hand motion
with it.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
That's brilliant and this is a perfect example.
Like you don't have to shelterthis word from them, you just
have to make it accessible tothem.
Don't shelter, make itaccessible.
So if you're doing the eye openthing all the time, then you're
they're going to know exactlywhat you're talking about.
And then they you say andthey're going to know.
And after you do it causeyou're going to do it like 10

(24:56):
times, and then another kidwhenever they need to, you're
going to do it again, like nowthey know what that phrase means
.
That's the magic of addingaccessibility to your target
language.
You don't have to say it inEnglish, you just have to make
it accessible to them.
Diane has another good examplefor this.
She says things like hello, areyou with us?
Where are you, where are youreyes?

(25:17):
Hola, estas conmigo?
D ¿Dónde estás?
¿dónde están tus ojos?
All of those are things thatyour students can follow, and
then you can follow it up withdespiértate, like now you're
bringing in all of it together.
This is great.
These are great examples of howto do this.
So we talk constantly in theproficiency space about this
idea.
I'm going back to it becausethis one is a tough one About

(25:48):
how to be comprehensible, and Iwant you to take note that you
are already doing a lot of thesethings and it's just sticking
to your guns with this by makingsure that, yeah, I mean, I know
that language might be a littlebit tough for them, but I can
make it accessible.
Believing that you can make itaccessible and seeing examples
of it, oh for sure.
Okay, so Diane says too likethese past few weeks, spring
sports are taking my kiddos down.
They are extra sleepy everyafternoon.

(26:10):
This is a perfect conversationtopic.
Like the next time thatsomebody's sleepy.
Talk about like ¿Por qué tienestanto sueño?
Like, why do you have, why areyou so sleepy?
And ask them like, what's beengoing on?
Like, oh, like, ¿tienesdeportes, ¿tienes práctica de
deportes?
Like now it's an interaction,now it's a conversation, and it

(26:30):
can all be in Spanish, becausethey know all those things.
Or even if they don't, you'lldo what we talked about earlier,
which is don't make it aboutmemory recall.
Put a bunch of sports on theboard, talk about sports, write
the questions, give thempictures, all of it.
So good, y'all are on it.
Um, number seven is Ooh, this isperfect.

(26:51):
We're going to get back to ourpool metaphors.
Who?
I mean like it's hot inCharleston.
That's all I'm thinking aboutis going to the beach.
Um, it's beach season.
I haven't been yet.
I'm very excited, and if you'rein a cold part of the world,
then you can just continue todream with me about the fact
that beach season is comingaround the corner.
But for me, beach season islike it started like a month ago
and I'm still not there yet.
So number seven is thinking thatimmersion is the problem,

(27:15):
thinking that the idea of usingtarget language is actually
what's preventing your studentsfrom understanding you in class
Full stop.
It's actually not.
There's a lot of things that gointo this, and here's what I
want you to think about.
I want to introduce to you thisidea of you are inviting your

(27:36):
students to a pool party.
You are not throwing themoverboard in an ocean Like.
There's a very large differencein this metaphor of a sea of
language versus a pool oflanguage with floaties is that
many people will compare theidea of immersion with water and

(27:57):
like feeling like people areconstantly drowning in water
because they're in 100% targetlanguage and they are 100%
immersed in water.
So I want you to take a look atthese two swimmers we have on
the left.
We have two kids who are prettymuch fully immersed in water.
They're in a pool, though, andit's shallow, and they're very
secure that their heads areabove water, like there's.

(28:17):
There's no bottoming out, likethey're going to be standing.
They're very safe, they're verysecure.
Also, there's one kid who is ina floatie, because that's how
they like to swim.
So who cares?
Let them have the floatie, andthe other kid doesn't want it.
They don't need it, whatever.
There's also another kid who'sover there who is on the the
pool deck area, but not in thewater yet.

(28:39):
So that's the pool of languagewith floaties.
It's a lot more welcoming, eventhough there's just as much
water.
The image that we have on theright is of a person, an adult,
fully immersed in water.
They're swimming, they'reloving it and they're able to
keep their head above waterbecause they're an adult,
because they've been swimmingfor a long time.

(29:00):
They're comfortable, they'regood to go.
So I would like to expand thismetaphor a little bit with
immersion and being in water.
That like what kind of waterare you throwing your kids into
and what kind of supports areyou giving them?
The water is not the problem.
Immersion is not the problem.
Your kids are actually ready toswim.
They you just need to provideto them water that they can swim

(29:22):
in at their level and thingsfor them to hold on to that make
them feel safe.
So they need a pool withfloaties, not an open ocean in
an unfamiliar place.
However, as your kids becomestronger swimmers, they won't
need the floaties as much andthey'll tell you when that
you'll start to see when that'shappening.
And then, by the time you knowthey won't need the floaties as
much and they'll tell you whenthat you'll start to see when
that's happening.
And then, by the time you know,they get to level five and

(29:44):
they're starting to be an AP.
Yeah, you do want them to be inopen water, because it's not
appropriate to teach somebodywho already knows how to swim
and give them a bunch offloaties.
That's not appropriate.
So that's actually going tokeep them from becoming better
swimmers.
So there's a time and a placefor the type of immersion that
you're doing.
But your kids are ready to swim.

(30:04):
They just might move from theshallow end to the deep end
slowly with you and they mightslowly let go of floaties, but
you still need to providefloaties.
So let's get even deeper intothis metaphor.
What are the floaties?
So how can we fix this?
Do these things instead, yourfloaties are any type of
scaffolding that you provide.
Write the word meanings on theboard.

(30:25):
Keep your language simple,repetitive and short.
Repeat routines.
When kids are starting to feeluncomfortable and they want to
get out of the pool, how can youdraw them back into the pool
and let them know that the poolis safe, that the pool is okay,
they're not going to bottom out,they'll be fine.
So what can you?
Draw them back into the pooland let them know that the pool
is safe, that the pool is okay,they're not going to bottom out,
they'll be fine.
So what can you do to help themwith that?

(30:46):
Can you give them all thescaffolding that they need?
How can you remove all of thesnacks and stuff and all of the
pool chairs and the easy thingsthat are not in the pool water?
How can you bring those funthings to the water and
eliminate any opportunities forthem to say, like I'm just going
to lounge on a pool chair andchill, because that's not the
purpose of going to a pool partyis to be a wallflower.

(31:08):
So whenever you're introducingnew language, make sure that it
has floaties with it.
So, whenever you're doing newlanguage in class, can you pair
it with familiar language?
Can you pair it with cognatesand things that they've seen
before?
Could you pair it with afamiliar concept, like if you're
talking about activities, forexample, and you're talking
about swimming and floating?

(31:28):
It took me five seconds to findthese images on Canva, and I'm
sure that you could do the samething on Canva as well.
If you don't want to draw, like,pull up a picture of a pool
while you're talking about thepool.
Pull up a picture of a poolwhile you're talking about the
pool.
Pull up a picture of somebodyswimming while you're talking
about swimming.
Like, give your students allthe floaties.
And this is an old standby fortarget language.

(31:49):
We're going to make sure thatwe address it, though.
Shelter the vocabulary, not thegrammar.
So what that means is we aretrying to make the vocabulary as
accessible as possible insteadof adding lots and lots of
vocabulary.
That they might not see veryoften, but even two-year-olds,
who are actually great languagelearners.

(32:10):
Two-year-olds understand allthe different complex tenses and
moods and things, and they're100% with you when you're using
lots and lots of differenttenses and conditions and ideas
about where their stuffed teddybear is Like.
I know for a fact that when youtalk to a two-year-old about
their favorite toy, as long asyou're just using the word toy

(32:32):
and like room and house andplayhouse and things like that
that they're familiar with, youcan use whatever tenses you want
.
Where is your toy, jackie?
Where did you put your toyyesterday?
Where did you leave your toy?
Do you not remember where yourtoy is?
Let's go look for it together.
This is a ton of different,complex language, but I'm only

(32:53):
using the words like look, put,found toy, like.
Those are the words that you'reusing.
So talk to your students aboutdifferent topics, but in the
same way that you talk to younglanguage learners of their first
language two to three year old.
You don't need baby talk, ofcourse, but you're keeping it
really focused.

(33:14):
You're using lots of differenttenses, but there's so many
clues to what those tenses aretalking about.
Okay, I love to dispel thismyth.
This is one of my favoritemyths about target language and,
like when you're experiencing alot of silence in class, put in
the chat if you've everexperienced like moments of like
wow, there's a, lights are onbut nobody's home, like I'm not

(33:36):
getting any responses today,cause that used to happen to me
all the time and I used to thinkthis too.
So it's important that weaddress this, because I think it
happens a lot.
Number eight is new activitiesand new ideas will fix the
silence.
So they just need something new, they need something to shake
them up, they need some energy.
This will fix it.
The answer to this is notnecessarily.

(34:01):
Maybe your students areactually pretty lost in the
sauce of what you're trying todo.
So I would say that in a targetlanguage focused environment,
there's a lot of power in havingtrusted routines, because
everything else about your classis already kind of scary.
So how can you make the classmore inviting, more welcoming?
How can you add more poolfloaties to what can be a little

(34:24):
bit scary, which is jumpinginto cold water, and that is
things that they're familiarwith, things that they know that
you're going to be doing Likeoh, I had like a rotation of
five activities that I would doall the time.
And that doesn't mean that youdon't introduce new things.
It means, like every now andthen, I'm going to spice it up
with a new activity, add noveltywhen you need it, but

(34:45):
constantly trying new tacticsmight not actually be what you
need to achieve the engagementthat you're after.
Also, note that it might noteven be the activity.
Disengagement means a lot ofthings, including a little bit
of lack of comprehension on yourstudent's part.
So you don't have to add to theconfusion by saying we're going
to try an escape room today.
We're going to do somethingdifferent, because you're going

(35:06):
to have to explain how thatescape room works and it's going
to be difficult.
So unless you do escape roomsall the time, then I would make
sure that you've got at leastsome options for ways that you
can chill it out a little bit orways that you can make those
directions really comprehensible.
So your do this instead.
For this one is add noveltywhen you need it.

(35:28):
That never happens.
Add novelty when you need it,but focus on mastering three to
five great techniques orroutines.
Absolutely love that.
That's right, stacey.
Okay, we're at the halfwaypoint and we're we're moving
right along, so here's some timefor you to practice.

(35:49):
Hey, marcel, welcome in.
I would love to know from theones that you've seen so far,
what do you think is your commonmistake?
Like which one do you thinkreally is like you?
This is something that you knowlike, ooh, I think I've been
doing that.
Or how can you provide floatiesin class tomorrow?
So let me know what are goingto be your floaties tomorrow.

(36:12):
I would say, too where is therean unused target language
phrase or opportunity in yourclass?
That happened today.
So was there a moment todaythat you knew, like, I did that
in English, but I think I can dothat in the target language
next time.
Or what is a content heavy onesided lesson that you think

(36:35):
could use more student focus?
Did somebody have a comment?
Go for it?
If so, oh, maybe it's just alittle bit of background noise.
Okay, so we've got Ooh, yes,yes, go ahead.
Stacey, tell me, volunteer istribute.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
I actually do all of these a little bit, but not one
of them more than the other, andI'm finding that this year I
felt a little bit overwhelmed atthe beginning of well, no, not
a little.
I felt massively overwhelmed atthe beginning of the year, and
so I got into some bad teacherhabits and so I've been weeding
them out as I go.

(37:13):
But hearing all of this, it'sexactly what I need to hear
today, because I've got thislast quarter to go and I'm going
to make it as fun, interactive,communicative.
It's going to be all about thekids this quarter, so so it's
not about me.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
That is so awesome.
And I would say too that, likethe reason I know what all these
mistakes are is because I usedto do them all the time.
Like this, I, these, I think,are the most common things that
make it hard for us to get toour target language goals for
sure.
So that's a really good way toput it is because I feel that
way too, like I've done all ofthese in like multiple times a
day at one point and I would say, ooh, we got another one here.

(37:54):
Diane says I used to be reallycontent obsessed.
Thank the Lord, I am learningto let this go and treasure
interaction.
This is, you're really hittingthe nail on the head with this
one, because I think allteachers are a little bit
content obsessed, like we reallydo get obsessed with the.
I'm using the word obsessedCause I want it to be that, that

(38:14):
strong of a thing that?

Speaker 2 (38:16):
when can I share?

Speaker 1 (38:18):
Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, just that idea, like, and it all depends on
what situation you're walkinginto, cause if you're walking
into a job, walking into yeah,because if you're walking into a
job, a new job, where you're ata school that has a whole
department, and they're likehere's what we cover, right,
here's what we cover, here's thesyllabus, we are expecting to
do this and this and this.
And I am super blessed, yetalso burdened by the fact that I

(38:43):
am a department of one.
So you know I I rule the roost.
You know I can decide.
I can say, well, we didn't do adepartment of one, so you know
I rule the roost.
You know I can decide.
I can say, well, we didn't dothat in Spanish one, we'll get
to it in Spanish two, like, soit is a blessing, but yet, you
know, sometimes then I stillhave little moments where I'm

(39:04):
like oh my gosh, spanish two,they're doing this and they
haven't even got to that.
You know that tense or whatever.
And I'm like ah, you know, inSpanish three, cause I'm
thinking about the old days inmy head and I'm thinking about
when I taught in public schools.
I'm in a private school now, butI mean it's.
I mean we're still accreditedby the state.
Right, you know we still haveexpectations.
But, um, but again.
I was in a department andthings were expected.
And when you have colleagueswho are like this is expected,

(39:26):
or a department head who saidthis is expected, you do feel
that pressure.
So trying to tell yourselfthey're experiencing these
things, they just may not have aname for it or a label for it,
like I'm experiencing theconditional tense right now.
It's just, but again.
So trying to give it over tothe interaction and know that

(39:49):
this is very positive and thekids are going to figure it out
eventually.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
You know, yeah, oh girl, that's so true.
That is so true because here'sthe bottom line that if you are
expected to cover certainmaterials in a department where
those kids are going to seeother teachers, that does need
to be your priority and yourburden now becomes how can I
turn this content that I have tocover into interaction?

(40:14):
How can I make interaction thefocus of this content that I
have to cover?
Because it's a pretty strongdisservice to your students if
you're sending them off to levelthree and they're going to be
tested differently.
The teacher is going to haveall those expectations for them
and you don't have what.
They're going to be testeddifferently.
The teacher is going to haveall those expectations for them
and you don't have what they'resupposed to have for level two
quote unquote.

(40:34):
So your journey becomesdifferent at that point.
If that's you In thosesituations, it's how can I
remove the unnecessary from theassessments?
How can I only teach what'snecessary?
How can I alleviate some ofthis pressure that I have to
cover certain things by flippingthat into?
How can I interact withstudents using this idea, this

(40:56):
tense, this concept?
That is quote unquote covered.
But yeah, that's a real thing,that is for sure.
Okay, now we're getting intothe like.
Now we're here, we're gettinginto the good ones.
You ready.
Number nine is a blast becausewe all do this.
We all do this, and that is youquit when kids don't understand
or respond.
I'm so guilty of this I used todo it all the time because you

(41:18):
feel like you're like movingmountains just to get things to
happen.
However, instead of this, likeunderstand, we've all done it.
There's no shame in this, butsomething to understand about.
The next time that you want tolike oof, I'm going to take a
break from this.
Like, I give you fullpermission to do that.
However, like watch how longthat break is between those

(41:40):
minutes in class and you knowhow it goes from day to day and
things like that.
And if you're constantlyfeeling like you have to stop
because kids don't understandyou or they're not responding,
we need to work on something.
There's something going on inclass that is not enabling your
students to interact with you.
So it's not you, it's not thatyou don't have enough drive or

(42:03):
whatever.
It is Like there's a lot ofconversation and language out
there that, like you just needto have the drive to use target
language every day, but youmight be encountering some
systematic issues, like maybeyour students don't have enough
floaties or whatever it might be.
So note that.
Note that everyone has hard daystoo and that sometimes lessons
just don't work.

(42:23):
Like sometimes they suck andthey flop and it's no big deal.
You move on.
And it's also a really goodlesson for students as well when
you gracefully tell them hey, Ithink I failed today.
Let's take a look at what thatlooks like and how we can pivot.
Like students don't see thatenough.
With adults, they don't seeenough examples of what it looks
like to pick yourself back up.
So that's a lesson in itself.

(42:45):
Don't teach that as like a.
It's a teachable moment forsure.
Also, if you're struggling to becomprehensible, then like
nothing's gonna happen.
You really should just, youknow, cut ties and move on to
something else.
Some days the kids just aren'tin it.
Here's all your permissions andall these things, but here's
what I want you to keep in mindthe next time that you're
because it's going to happen thenext time that you're really

(43:06):
feeling the grind of the yearthat you've had so far and
you're feeling tired and there'sa lot going on in your class
that every time that you loweryour expectations for target
language.
Every time that this happens,you're stopping your momentum in
the middle of it.
It's like when you stop to walkin the middle of a run, so you

(43:27):
sometimes you will need to a run, so you sometimes you will need
to do that.
Sometimes you just need to takelike a quick 30 second break to
reduce your heart rate to keepgoing.
However, if you stop altogetherand you start walking for a
certain amount of minutes, likefour minutes or whatever then
your body starts to think thatthe work is over, and your kids
are thinking the same way too.
Every time that you stop usingtarget language, your kids think

(43:50):
like oh cool, like we don'thave to, we don't have to pay
attention anymore, like it'sback to English, we're fine.
So every time that you'restopping, you're stopping the
momentum.
So it needs to be intentionalabout when you do it, because
the next time that you go to doit, it's going to require more
energy from you than if you hadjust kept going.
So I'm saying all this to helpput into perspective that it's

(44:14):
hard to keep going when kidsdon't understand you Absolutely,
but it's in working throughthat that you become more
comprehensible, that you figureout what it is that's happening,
that makes sense, that doesn'tmake sense, and you also find
ways to negotiate meeting withyour kids.
I'm not saying that it's goingto be easy or that people are
going to automatically startresponding to you, but you will

(44:37):
start to build up that skill set, that endurance, when you push
through the moments where kidsdon't understand you.
So think about doing thisinstead.
Constantly restarting and likepsyching yourself up and hyping
yourself up to use more targetlanguage in every interaction is
taxing.
It's taking a lot of yourenergy and that's why it feels

(44:59):
so intense.
So try this instead.
Start small, get a win.
Maintain an awesome routineLike what's a small two minute
interaction that you cancelebrate that was in the target
language?
Celebrate it and move on andthen the next day try to make it
three minutes, you know.
Try that instead of saying like, oh my God, I only used 50%

(45:19):
target language this whole classperiod.
Celebrate the individualinteractions, interactions
instead.
Okay, this one's heavy, butit's real.
Number 10 is not understandingand having a lot of
misconceptions about correctlanguage use and errors and all

(45:41):
of that I have.
I have like a whole big soapboxabout this and I understand
that there are many differingopinions about it.
Check the SLA module if you'dlike more information about this
and like why we it's time toleave the errors behind and the
idea of errors behind, but a bigone, number 10, is correcting
language in everything.
I'm not just talking aboutspeaking Like.

(46:02):
I mean correct, like correctgrammar, correcting, spelling
mistakes, correcting accents.
Correcting instead ofcelebrating is a big thing that
is so outdated in our practice.
We need to let this goCelebrate instead of correcting
attempts.
Here's how I want you to thinkabout this.
There's a lot of research onthis.
You can check the SLA module ifyou want to get into it.

(46:24):
But the first, the way that Iwant you to conceptualize this,
is that every time that you'recorrecting a student in the
target language, you're makingit a lot harder for them to
interact with you.
So think of it this way Sure,there's room for correction in
your class, but it's a lot lessthan you think.
Like.
Correction belongs in about 5%maybe of all of the teaching

(46:47):
time that you're going to bedoing with students.
It's actually not that much.
Many teachers and presentersfrom Practical and
Comprehensible.
This is the conference that Irun every year and that all of
you are going to be involved in.
It's going to be awesome thatconference.
Every time, like, errors alwayscomes up.
It always comes up as a topic,and many teachers and presenters

(47:09):
report from just anecdotalevidence that when we're
focusing less on errors, there'sbetter conversations happening
in class and you have betterrelationships with students.
So aren't those all the thingsthat you're going for?
Conversation skills,interaction skills, more

(47:32):
language use and betterrelationships?
Just by removing one simplething, that's a pretty big win.
Here is a way to conceptualizethis.
If, like, the research isboring to you, it's this idea
when children are learning howto walk, they instinctively know
how to walk, like we don't haveto teach them.
They learn by watching, andthey also have this internal,

(47:54):
intuitive sense of how to walk.
It's part of our biology andevolution, which is amazing.
Language is the same way.
When a baby takes his firststeps, it is a huge milestone,
it is a celebration, and thatstep is not cute.
Okay, like I've seen it, it's.
They're wobbling, they'refalling all over the place.

(48:15):
It's actually adorable, butnone nothing about it is like
perfect ambulatory movement.
We celebrate it, though,because it's an important first
step.
Now think about walking whenyour students are.
You know, six, seven, eight,you have a crossing guard.
This is the point where youstart correcting their walking
and telling them when theyshould walk and when they
shouldn't, Because now there's asafety thing there.

(48:36):
Like, yeah, you need a crossingguard.
Plus, they've been walkingforever.
They know how to do it by now.
Those are the differences.
You are correcting atwo-year-old if you on how they
walk.
If you are correcting a lot inyour levels one, two and three
classes.
They're just getting intolanguage.
They're just learning how toswim.
They're just learning how towalk.

(48:57):
They're just learning how to doall these things and they're
excited to use them.
So if you over-correct, it'slike telling a two-year-old that
they're not walking right orthey're not running right, when
you know as well as I do thatthey just need time to master
those skills.
When you're correcting asix-year-old, you're going to
tell them things like lookaround you as you keep running
into walls because you're notpaying attention to what you're

(49:18):
doing.
Yeah, like that's a commonthing you need to tell
six-year-olds to do, becausethey get so excited they don't
look where they're going andthey run into walls.
So that's an appropriatecorrection.
That's an appropriate time todo it.
If you have level fours andlevel fives who are still having
issues with like simplespelling and things like that
and it's getting in the way ofthem actually communicating an

(49:40):
idea appropriately, then, yeah,correct them all you want, but
think of it in this way, justlike a toddler's first words
relentlessly celebrate everyword and every career, every
opportunity that your studentshave to interact with you,
instead of correcting them.
Answer with compassion everytime that your students interact
with you and every time thatthey respond to something.

(50:01):
You will get so much moreinteraction when you leave the
correction behind or you let itwait till when it's appropriate
to do so.
This one is a gimme, but I'msure that it's something that we
need to talk about, because Iknow I used to let it happen all
the time, too, when I was tired.
But this one's verystraightforward Number 11 common

(50:23):
mistake is when you let L1slide, when your students are
saying things in the L1 that youknow that they can do in the
target language, or they'reasking you for simple things and
you're letting them respond inEnglish, or you're letting them
use English to get things donein class.
So here's how to fix it Holdyour students accountable.
Be consistent, be clear withwhat you expect Like where do

(50:47):
you expect them to use targetlanguage, how much?
And make it very clear againthat you're not going to correct
them, because level one andlevel two students are
definitely afraid of using thewrong accent.
They're painfully aware oftheir lack of pronunciation
knowledge.
So celebrate their attemptsinstead of correcting them, and
whatever you expect them to say.

(51:08):
If you expect them to say it,then it's something that you
should have directly taught themor something that they're
working on with you actively inclass.
So, instead of letting it slide, do this.
Equip your students tocommunicate in every way
possible way possible.
This I find to be a veryinteresting problem with target

(51:31):
language that you know everybodyworries about.
I know I used to worry about itwhen I started using more
target language in class, butthis, I feel like, is one of the
biggest barriers for teachers.
Number 12 is you worry aboutthe what-ifs when you use more
target language instead offocusing on the everyday moments
.
Here's what I mean by that.

(51:54):
If I told you that tomorrow Iwas coming into your classroom
and I was going to count howmany times you used an English
word, and I expect the ratio tobe nine out of 10 for target
language to English word, whatwould be the thing that you
worry about?
For me, the thing that oftengets worried about and people
usually ask is like well, whatif I need English?
Like what if I need it to dowhat I'm doing?
The first thing that I'm goingto say is you probably don't

(52:16):
need English as much as youthink that you do, but, yeah,
use English if you need it.
There's a reason it's 90 andnot 100.
So the most common question thatpeople have about using more
target language is like what ifthere's like a real relationship
meet?
Like I need to speak in Englishto this person to in order for

(52:37):
whatever it might be like tohelp brighten their day or bring
more um relationship capital tothe relationship?
Like if you're trying to get umrelationship capital, like
relationship points withstudents, like I used to have a
quote of like how manycompliments I would give out or
like how many times I'd giveattention to a specific person
in class, like that kind ofthing.
You might need to do that inEnglish to earn people's trust.

(52:58):
Or what if using the targetlanguage just really doesn't
feel right for what I need tosay Then, duh, trust your gut.
Like, trust your gut.
We often don't listen to ourguts, but trust your gut.
Use English when it matters.
Yes, like you'll know, you'llknow when it's important to do
that.
Like if you're um, yourstudents are having a tough day

(53:20):
and they're clearly emotionallydistraught.
Like you can't continually askthem like que te pasa in Spanish
and have them actually give youa response Like that's kind of
disrespectful.
So, honor, where your kids areat, use English when you need it
.
However, here's the mistake.
That's all you're thinkingabout and that's what's keeping
you from using target language.
Because you're thinking aboutthese moments that are only 10%,

(53:42):
probably, of your interactions.
They're probably a very smallportion of the things that go on
in your classroom.
This, what we're talking aboutright here, is like plan B,
worst case scenario.
Okay, I really really need thisto get through the day.
Like this isn't your everyday.
So the mistake that we'retrying to talk about here is

(54:04):
focus on the everyday momentswhen you're increasing target
language.
What I'm asking you to do isincrease target language on the
everyday moments when you'reincreasing target language.
What I'm asking you to do isincrease target language in the
everyday moments, in the thingsthat you do all the time in the
things that are repetitive inyour class.
Here's a thing to help you with.
This difference is trust yourgut A and use English when it
serves the student.

(54:25):
So if it serves the studentbetter to use English, it's a
good time to use English or theL1.
If it helps preserve therelationship, it's a good time
to use English and it's fine.
Nobody's counting, nobody'scounting.
There's so much more room fortarget language in the everyday
little interactions Like hey,can you pass me that?
Oh, you need a tissue.

(54:46):
Hey, we're moving to the nextslide.
Everybody gather around forthis next activity.
Everybody take out your books.
Oh, you had prom last night.
Tell me about prom.
That's the target language youwant to focus in on.
How can you make thataccessible to your students and
stay in the target language?
Every single transition thatyou do is something that all

(55:06):
kids do in every classroom ever.
You're not special.
It should be in the targetlanguage.
So when they're moving out oftheir seats, when they're
getting back into their seats,when you're asking them to look
over here instead of over there,when all of these things are
natural classroom interactions,it should all be in the target
language and if it's not, that'syour first easy, low-hanging
fruit place for you to start.

(55:29):
Anything that you're saying morethan five times in class is a
good way to gauge this.
So look here, pay attention,question like those things
should be in the target languageand you can teach those phrases
.
So here's your motto for thisone Trust your gut, use English
when you need it.
Teach everything else.
Okay, we've got a couple moreand we're going to breeze

(55:51):
through them because I knowwe're at the end of our time.
But if you have to leave, Iunderstand Totally, get it.
I just want to give you all ofthese.
So number 13 is putting inputlast.
This is a common mistake.
It happens all the time,because it's very hard to
prioritize input when you havean overstuffed curriculum, as we
were talking about earlier.
But keep this in mind.
I'll give you the short versionof this.
Input's the primary purpose ofevery lesson, right?

(56:14):
So why is it on the back burner?
Input should be the thingthat's driving your lessons
every day.
How are you giving input today?
How are your students accessinginput today?
If something is costing youinput time, then that's
something that we need to reduceas much as possible.
How can you remove it?
How can you adjust it?
Think about it this wayExplaining activities, admin

(56:38):
work like collecting paper orcollecting information from
students.
Complex culture lessons andgrammar instruction or form
instruction are the biggestreasons that you switch back to
English in your classroom, sothose are easy to tackle.
If you really want to includemore target language in class,
hit those four first.
How can you reduce the time youneed to explain activities or

(57:01):
do it in the target language?
How can you make admin a partof your classroom routine so
that you can use target languageto get it done?
I used to take attendance inSpanish, and I know that you can
do it too.
I used to collect papers inFrench, and I know that you can
do it too.
I used to explain tests inmostly French and then I would
check real quick in English.
You can do it too.
Complex culture lessons thatrequires some untangling, but I

(57:26):
will give you some tips later onin that one.
But that's a big reason peopleswitch to English and grammar
instruction.
That's an easy one.
If you don't really feelattached to it, you can move
from it.
If you're in a higher level,like level four or five, you can
explain that concept in Spanishor French.
It's actually very good setupfor them for college classes,

(57:48):
because everything is explained.
All the grammar concepts areexplained in the target language
, so that's very helpful.
But if you're in a lower level,like levels one and two, could
you teach that concept adifferent way?
Could you use it instead oftalking about it and then do a
quick pop-up lesson in English,like how can you eliminate as
much English as possible?
Okay, let's do this practiceand do this, this quick check-in

(58:15):
, real quick for the hands-onportion.
How do you personally reduceEnglish in your class?
How are you reducing the thingsthat we just talked about that
are big target language timesucks.
So I'm talking about likedirect instruction time, anytime
that you're explaining, like aform or a feature or how to do
something, or like how to accessthis folder that they need on
Google Classroom.

(58:36):
Like how can you reduce that?
Explaining activities, how doyou reduce your English use for
that or reduce the need toexplain the activity?
That could be something assimple as keeping to the same
few activities for the rest ofthe year.
How are you facilitatingtransitions, like, how do you do
this in the target language?
And for admin.
What are some of the ways thatyou handle admin type stuff in

(58:57):
your classroom and you're doingit in the target language.
I would love to know how you'redoing this, because these are
like.
These are the four big ones forusing more target language in
class.
You can expand a lot of yourtarget language by hitting these
four things.
Oh, that's really smart, diane.

(59:19):
I used to do the same thing.
So I've started listing theinstructions for an activity and
putting it in the classroomagenda and I make myself read
them to the students to keepmyself from overtaking or
switching into English.
Yeah, because if you write theinstructions and you do it in
simple written Spanish, you canexplain that activity in Spanish
for sure, and then you can justquickly clarify anything they

(59:40):
need in English.
Yes, Overtalking.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
Yeah, I feel you.
Yeah, all right.
So I just want to add that Ifeel like I am a?
Um, an actor and an acrobat,because I do so much acting out
of everything and I make themmimic me Like if I saying, open
your books, I do the hugeopening your book gesture and so
they're like, oh okay.
And then when I have to saylike pass your papers, then I'm

(01:00:12):
like holding a paper and I'macting it out and so I'm
exhausted at the end of the day.
But it's the most effectivethat I have found for my
personal style and the way Iteach.

Speaker 1 (01:00:24):
Yeah, that's it for sure, and a hundred percent for
that to the yes, like somebodyelse put in the chat too.
Like yes, because that is whyit gets to be so exhausting,
because it is.
It's exhausting to do that allthe time, but it is one of the
most effective ways to do that.
So on days where that doesn'treally feel available to you,
you can do things like you know,show pictures of other people

(01:00:47):
doing those things, so that youdon't constantly feel like you
have to be on on on all the time.
One way that I used to do it,so that it wasn't as energy
draining for me, is I would putthe activity instructions on the
board and I would put littleclip art pictures next to each
thing, so like it would be apicture of somebody passing, it
would be a picture of somebodywriting, it would be a picture

(01:01:08):
of because we have all of theseclip art things now.
Like I found all these littlepictures of people, these clip
art pictures of people in likeless than a minute by doing, you
know, like search typey thingson Canva to find actions for
that.
So you can do that too, if thatthere, because it does it gets
exhausting.
All right we're going to talkabout uh, we're going to skip
number 14 and but just addressthis really quickly because it

(01:01:33):
is important for number 14.
Culture lessons are really hard.
This is where a lot of Englishcomes into play.
First of all, it's not a badthing.
Like culture's wonderful.
However, if you're strugglingwith your target language use,
there's a lot of opportunitieshere that you can add target
language into the mix.
There are some teachers that dothis really really well.
It's really hard to do, we know.

(01:01:55):
Here's my suggestion for you tomake more stuff in the target
language is, first of all, checkall of the cultural resources
that I have for you, becausethat's my specialty is making
resources that are about coolcultural things but are all in
the target language so they'reaccessible for your students.
There's a lot of guidance forthem on what those words mean.

(01:02:17):
So check those out first,because my first suggestion for
you is gonna be can you find acomprehensible resource on that
topic instead, like can you findwell, like my friend Sherry
Sebesta from World Language Cafeis really good at this where
she'll make resources all aboutall these different holidays and
celebrations and culturalthings, or even like introducing

(01:02:38):
new countries and places andall of the language is
accessible and comprehensiblefor students.
So, and none of it is inEnglish.
So there's lots and lots ofactivities out there that are
like that.
I would also say can you changethe way that your students need
to show that they understand youfor this?
So, like, can you change howthey're interacting with that

(01:02:59):
text?
Like, instead of giving them areally complex question, try a
true or false type deal?
And the last thing I would say,too, is can you provide some of
the input yourself, like, canyou put together all the
articles that they're reading,the pictures that they're
looking at, all these differentthings that are really cool but
might be in English?
Could you summarize it for themand just do a write and discuss

(01:03:23):
together, like, write aparagraph together, add some of
your all the things that wetalked about with acting things
out, putting pictures, writingthings down, like, how can you
add some of your own input andtarget language to that?
Okay, this is really importantand it's my last one for you
here, and that's number 15,which is fast pace and constant

(01:03:45):
new stuff.
That is the number one reasonthat you're not using as much
target language as you wouldlike to so in working with
curriculums.
Here's what we have going onlevel one is too easy because
there's too much english, andlevels two through five are way
too hard like obnoxiously hardfor students to do because of

(01:04:06):
all the things that we talkedabout earlier.
With the curriculum's reallyoverstuffed, you feel like you
need to rush through all thesenew tenses and, as a teacher,
you feel like you're not doingyour job unless you're
constantly presenting andworking with new material.
However, if you're going toofast and you're constantly
presenting new things, this isthe problem with most
curriculums is that there's zeroroom for kids to play.

(01:04:28):
There's zero room for kids totry out and practice the
language they just acquired.
So, like, feel free to cutthings out.
If you have that freedom, feelfree to pump the brakes and just
let your students use thelanguage that you want them to
use and I have some specificnotes here about, like problems
in level two and problems inlevel three, but for the
interest of time, I'm going togive you just the.

(01:04:50):
Do this instead when in doubt.
This is your new mantra Present, less, converse, more Present,
less converse, more Present,less, converse, more.
In anything that you're doing,in anything in class, this is
the number one key to moretarget language Present less,
converse more.
I do have a bonus one for youand I'm pretty sure you're going

(01:05:16):
to know what it is Like.
This is the bonus one here, andthe bonus is, like you say, you
want to use target language,but the grade book says
otherwise, and this is justhelping us to notice.
Make sure that your assessmentmatches what you're doing in
class, because so many peopleare doing.
I have this really commonmismatch for teachers, which is
having great interactions.
They communicate during classand then they have a form-based

(01:05:39):
assessment where you're askingstudents to do all of these
things that are not giving themcredit for all the cool
interactions they're doing withyou.
So if you can take a look atyour assessments, that's my
bonus one for you.
But all in all, we have hit allof them and I want you to think
about as you're parting shothere.
What do you think are some ofthe common mistakes for you?

(01:06:00):
Where do you think your contentcould really slow down?
Maybe when is your next culturelesson?
How could you reduce the L1 inthere?
And what's an everydayclassroom moment that you think
could be in the target languagefrom now on.
And the final one I want toleave you with is how can you
celebrate your students moretomorrow for the interaction

(01:06:21):
they're doing with you?
All right, so we are going tostop here.
Thank you, guys for being herewith me.
I know we went a little bitover time, I got too excited and
put too many things in there,but there are so many ways that
you can increase target language, and it really has to do with
looking at all these differentthings, these different 15 ideas

(01:06:42):
, 16, and looking at how are allof these chipping away at your
overall picture, because it'snot just like one thing or one
scenario, it's usually.
You can take a look at a littlebit of these here and there to
find a great way to add more TLto your class.
And the number one thing I wantyou to come away from.
This is, too is that there'sopportunities everywhere to use

(01:07:03):
more target language and thatyour class is like a pool party.
So how can you invite more kidsto jump into the water with you
in a way that feels fun andsafe for them?