November 11, 2025 • 38 mins
I answer a listener’s question about teaching vocabulary consistently by reframing every class as a vocabulary class that moves words through a three-stage continuum: introduce, recognize, produce. I share the science of binding, why stories beat lists, and how to keep scope tight so students actually acquire language.
• binding as the foundation for sticky vocabulary
• stories and visuals as the most effective input
• the three-stage continuum: introduce, recognize, produce
• realistic repetition counts and pacing
• limiting sets to 10–15 terms to avoid overload
• a three-lesson flow from input to gentle output
• avoiding memorization traps and translation-heavy quizzes
• low-prep options with drawing, reusable sheets, and AI drafting
• spiraling old terms while adding new ones
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:53):
What's up?
Salute world language teachers.
Welcome to the PracticalProficiency Podcast, where we
make the transition toproficiency-oriented instruction
in your world language class.
In a way that works for you,your unique context and teaching
style, and doesn't sacrificeyour well-being along the way.
(01:16):
I'm your host, Devin Gunning,the teacher, author, conference
host, curriculum creator, andconsultant behind La Libre
Language Limited.
This podcast is for the creativeworld language teacher like you,
who's ready to ditch theoverwhelming pressure of
switching to acquisition-driveninstruction and CI overnight.
You're ready to discover howusing more target language in
(01:39):
class can actually bring you andyour students more joy instead
of having to play withpractical, authentic, and
down-to-earth strategies thatdon't require reinventing the
wheel for more training.
We'll work together towards themagic of a community-based,
target language-rich classroomrooted in the power of community
(02:02):
and comprehensible input.
Let's go.
Well, hello, and welcome back tothe Practical Proficiency
Podcast.
I'm your host, Devin, and I'mvery honored and excited to
share with you today anotherlistener question.
This one comes from no name, butfrom Winchester and Virginia.
(02:25):
So if you're in Virginia, thenholler out to you.
And here's what the questionsays.
This was left on the podcast fanmail option, where by the way,
you can text the podcast now andI can get your questions
directly that way, which is megacool.
So check that out.
There's info in the show notes.
And the question from Virginiasays, Hey Devin, I'm a French
(02:46):
teacher and I've been listeningto your podcast every day for
the past week.
Thank you.
Well, thank you to you.
I'm very honored that you havefound info on this podcast
that's helpful to you.
I'm so glad.
That's awesome.
And it continues with, I have aquestion.
I struggle with how to teachvocabulary consistently.
I rotate between slides andimages, stories, etc.
(03:10):
But would like to be moreconsistent.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you again.
I've learned so much.
Well, thank you, friendly personfrom Winchester, Virginia.
Let's get into it.
If I had the chance to ask you afollow-up, it would be tell me
more about teaching vocabularyconsistently.
(03:30):
Um, because what that brings tomind is that either you are
running into the issue inlessons where you're working
with vocabulary structures, newfunctional chunks, and you're
thinking to yourself, like, ooh,we need to, I should have
introduced this for longer, or Ishould have done more with this
(03:50):
before I asked them to doanything with it, whether it be
interaction or um presentationor interpretation, whatever.
So that's my first thought islike, is that what you're coming
up against?
Or are you saying like you wanta more consistent vocabulary
routine?
Because if that's it, because itcould be that as well, because
(04:11):
you say I rotate between slidesand images and stories, but I
want to be more consistent.
So uh are you trying to balancethe variety of how you present
new structures while stillhaving a routine so it's a
little bit easier on you?
Um, could go either way for me.
So this is how I decided toanswer this question is we
actually have a full workshop onthe topic of presenting new
(04:36):
structures and vocabulary in mysignature program called the
Practical Proficiency Network.
And the reason why is because ifwe're looking at the structure
of world language classrooms,every language, sorry, every
lesson is a vocab lesson, unlessyou are specifically working on
(04:58):
skills with the new vocabularythat you have presented to
students.
So, and we're also trying tomove away from presentation as
much as possible and have thelessons be more of a
facilitating acquisition ofthose structures.
So, like with that, you know,all that cleared up, let's get
into what this can look like.
So I'm gonna answer yourquestion with just some first,
(05:19):
we're gonna step back a littlebit and look at a little bit of
this info from this workshop toget us all on the same page
about vocabulary, introducingvocabulary.
What does that actually mean?
Because, you know, we're we arein a language classroom and the
word vocabulary could mean a lotof different things.
So let's get straight up aboutwhat this means before we get
(05:40):
into how we can answer yourquestion.
So for me, vocabulary is reallyit's the name of the game.
It's everything that you'redoing with students where you
are hoping that they willacquire new structures, aka a
(06:01):
new word or a new group of wordsin the target language.
And when we say vocabularypresentations, we're usually
referring to perhaps the firsttime that students are
interacting with this newvocabulary.
And that usually looks like in aproficiency context, you have
(06:21):
the words up on the board, youare signing them for the first
time and explaining what theymight mean, a couple
translations here and there,what it's helpful so that
students aren't drowning innewness, and you have some sort
of structured activity thatallows for you to repeat the
words a few times in context.
(06:42):
So, like a lot of the thingsthat you mentioned, maybe it's a
story, um, maybe it is aslideshow.
Um, it, you know, it could be alot of different things.
So this whole idea of presentingnew vocabulary is not
necessarily like you presentingand just hitting next, next,
next on the slide while youhave, you know, a word and a
(07:03):
picture.
Like you're you're workingthrough a very one-sided
interaction where you're talkinga lot or signing a lot, and your
students are indicating whetherthey understand you or not with
this new vocab presentation.
So here are some guideposts fromthis workshop that might help
you as you're designing the nexttime that you need that you're
(07:25):
working with new vocabulary andnew structures with your
students.
First off, we're all aboutbinding in proficiency.
Binding is the term that refersto when a learner interacts with
a new word for the first timeand then the process of it
sticking in their languageprocessor, in their brain.
(07:47):
So that is called binding.
There's a bunch of research onit, and what we've found with
binding is that binding worksbetter when a learner sees this
word in a context where theyactually need to understand what
it means and they need to useit.
Also, it's works a lot betterwith a visual or an image rather
(08:13):
than a word underneath it.
So that is why this wholeconcept of binding in second
language acquisition is why weno longer recommend giving
students a list of terms inEnglish on one side and terms in
French on the other.
Because it simply is just, well,really, it's a list, like it's
(08:34):
like a to-do list for yourstudents, right?
So that we have found is greatfor reference, but it has no
teaching capacity in terms ofacquisition.
What does work well inacquisition, which you're seeing
a lot of textbooks adoptnowadays, is I mean, if they're
worth their salt at all, you'llnotice that they'll usually have
(08:54):
some sort of illustration.
For example, if you're teachingsports, they'll have an
illustration of a bunch of kidson a playground and next to a
park where kids and adults areboth playing sports, and then
there's labels everywhere in thetarget language of these people.
Like if they're playing tennis,it'll say jugar al tenis
(09:17):
underneath it in Spanish.
Um, and so it eliminates a lotof that need for the um for the
L1 to be used, which allows forbinding to happen faster, which
is great.
The only thing that can reallyget in your way with this, with
uh new vocab presentations, islike how many of your students
are actually gonna just likelook at the new vocab
(09:39):
presentation illustration pagein your textbook and be like,
oh, look at all these wonderfulnew words for me to learn.
That is not how it works.
Um, the brain is a sociallearner and needs social
interaction for this to work.
So even if you have that reallynice reference material in your
textbook, what students respondbest to is, you guess it, just
(10:01):
like you're already usingWinchester, Virginia, stories.
Stories are how humans havepassed down information since
the beginning of humaninteraction.
It is how we have in the pasttaught our children about
dangers in the environmentaround us when we were not young
(10:21):
enough to understand, hey,there, bears are dangerous.
Don't try to pet that dog, don'tpet the bear.
So instead of that, what we dowhen kids are really young is we
gather them around our nicelittle warm primordial fires,
and we would tell them storiesand fables about the careless
(10:42):
young child who wandered offinto the forest and got eaten up
by a bear.
So that is how our primordialbrains, our lizard brains and
all that, they're that's howwe're wired to learn information
and for information to stickwith us.
Have you ever wondered why wefind movies and TV just so
addicting?
(11:03):
Like it's not just the wholescreen deal, it's actually the
fact that like our brain reallyresponds to storytelling.
So, one of the most effectiveways that you can help your
students acquire language isexactly what you're doing, um,
Virginia, which is to usestories to for this vocab to
have this lovely naturalcontext.
(11:23):
For example, if you are teachingabout sports, then you could
have like when you have allthree, it's better, right?
Like if you have this, thelovely textbook illustration
that doesn't have a lot of L1 inthere, and you see all these
people playing sports, and thenyou present them with a short
story for them to read maybe ontheir own, and then with you as
a class group, and then with uhmaybe some sort of write and
(11:46):
discuss afterwards, where thethe story you are looking
through and experiencing, um,hmm, what can I make up off the
top of my head?
Oh, yeah, like maybe a kid isgoing to tryouts for the first
time and is nervous about like,I don't know if I know how to,
if I brought the right ball topractice, or if I have the the
(12:07):
right skills, or like if I knowhow to do all these things, like
um, I don't know, shoot abasket.
So then you have this kid who'strying out for basketball, he's
nervous, he goes to thebasketball tryouts, he meets key
word here, all the other teammembers and all the team
players.
He gets his uniform, he gets theyou know, the equipment he needs
(12:28):
for the sport, and then he meetsthe coach.
So that is a great way for allof those words to have a lot
more meaning for your studentsbecause they need them to
understand the story.
Then at the end of the story, ofcourse, you probably go over any
terms that they weren't sure ofand all that good stuff, but all
of these are really valuableways to bind vocabulary and new
(12:52):
terms into a learner's languageprocessor.
All good stuff.
Now, the more that we do this,the more that our new vocabulary
is cemented and sandwiched inbetween really important
structures in the targetlanguage.
Because surprise, like storiescan be the easiest way for new
(13:12):
language to get acquired.
Also, because when you'retelling a story or you have a
short little paragraph that's,you know, a story kind of, but
might just be a description ofsomething, you naturally have to
use the most high frequency andmost important and often the
most irregular structures in alanguage, they're naturally
woven into the paragraphs thatyou hear.
(13:35):
That's why a lot of adultlanguage learners, the programs
that they're making for adultlanguage learners, and as world
language teachers, we should bepaying attention to these trends
too, thinking about what'sworking in the commercial world
where people are learning how toacquire a language as well, and
they're actually like throwingdown money for it.
So, what are people doing inthat realm?
Is that there's lots and lots ofum short stories for adults and
(14:00):
podcasts where it's just simplelittle conversations between
people about, you know, aproblem, uh, a little story, a
moment in their lives, that kindof deal, where the narrator is
uh diving into a short story andthen explaining it to the
listener with any relevant infothat they need in the L1 later
(14:20):
on.
So this is something that we canreplicate and do a lot in our
classrooms as well.
So that I hope sets up the scenefor what is the most effective
way really to do any kind of newvocabulary with your students.
The other important thing tokeep in mind with this is that
this doesn't really stop, right?
(14:41):
Like we're we're always workingwith language with our students.
That's the whole purpose of whatwe do, right?
So that's the majority of ourtime.
Which means that the type ofvocabulary lesson that you're
doing is either like, is it newvocabulary, is it vocabulary
you're trying to solidify, orvocabulary you want your
students to work with?
(15:01):
Like those are really the onlydifferences.
And of course, vocabulary thatyou want to work with is gonna
be those moments in class whenyou're working on interpretive
skills, presentational skills,um, interpersonal communication,
that good stuff that we all knowand love.
So I'm sure that this questionthat you have, Winchester,
Virginia, is more focused onlike, what about when I'm
(15:23):
working with new terms?
So we know now what working withnew terms can look like.
And I have a couple suggestionsfor you based on your question.
First of all, you should belooking at your week and your
curriculum and thinking aboutlike the majority of your days
really are vocabulary days,vocab lessons.
(15:46):
And you'll occasionally havethose pop-up grammar lessons.
I mean, you don't really needthem at all in some instances.
But if you're doing some vocab,I mean, sorry, not vocab, some
grammar stuff, then it might bejust here or there when your
students need it, when you'redoing that third form of
vocabulary lesson, which is whenyou want students to work with
(16:06):
it, to produce it.
And to answer your question oflike, how do you do this more
consistently?
My answer to you is, well,honestly, every lesson is a
vocab lesson.
It just depends on what stage ofthe vocabulary your students are
ready to work with.
Like there's a time tointroduce, and there's also a
(16:26):
time to solidify.
And the solidify process I findis actually in the language
continuum of that.
If you're thinking about that,the life stage of a new
vocabulary term for a learner.
It's we need to remember thatthere is an amount of time that
(16:46):
a learner needs for that vocabto bind and be really, really
sticky in their brain.
For example, let's let's keepgoing with sports.
If you have like five to 10sports you want them to be
really familiar with, that takessome time.
Um, the average repetitionamount that we have found, like
it's the answers really vary alot depending on where you look.
But um, we've seen as low as 25and as high as 100.
(17:12):
So if you're going for theaverage, like 50 is a pretty
safe bet for how manyrepetitions you need, unless,
unless, unless it's a supersimple cognate, like, you know,
baseball, then you're probablyfine.
So you could probably say thatlike, you know, five or ten
times, and a student would bereasonably bound well with that
(17:33):
vocabulary.
But something new, likebalancesto, I'm thinking in
Spanish, since we're talkingabout basketball, like that's
that could take up to 50, maybeeven 100, depending on your
learner's processing speed.
So we want to remember that likethe first 10 to 20 repetitions,
the first time they're seeingthis, it's gonna be a lot of
(17:54):
interpretation, your initialvocab lesson.
That's phase one.
And then you're gonna move fromthe in the language learner
continuum, the life stage ofthis new vocabulary term,
balancesto, um, or obesquette inFrench.
Then you're gonna move intostage two, which is where
(18:15):
they're solidifying it.
They can't produce it yet, andmaybe they're not sure how to
spell it yet, but they'reworking with it, and it's um
starting to become a new, a newstructure in their language
processor.
It's almost like the word isblurry, it's there, but it's
blurry.
So you just need to like keepwiping down that window of
(18:36):
clarity and wiping away that fogof um as time goes by so that
the the word just becomesshinier and clearer every time
in their language processor.
And that stage will probably beanywhere between like 20 to 50
repetitions.
And then, so that means in a inthe time frame of a classroom,
you're probably looking at like,hmm, if you see your kids more
(19:00):
than three times a week, it'slike two, three lessons, right?
Like if you are working in areally focused unit and you come
into class the next day andstudents have already done a
nice little vocab presentationwith you, all that stuff we
talked about earlier.
Let's revisit that sample lessonof um you showed the kids the
illustration in the textbookthat's very well laid out for
(19:22):
binding.
Now they're reading a story withyou.
So that was part two.
And now you're really in likelesson three.
This would be a great day toplay games with the vocabulary,
maybe like bingo and um fourcorners.
I like this sport, I don't likethis sport, I hate this sport, I
like to watch the sport, but Idon't like to play it.
Like when you're havingconversations and um
(19:45):
interactions and stuff aboutthese, about these new sports
terms, that now you're startingto get to the end life cycle of
this word.
You don't have to like wipe offthe fog as much anymore on a
student's language processor.
It's becoming sharper andclearer every day as you
continue to wipe away the, youknow, the fog of memory from the
(20:07):
past day or two.
And like now that word is prettywell etched into a student's
brain.
Um, it of course will like startto get blurrier and blurrier if
they don't see it for a longtime.
But right now, after threefocused days of interaction with
sports vocab, and if let'sassume they're totally with you,
then like it's nice and sharpnow.
(20:27):
So how you can get moreconsistent with this, I would
say really it depends on justmaking sure that you have a
well-thought out structure forintroducing, gradually releasing
into interpretation of sportsvocabulary in that stage two.
And then when you hit that stagethree, where you can tell that
(20:49):
students are they're they'restarting to spell it almost, you
(21:38):
know, like pretty close most ofthe time.
And of course, like spelling'snot that important in the early
stages of language, but likejust for the example here, let's
say that you're um they'rethey're spelling the word close
most of the time, enough thatit's telling you, like, okay,
these guys, they remember thisword.
It's not blurry in their brainsanymore.
It's starting to get a littlesharper, even though the E is
(21:58):
where the I should be, that kindof deal.
And in that stage three, it'stime for you to start moving
more into more demanding formsof communication.
There should be moreinteraction, there should be
more presentation, more writing,and more um speaking or signing
(22:20):
so that that word gets really,really etched into their brains
in the subconscious part oftheir language processors.
So the with getting moreconsistent about vocabulary
here, I'm hoping that thiscontinuum shows you that it's
not so much about like beingconsistent with presenting
(22:41):
vocabulary, it's more about doesyour language follow, not your
language, sorry, your lessonplan follow a sequence that
makes sense for the differentstages of binding that a new
term will go through in alearner's language processor.
So if you've got something thatyou know, like this might take
(23:05):
like three or four lessons forthem to really get down and for
it to be real sharp in theirlanguage processors, then that's
what your structure reallyshould follow.
So um a trap that we can fallinto is sometimes, psh,
sometimes, a lot of the times,for language teachers, myself
(23:26):
included, we fall into this trapwhere it's a lot harder to
follow this nice, neat languagecontinuum of, oh, we move from
stage one on Monday, and then onTuesday we're in stage three,
uh, stage two, and then onWednesday, we're in stage three
where we're starting to workwith it.
Um, first of all, kids don'tmove that fast.
Um, and nothing in the schoolenvironment is quite that
(23:46):
certain where you know you cango from one to two to three.
That never happens with theamount of variables you have in
a classroom environment.
So you're gonna have some fitsand starts, false starts along
the way, but also a huge thingthat gets in your way is
actually trying to introduce toomuch vocabulary at once.
And this might be uh Winchester,Virginia question asker, this
(24:10):
might be where your question iscoming from of like, how can I
be more consistent withvocabulary?
Is what might actually behappening is if you try to
introduce too many terms atonce, the continuum totally
falls apart.
Let's go back to this in-depthexample here.
I know you never thought thatlike a vocabulary presentation
(24:31):
could have these many pieces toit, but it's actually quite
simple.
It's sometimes we as teachersmake it too complicated.
If you are looking at your unitand the Spanish two unit demands
in the textbook that you'regoing over like, you know, 10
sports and then 10 terms relatedto sports, like team, equipment,
(24:52):
player, coach, field, practice,all that, um, that's actually
too much language, especially ifyou want your students to move
smoothly from stage one to stagetwo to stage three, from you
know, from introducing torecognizing to producing.
So that that is gonna get thatwhole continuum is gonna get
(25:14):
real muddled up if you have morethan 15 new terms.
So if you have, and that's justfor the average, like the
average learner, the averageprocessing speed is very
comfortable moving from stageone to stage two to stage three
with 10 new terms at a time.
(25:35):
And that means the continuum,not like in one day of
instruction or one setting ofinstruction because everybody's
days are so different.
I mean if you have more than 10to 15 terms that you are working
with in this continuum, likeyour lesson on day one is about
introducing all the sports onthe textbook page.
Your lesson on day two is aboutthe story that's related to the
(25:58):
sports terms on that page.
And then day three's lessonwhere you're talking about likes
and dislikes with sports, ismore than 15 terms.
Like your continuum's gonna getall over the place because
you're gonna be trying to workon sharpening too many words at
once.
You cannot de-blurrify andsharpen and focus in on more
(26:20):
than 15 terms at once.
It's like it's too much for alanguage processor, and all that
stuff gets clogged up, and somethings get left behind in there,
there will be words that movealong in the continuum and a
bunch of words that your brainis like, nope, not at all.
And it doesn't even allow thoseto get processed.
So they just get stuck in stageone for a really long time,
(26:42):
which is why you have sometimesat the end of these very
overstuffed vocabulary units.
This is what happens when youget to, you know, the day before
the quiz and your kids have like10 words that they don't really
know that well, and you'rethinking back to yourself, oh
right, like we didn't reallyhave time for those.
(27:02):
And let's just assign somevocabulary flashcards or
something like that.
Which flashcards are like aquick fix that puts those words
into not a language processor,but it actually puts them into a
different part of your brain,which is your declarative.
It's like your memory zone, youknow, that like short-term
memory zone of memorized facts.
(27:25):
So that is um that is helpfulwhen your students are matching
vocabulary on a test, but yourstudents do not have access to
that declarative zone when itcomes time to use that language.
So, what's the point of puttingstuff in the memory zone of the
brain?
You want all those words to gointo the subconscious language
(27:48):
processor part of the brain.
And to do that, you really dohave to follow that continuum of
introduce, recognize, produce.
So the this is where we oftenget into that trap in world
language teaching of if kidshave some memorized words and
phrases that they like that havebeen hanging out in their memory
(28:08):
zone for a little bit, yeah,they'll have access to it in
certain settings, like if you doum a straight-up translation
quiz where it's like, tell methe word for basketball in
Spanish.
Yeah, you're like, yeah, they'llprobably do fine on that.
But then don't be baffled whenyou ask them a question like, te
gusta jugar al baloncesto, andthey have no idea what you're
saying, because that's a totallydifferent part of your brain
(28:31):
that you need to access toanswer a question like, Do you
like to play basketball?
They're they're not gonna haveaccess to that.
So to make your vocabularypresentations more consistent, I
hope that this is helping you tosee that your whole language
teacher practice is movingstudents from working with a new
(28:55):
set of terms, 10 to 15 at atime, and moving them from stage
one recognizing to stage two.
Sorry, um, stage one isintroduce, stage two is
recognize, and then stage threeis production.
And that, of course, thatcontinuum will take a different
amount of time depending on whattypes of words you're working
(29:18):
with.
If they're simple content words,simple nouns and things like a
list of sports, then they canmove along those continue that
continuum pretty fast.
But if you're working withsomething like describing how
they feel and likes and dislikesand other things that require a
lot more verbs and a lot moreconjunctions and are a bit more
(29:40):
complex in structure, then thatcontinuum will take longer,
naturally, because the languagehas far more meanings than just
one.
The more meanings a word has,the longer it takes for it to go
from stage one to stage two tostage three.
And again, so I'm not messingyou up.
Stage one is introduce, stagetwo, recognize, and then stage
(30:02):
three is produce.
So let's go back to yourquestion and make sure that I
have answered this for you here.
It says, I struggle with how toteach vocabulary consistently.
Honestly, if you approach yourpractice from this continuum of
I'm always working with newvocabulary, it just depends on
what stage of the continuum thestudents are on with this new
(30:23):
set.
And you just keep going on thatwheel on repeat and rotating
through new words and phrasesthat will add to the language
processor while also, of course,revisiting them whenever you can
to keep those things nice andfresh and sharp.
Um and then you say, too, Irotate between slides and images
(30:44):
and stories.
Those are all great things, butI would like to be more
consistent.
I would say that if you approachyour class more like every day
is a vocabulary day, it justdepends on what stage of the
continuum you're working on,that this will help with making
sure that the vocabulary reallyis the focus of everything that
you're doing each day.
(31:05):
If your question too is moreabout like, I want a more
consistent system to make thisuh make sure that I'm getting to
all of the vocabulary I need toevery day, then I would say um
for stories, like don't writethose yourself.
You can 100% pop those into anykind of AI word processor.
(31:26):
I like Gemini, um, Chat GPT istotally free, all that good
stuff.
And just tell them because theyactually will do this pretty
well.
I've tried it a couple times.
Make sure that your prompt issomething along the line.
Of, hey, I am a level blankFrench teacher or Spanish
teacher or Russian teacher, andmy students are, you know, ages
(31:48):
12 to 14.
I need a seven-sentence shortstory with these 10 vocabulary
terms.
Please make sure it's simple andmake sure it is interesting for
their age group and make sureit's based off of, don't forget
this part's really important,based off the principles of
comprehensible input andacquisition-focused instruction.
(32:09):
And guess what?
They do it pretty well.
Like they keep their vocabreally simple.
It's very repetitive.
The stories are boring, but youcan fix that part.
That's easy for you to go inlater.
If you also are like, I, it'shard for me to get all the
images and get all the slidestogether, is you don't actually
need slides and images for vocabif you're really, really pressed
for time.
In the year that I was teachingwith zero time after school for
(32:35):
extra prep, and I had to workwithin the 90 minutes that I was
given every day, then I would,instead of having like vocab
prep presentations, I would givethe students um reusable vocab
lesson sheets where it wouldhave a picture, a little blank,
uh, sorry, not a picture, itwould have a little square and a
(32:57):
blank underneath where they weresupposed to write in the word,
and I would just draw pictureson the board because I didn't
have time to make the visuals.
And often I found that sometimesit was a little tedious, but at
least I didn't have to plan forit.
But other times the studentswere actually paying attention
more because they were followingalong with the drawing and like
writing the word with me.
And then as we were drawing, wewould talk about it and it would
(33:20):
give me more opportunities toactually use a lot more context
with the target language.
So that's really helpful too.
Um, but it's also easier thanever to just uh pull up a blank
Canva presentation and you knowsearch for the images as you
need them, especially if you'redoing sports, and like you can
just pop the image right inthere.
So I'm not a person who believesthat you need to have lots of
(33:43):
ready-to-use slideshows forvocabulary presentations.
You can actually do a lot ofthis with just working with your
own brain and drawing things.
Um yeah, those are those are mysuggestions for you when it
comes to vocabulary.
There's a lot to process withvocabulary and great ways to do
(34:04):
this.
And I hope that this helps withjust understanding that your
classroom can be a system thatis always moving students in
super fun and varied ways, justlike you're already doing, but
you're always moving studentsfrom this guiding structure of
introduce to recognize toproduce.
And it's just you're going fromstages one through three, and
(34:25):
then a new set of vocabulary,one through three, new set of
vocabulary while recycling oldimportant structures one through
three.
And just as ACFL recommends, youstart at this one specific
point, and then you continue inan upward staircase spiral of
adding more new terms whilerevisiting and recycling older
(34:49):
ones until the spiral becomes aswide as possible.
And you know, at that pointthey're like Actful superior,
and who even isn't actfulsuperior?
We don't know.
But that's the top of the ladderthat they get to at the top of
that upward spiral.
So yeah, that's vocabulary.
There's it's actually it'ssimple, but when it comes to how
(35:10):
it's presented, like gettinginto the nitty-gritty of how
that happens every day, that isreally where the magic happens.
And I can tell that you have alot of thoughtful ways that
you're already doing this withyour students.
So thank you so much forsubmitting this question.
And I hope that it helps you tohave more of a systematic and
simpler approach to what newwords can look like for binding
(35:34):
in your classroom.
And of course, if there's anyfollow-up questions that you
have, or if I missed the markfor what you're looking for,
dude, let me let me know.
Hit me up.
Um, you can find my email is inthe show notes, and I'm also at
Devon at Lalibre LanguageLearning.com.
Or you can find me on Instagram.
Either myself or my assistantRachel will catch you there in
the messages.
(35:54):
And we would love to chat moreabout this.
As you can tell, I love talkingabout new terms and vocabulary.
I think this is like one of themost interesting aspects of how
language works and how SLAworks.
So thank you so much for thisquestion.
It's been so fun to dive intothis.
And if you are listening to thisand saying, ooh, I have a
(36:14):
question for Devin, you cansubmit questions on the podcast
now and have yourself a speciallittle episode all for you and
your question.
We love to hear it because whenyou ask questions, a lot of
other people learn from it too.
Just the same thing as you tellyour students is that if you
have a question, there'sprobably five other people in
the room who just didn't ask itbut also had it.
(36:35):
So submit those questions.
There's a link in the show noteswhere you can just click a
button or you can text thepodcast with your question.
I love to answer it.
And let's sign off.
Thank you so much, y'all, forthis and for being here and for
listening.
I really appreciate your timeand being a part of this
community.
And I'll see you on the nextepisode where we're going to be
(36:56):
answering another listenerquestion.
It's really juicy, so getexcited.
If you're an elementary teacher,this next one will be for you.
All right, signing off.
I'm rooting for you.
Bye for now.
What's up?
Salute world language teachers.
Welcome to the PracticalProficiency Podcast, where we
make the transition toproficiency-oriented instruction
in your world language class.
In a way that works for you,your unique context and teaching
style, and doesn't sacrificeyour well-being along the way.
(01:16):
I'm your host, Devin Gunning,the teacher, author, conference
host, curriculum creator, andconsultant behind La Libre
Language Limited.
This podcast is for the creativeworld language teacher like you,
who's ready to ditch theoverwhelming pressure of
switching to acquisition-driveninstruction and CI overnight.
You're ready to discover howusing more target language in
(01:39):
class can actually bring you andyour students more joy instead
of having to play withpractical, authentic, and
down-to-earth strategies thatdon't require reinventing the
wheel for more training.
We'll work together towards themagic of a community-based,
target language-rich classroomrooted in the power of community
(02:02):
and comprehensible input.
Let's go.
Well, hello, and welcome back tothe Practical Proficiency
Podcast.
I'm your host, Devin, and I'mvery honored and excited to
share with you today anotherlistener question.
This one comes from no name, butfrom Winchester and Virginia.
(02:25):
So if you're in Virginia, thenholler out to you.
And here's what the questionsays.
This was left on the podcast fanmail option, where by the way,
you can text the podcast now andI can get your questions
directly that way, which is megacool.
So check that out.
There's info in the show notes.
And the question from Virginiasays, Hey Devin, I'm a French
(02:46):
teacher and I've been listeningto your podcast every day for
the past week.
Thank you.
Well, thank you to you.
I'm very honored that you havefound info on this podcast
that's helpful to you.
I'm so glad.
That's awesome.
And it continues with, I have aquestion.
I struggle with how to teachvocabulary consistently.
I rotate between slides andimages, stories, etc.
(03:10):
But would like to be moreconsistent.
Do you have any suggestions?
Thank you again.
I've learned so much.
Well, thank you, friendly personfrom Winchester, Virginia.
Let's get into it.
If I had the chance to ask you afollow-up, it would be tell me
more about teaching vocabularyconsistently.
(03:30):
Um, because what that brings tomind is that either you are
running into the issue inlessons where you're working
with vocabulary structures, newfunctional chunks, and you're
thinking to yourself, like, ooh,we need to, I should have
introduced this for longer, or Ishould have done more with this
(03:50):
before I asked them to doanything with it, whether it be
interaction or um presentationor interpretation, whatever.
So that's my first thought islike, is that what you're coming
up against?
Or are you saying like you wanta more consistent vocabulary
routine?
Because if that's it, because itcould be that as well, because
(04:11):
you say I rotate between slidesand images and stories, but I
want to be more consistent.
So uh are you trying to balancethe variety of how you present
new structures while stillhaving a routine so it's a
little bit easier on you?
Um, could go either way for me.
So this is how I decided toanswer this question is we
actually have a full workshop onthe topic of presenting new
(04:36):
structures and vocabulary in mysignature program called the
Practical Proficiency Network.
And the reason why is because ifwe're looking at the structure
of world language classrooms,every language, sorry, every
lesson is a vocab lesson, unlessyou are specifically working on
(04:58):
skills with the new vocabularythat you have presented to
students.
So, and we're also trying tomove away from presentation as
much as possible and have thelessons be more of a
facilitating acquisition ofthose structures.
So, like with that, you know,all that cleared up, let's get
into what this can look like.
So I'm gonna answer yourquestion with just some first,
(05:19):
we're gonna step back a littlebit and look at a little bit of
this info from this workshop toget us all on the same page
about vocabulary, introducingvocabulary.
What does that actually mean?
Because, you know, we're we arein a language classroom and the
word vocabulary could mean a lotof different things.
So let's get straight up aboutwhat this means before we get
(05:40):
into how we can answer yourquestion.
So for me, vocabulary is reallyit's the name of the game.
It's everything that you'redoing with students where you
are hoping that they willacquire new structures, aka a
(06:01):
new word or a new group of wordsin the target language.
And when we say vocabularypresentations, we're usually
referring to perhaps the firsttime that students are
interacting with this newvocabulary.
And that usually looks like in aproficiency context, you have
(06:21):
the words up on the board, youare signing them for the first
time and explaining what theymight mean, a couple
translations here and there,what it's helpful so that
students aren't drowning innewness, and you have some sort
of structured activity thatallows for you to repeat the
words a few times in context.
(06:42):
So, like a lot of the thingsthat you mentioned, maybe it's a
story, um, maybe it is aslideshow.
Um, it, you know, it could be alot of different things.
So this whole idea of presentingnew vocabulary is not
necessarily like you presentingand just hitting next, next,
next on the slide while youhave, you know, a word and a
(07:03):
picture.
Like you're you're workingthrough a very one-sided
interaction where you're talkinga lot or signing a lot, and your
students are indicating whetherthey understand you or not with
this new vocab presentation.
So here are some guideposts fromthis workshop that might help
you as you're designing the nexttime that you need that you're
(07:25):
working with new vocabulary andnew structures with your
students.
First off, we're all aboutbinding in proficiency.
Binding is the term that refersto when a learner interacts with
a new word for the first timeand then the process of it
sticking in their languageprocessor, in their brain.
(07:47):
So that is called binding.
There's a bunch of research onit, and what we've found with
binding is that binding worksbetter when a learner sees this
word in a context where theyactually need to understand what
it means and they need to useit.
Also, it's works a lot betterwith a visual or an image rather
(08:13):
than a word underneath it.
So that is why this wholeconcept of binding in second
language acquisition is why weno longer recommend giving
students a list of terms inEnglish on one side and terms in
French on the other.
Because it simply is just, well,really, it's a list, like it's
(08:34):
like a to-do list for yourstudents, right?
So that we have found is greatfor reference, but it has no
teaching capacity in terms ofacquisition.
What does work well inacquisition, which you're seeing
a lot of textbooks adoptnowadays, is I mean, if they're
worth their salt at all, you'llnotice that they'll usually have
(08:54):
some sort of illustration.
For example, if you're teachingsports, they'll have an
illustration of a bunch of kidson a playground and next to a
park where kids and adults areboth playing sports, and then
there's labels everywhere in thetarget language of these people.
Like if they're playing tennis,it'll say jugar al tenis
(09:17):
underneath it in Spanish.
Um, and so it eliminates a lotof that need for the um for the
L1 to be used, which allows forbinding to happen faster, which
is great.
The only thing that can reallyget in your way with this, with
uh new vocab presentations, islike how many of your students
are actually gonna just likelook at the new vocab
(09:39):
presentation illustration pagein your textbook and be like,
oh, look at all these wonderfulnew words for me to learn.
That is not how it works.
Um, the brain is a sociallearner and needs social
interaction for this to work.
So even if you have that reallynice reference material in your
textbook, what students respondbest to is, you guess it, just
(10:01):
like you're already usingWinchester, Virginia, stories.
Stories are how humans havepassed down information since
the beginning of humaninteraction.
It is how we have in the pasttaught our children about
dangers in the environmentaround us when we were not young
(10:21):
enough to understand, hey,there, bears are dangerous.
Don't try to pet that dog, don'tpet the bear.
So instead of that, what we dowhen kids are really young is we
gather them around our nicelittle warm primordial fires,
and we would tell them storiesand fables about the careless
(10:42):
young child who wandered offinto the forest and got eaten up
by a bear.
So that is how our primordialbrains, our lizard brains and
all that, they're that's howwe're wired to learn information
and for information to stickwith us.
Have you ever wondered why wefind movies and TV just so
addicting?
(11:03):
Like it's not just the wholescreen deal, it's actually the
fact that like our brain reallyresponds to storytelling.
So, one of the most effectiveways that you can help your
students acquire language isexactly what you're doing, um,
Virginia, which is to usestories to for this vocab to
have this lovely naturalcontext.
(11:23):
For example, if you are teachingabout sports, then you could
have like when you have allthree, it's better, right?
Like if you have this, thelovely textbook illustration
that doesn't have a lot of L1 inthere, and you see all these
people playing sports, and thenyou present them with a short
story for them to read maybe ontheir own, and then with you as
a class group, and then with uhmaybe some sort of write and
(11:46):
discuss afterwards, where thethe story you are looking
through and experiencing, um,hmm, what can I make up off the
top of my head?
Oh, yeah, like maybe a kid isgoing to tryouts for the first
time and is nervous about like,I don't know if I know how to,
if I brought the right ball topractice, or if I have the the
(12:07):
right skills, or like if I knowhow to do all these things, like
um, I don't know, shoot abasket.
So then you have this kid who'strying out for basketball, he's
nervous, he goes to thebasketball tryouts, he meets key
word here, all the other teammembers and all the team
players.
He gets his uniform, he gets theyou know, the equipment he needs
(12:28):
for the sport, and then he meetsthe coach.
So that is a great way for allof those words to have a lot
more meaning for your studentsbecause they need them to
understand the story.
Then at the end of the story, ofcourse, you probably go over any
terms that they weren't sure ofand all that good stuff, but all
of these are really valuableways to bind vocabulary and new
(12:52):
terms into a learner's languageprocessor.
All good stuff.
Now, the more that we do this,the more that our new vocabulary
is cemented and sandwiched inbetween really important
structures in the targetlanguage.
Because surprise, like storiescan be the easiest way for new
(13:12):
language to get acquired.
Also, because when you'retelling a story or you have a
short little paragraph that's,you know, a story kind of, but
might just be a description ofsomething, you naturally have to
use the most high frequency andmost important and often the
most irregular structures in alanguage, they're naturally
woven into the paragraphs thatyou hear.
(13:35):
That's why a lot of adultlanguage learners, the programs
that they're making for adultlanguage learners, and as world
language teachers, we should bepaying attention to these trends
too, thinking about what'sworking in the commercial world
where people are learning how toacquire a language as well, and
they're actually like throwingdown money for it.
So, what are people doing inthat realm?
Is that there's lots and lots ofum short stories for adults and
(14:00):
podcasts where it's just simplelittle conversations between
people about, you know, aproblem, uh, a little story, a
moment in their lives, that kindof deal, where the narrator is
uh diving into a short story andthen explaining it to the
listener with any relevant infothat they need in the L1 later
(14:20):
on.
So this is something that we canreplicate and do a lot in our
classrooms as well.
So that I hope sets up the scenefor what is the most effective
way really to do any kind of newvocabulary with your students.
The other important thing tokeep in mind with this is that
this doesn't really stop, right?
(14:41):
Like we're we're always workingwith language with our students.
That's the whole purpose of whatwe do, right?
So that's the majority of ourtime.
Which means that the type ofvocabulary lesson that you're
doing is either like, is it newvocabulary, is it vocabulary
you're trying to solidify, orvocabulary you want your
students to work with?
(15:01):
Like those are really the onlydifferences.
And of course, vocabulary thatyou want to work with is gonna
be those moments in class whenyou're working on interpretive
skills, presentational skills,um, interpersonal communication,
that good stuff that we all knowand love.
So I'm sure that this questionthat you have, Winchester,
Virginia, is more focused onlike, what about when I'm
(15:23):
working with new terms?
So we know now what working withnew terms can look like.
And I have a couple suggestionsfor you based on your question.
First of all, you should belooking at your week and your
curriculum and thinking aboutlike the majority of your days
really are vocabulary days,vocab lessons.
(15:46):
And you'll occasionally havethose pop-up grammar lessons.
I mean, you don't really needthem at all in some instances.
But if you're doing some vocab,I mean, sorry, not vocab, some
grammar stuff, then it might bejust here or there when your
students need it, when you'redoing that third form of
vocabulary lesson, which is whenyou want students to work with
(16:06):
it, to produce it.
And to answer your question oflike, how do you do this more
consistently?
My answer to you is, well,honestly, every lesson is a
vocab lesson.
It just depends on what stage ofthe vocabulary your students are
ready to work with.
Like there's a time tointroduce, and there's also a
(16:26):
time to solidify.
And the solidify process I findis actually in the language
continuum of that.
If you're thinking about that,the life stage of a new
vocabulary term for a learner.
It's we need to remember thatthere is an amount of time that
(16:46):
a learner needs for that vocabto bind and be really, really
sticky in their brain.
For example, let's let's keepgoing with sports.
If you have like five to 10sports you want them to be
really familiar with, that takessome time.
Um, the average repetitionamount that we have found, like
it's the answers really vary alot depending on where you look.
But um, we've seen as low as 25and as high as 100.
(17:12):
So if you're going for theaverage, like 50 is a pretty
safe bet for how manyrepetitions you need, unless,
unless, unless it's a supersimple cognate, like, you know,
baseball, then you're probablyfine.
So you could probably say thatlike, you know, five or ten
times, and a student would bereasonably bound well with that
(17:33):
vocabulary.
But something new, likebalancesto, I'm thinking in
Spanish, since we're talkingabout basketball, like that's
that could take up to 50, maybeeven 100, depending on your
learner's processing speed.
So we want to remember that likethe first 10 to 20 repetitions,
the first time they're seeingthis, it's gonna be a lot of
(17:54):
interpretation, your initialvocab lesson.
That's phase one.
And then you're gonna move fromthe in the language learner
continuum, the life stage ofthis new vocabulary term,
balancesto, um, or obesquette inFrench.
Then you're gonna move intostage two, which is where
(18:15):
they're solidifying it.
They can't produce it yet, andmaybe they're not sure how to
spell it yet, but they'reworking with it, and it's um
starting to become a new, a newstructure in their language
processor.
It's almost like the word isblurry, it's there, but it's
blurry.
So you just need to like keepwiping down that window of
(18:36):
clarity and wiping away that fogof um as time goes by so that
the the word just becomesshinier and clearer every time
in their language processor.
And that stage will probably beanywhere between like 20 to 50
repetitions.
And then, so that means in a inthe time frame of a classroom,
you're probably looking at like,hmm, if you see your kids more
(19:00):
than three times a week, it'slike two, three lessons, right?
Like if you are working in areally focused unit and you come
into class the next day andstudents have already done a
nice little vocab presentationwith you, all that stuff we
talked about earlier.
Let's revisit that sample lessonof um you showed the kids the
illustration in the textbookthat's very well laid out for
(19:22):
binding.
Now they're reading a story withyou.
So that was part two.
And now you're really in likelesson three.
This would be a great day toplay games with the vocabulary,
maybe like bingo and um fourcorners.
I like this sport, I don't likethis sport, I hate this sport, I
like to watch the sport, but Idon't like to play it.
Like when you're havingconversations and um
(19:45):
interactions and stuff aboutthese, about these new sports
terms, that now you're startingto get to the end life cycle of
this word.
You don't have to like wipe offthe fog as much anymore on a
student's language processor.
It's becoming sharper andclearer every day as you
continue to wipe away the, youknow, the fog of memory from the
(20:07):
past day or two.
And like now that word is prettywell etched into a student's
brain.
Um, it of course will like startto get blurrier and blurrier if
they don't see it for a longtime.
But right now, after threefocused days of interaction with
sports vocab, and if let'sassume they're totally with you,
then like it's nice and sharpnow.
(20:27):
So how you can get moreconsistent with this, I would
say really it depends on justmaking sure that you have a
well-thought out structure forintroducing, gradually releasing
into interpretation of sportsvocabulary in that stage two.
And then when you hit that stagethree, where you can tell that
(20:49):
students are they're they'restarting to spell it almost, you
(21:38):
know, like pretty close most ofthe time.
And of course, like spelling'snot that important in the early
stages of language, but likejust for the example here, let's
say that you're um they'rethey're spelling the word close
most of the time, enough thatit's telling you, like, okay,
these guys, they remember thisword.
It's not blurry in their brainsanymore.
It's starting to get a littlesharper, even though the E is
(21:58):
where the I should be, that kindof deal.
And in that stage three, it'stime for you to start moving
more into more demanding formsof communication.
There should be moreinteraction, there should be
more presentation, more writing,and more um speaking or signing
(22:20):
so that that word gets really,really etched into their brains
in the subconscious part oftheir language processors.
So the with getting moreconsistent about vocabulary
here, I'm hoping that thiscontinuum shows you that it's
not so much about like beingconsistent with presenting
(22:41):
vocabulary, it's more about doesyour language follow, not your
language, sorry, your lessonplan follow a sequence that
makes sense for the differentstages of binding that a new
term will go through in alearner's language processor.
So if you've got something thatyou know, like this might take
(23:05):
like three or four lessons forthem to really get down and for
it to be real sharp in theirlanguage processors, then that's
what your structure reallyshould follow.
So um a trap that we can fallinto is sometimes, psh,
sometimes, a lot of the times,for language teachers, myself
(23:26):
included, we fall into this trapwhere it's a lot harder to
follow this nice, neat languagecontinuum of, oh, we move from
stage one on Monday, and then onTuesday we're in stage three,
uh, stage two, and then onWednesday, we're in stage three
where we're starting to workwith it.
Um, first of all, kids don'tmove that fast.
Um, and nothing in the schoolenvironment is quite that
(23:46):
certain where you know you cango from one to two to three.
That never happens with theamount of variables you have in
a classroom environment.
So you're gonna have some fitsand starts, false starts along
the way, but also a huge thingthat gets in your way is
actually trying to introduce toomuch vocabulary at once.
And this might be uh Winchester,Virginia question asker, this
(24:10):
might be where your question iscoming from of like, how can I
be more consistent withvocabulary?
Is what might actually behappening is if you try to
introduce too many terms atonce, the continuum totally
falls apart.
Let's go back to this in-depthexample here.
I know you never thought thatlike a vocabulary presentation
(24:31):
could have these many pieces toit, but it's actually quite
simple.
It's sometimes we as teachersmake it too complicated.
If you are looking at your unitand the Spanish two unit demands
in the textbook that you'regoing over like, you know, 10
sports and then 10 terms relatedto sports, like team, equipment,
(24:52):
player, coach, field, practice,all that, um, that's actually
too much language, especially ifyou want your students to move
smoothly from stage one to stagetwo to stage three, from you
know, from introducing torecognizing to producing.
So that that is gonna get thatwhole continuum is gonna get
(25:14):
real muddled up if you have morethan 15 new terms.
So if you have, and that's justfor the average, like the
average learner, the averageprocessing speed is very
comfortable moving from stageone to stage two to stage three
with 10 new terms at a time.
(25:35):
And that means the continuum,not like in one day of
instruction or one setting ofinstruction because everybody's
days are so different.
I mean if you have more than 10to 15 terms that you are working
with in this continuum, likeyour lesson on day one is about
introducing all the sports onthe textbook page.
Your lesson on day two is aboutthe story that's related to the
(25:58):
sports terms on that page.
And then day three's lessonwhere you're talking about likes
and dislikes with sports, ismore than 15 terms.
Like your continuum's gonna getall over the place because
you're gonna be trying to workon sharpening too many words at
once.
You cannot de-blurrify andsharpen and focus in on more
(26:20):
than 15 terms at once.
It's like it's too much for alanguage processor, and all that
stuff gets clogged up, and somethings get left behind in there,
there will be words that movealong in the continuum and a
bunch of words that your brainis like, nope, not at all.
And it doesn't even allow thoseto get processed.
So they just get stuck in stageone for a really long time,
(26:42):
which is why you have sometimesat the end of these very
overstuffed vocabulary units.
This is what happens when youget to, you know, the day before
the quiz and your kids have like10 words that they don't really
know that well, and you'rethinking back to yourself, oh
right, like we didn't reallyhave time for those.
(27:02):
And let's just assign somevocabulary flashcards or
something like that.
Which flashcards are like aquick fix that puts those words
into not a language processor,but it actually puts them into a
different part of your brain,which is your declarative.
It's like your memory zone, youknow, that like short-term
memory zone of memorized facts.
(27:25):
So that is um that is helpfulwhen your students are matching
vocabulary on a test, but yourstudents do not have access to
that declarative zone when itcomes time to use that language.
So, what's the point of puttingstuff in the memory zone of the
brain?
You want all those words to gointo the subconscious language
(27:48):
processor part of the brain.
And to do that, you really dohave to follow that continuum of
introduce, recognize, produce.
So the this is where we oftenget into that trap in world
language teaching of if kidshave some memorized words and
phrases that they like that havebeen hanging out in their memory
(28:08):
zone for a little bit, yeah,they'll have access to it in
certain settings, like if you doum a straight-up translation
quiz where it's like, tell methe word for basketball in
Spanish.
Yeah, you're like, yeah, they'llprobably do fine on that.
But then don't be baffled whenyou ask them a question like, te
gusta jugar al baloncesto, andthey have no idea what you're
saying, because that's a totallydifferent part of your brain
(28:31):
that you need to access toanswer a question like, Do you
like to play basketball?
They're they're not gonna haveaccess to that.
So to make your vocabularypresentations more consistent, I
hope that this is helping you tosee that your whole language
teacher practice is movingstudents from working with a new
(28:55):
set of terms, 10 to 15 at atime, and moving them from stage
one recognizing to stage two.
Sorry, um, stage one isintroduce, stage two is
recognize, and then stage threeis production.
And that, of course, thatcontinuum will take a different
amount of time depending on whattypes of words you're working
(29:18):
with.
If they're simple content words,simple nouns and things like a
list of sports, then they canmove along those continue that
continuum pretty fast.
But if you're working withsomething like describing how
they feel and likes and dislikesand other things that require a
lot more verbs and a lot moreconjunctions and are a bit more
(29:40):
complex in structure, then thatcontinuum will take longer,
naturally, because the languagehas far more meanings than just
one.
The more meanings a word has,the longer it takes for it to go
from stage one to stage two tostage three.
And again, so I'm not messingyou up.
Stage one is introduce, stagetwo, recognize, and then stage
(30:02):
three is produce.
So let's go back to yourquestion and make sure that I
have answered this for you here.
It says, I struggle with how toteach vocabulary consistently.
Honestly, if you approach yourpractice from this continuum of
I'm always working with newvocabulary, it just depends on
what stage of the continuum thestudents are on with this new
(30:23):
set.
And you just keep going on thatwheel on repeat and rotating
through new words and phrasesthat will add to the language
processor while also, of course,revisiting them whenever you can
to keep those things nice andfresh and sharp.
Um and then you say, too, Irotate between slides and images
(30:44):
and stories.
Those are all great things, butI would like to be more
consistent.
I would say that if you approachyour class more like every day
is a vocabulary day, it justdepends on what stage of the
continuum you're working on,that this will help with making
sure that the vocabulary reallyis the focus of everything that
you're doing each day.
(31:05):
If your question too is moreabout like, I want a more
consistent system to make thisuh make sure that I'm getting to
all of the vocabulary I need toevery day, then I would say um
for stories, like don't writethose yourself.
You can 100% pop those into anykind of AI word processor.
(31:26):
I like Gemini, um, Chat GPT istotally free, all that good
stuff.
And just tell them because theyactually will do this pretty
well.
I've tried it a couple times.
Make sure that your prompt issomething along the line.
Of, hey, I am a level blankFrench teacher or Spanish
teacher or Russian teacher, andmy students are, you know, ages
(31:48):
12 to 14.
I need a seven-sentence shortstory with these 10 vocabulary
terms.
Please make sure it's simple andmake sure it is interesting for
their age group and make sureit's based off of, don't forget
this part's really important,based off the principles of
comprehensible input andacquisition-focused instruction.
(32:09):
And guess what?
They do it pretty well.
Like they keep their vocabreally simple.
It's very repetitive.
The stories are boring, but youcan fix that part.
That's easy for you to go inlater.
If you also are like, I, it'shard for me to get all the
images and get all the slidestogether, is you don't actually
need slides and images for vocabif you're really, really pressed
for time.
In the year that I was teachingwith zero time after school for
(32:35):
extra prep, and I had to workwithin the 90 minutes that I was
given every day, then I would,instead of having like vocab
prep presentations, I would givethe students um reusable vocab
lesson sheets where it wouldhave a picture, a little blank,
uh, sorry, not a picture, itwould have a little square and a
(32:57):
blank underneath where they weresupposed to write in the word,
and I would just draw pictureson the board because I didn't
have time to make the visuals.
And often I found that sometimesit was a little tedious, but at
least I didn't have to plan forit.
But other times the studentswere actually paying attention
more because they were followingalong with the drawing and like
writing the word with me.
And then as we were drawing, wewould talk about it and it would
(33:20):
give me more opportunities toactually use a lot more context
with the target language.
So that's really helpful too.
Um, but it's also easier thanever to just uh pull up a blank
Canva presentation and you knowsearch for the images as you
need them, especially if you'redoing sports, and like you can
just pop the image right inthere.
So I'm not a person who believesthat you need to have lots of
(33:43):
ready-to-use slideshows forvocabulary presentations.
You can actually do a lot ofthis with just working with your
own brain and drawing things.
Um yeah, those are those are mysuggestions for you when it
comes to vocabulary.
There's a lot to process withvocabulary and great ways to do
(34:04):
this.
And I hope that this helps withjust understanding that your
classroom can be a system thatis always moving students in
super fun and varied ways, justlike you're already doing, but
you're always moving studentsfrom this guiding structure of
introduce to recognize toproduce.
And it's just you're going fromstages one through three, and
(34:25):
then a new set of vocabulary,one through three, new set of
vocabulary while recycling oldimportant structures one through
three.
And just as ACFL recommends, youstart at this one specific
point, and then you continue inan upward staircase spiral of
adding more new terms whilerevisiting and recycling older
(34:49):
ones until the spiral becomes aswide as possible.
And you know, at that pointthey're like Actful superior,
and who even isn't actfulsuperior?
We don't know.
But that's the top of the ladderthat they get to at the top of
that upward spiral.
So yeah, that's vocabulary.
There's it's actually it'ssimple, but when it comes to how
(35:10):
it's presented, like gettinginto the nitty-gritty of how
that happens every day, that isreally where the magic happens.
And I can tell that you have alot of thoughtful ways that
you're already doing this withyour students.
So thank you so much forsubmitting this question.
And I hope that it helps you tohave more of a systematic and
simpler approach to what newwords can look like for binding
(35:34):
in your classroom.
And of course, if there's anyfollow-up questions that you
have, or if I missed the markfor what you're looking for,
dude, let me let me know.
Hit me up.
Um, you can find my email is inthe show notes, and I'm also at
Devon at Lalibre LanguageLearning.com.
Or you can find me on Instagram.
Either myself or my assistantRachel will catch you there in
the messages.
(35:54):
And we would love to chat moreabout this.
As you can tell, I love talkingabout new terms and vocabulary.
I think this is like one of themost interesting aspects of how
language works and how SLAworks.
So thank you so much for thisquestion.
It's been so fun to dive intothis.
And if you are listening to thisand saying, ooh, I have a
(36:14):
question for Devin, you cansubmit questions on the podcast
now and have yourself a speciallittle episode all for you and
your question.
We love to hear it because whenyou ask questions, a lot of
other people learn from it too.
Just the same thing as you tellyour students is that if you
have a question, there'sprobably five other people in
the room who just didn't ask itbut also had it.
(36:35):
So submit those questions.
There's a link in the show noteswhere you can just click a
button or you can text thepodcast with your question.
I love to answer it.
And let's sign off.
Thank you so much, y'all, forthis and for being here and for
listening.
I really appreciate your timeand being a part of this
community.
And I'll see you on the nextepisode where we're going to be
(36:56):
answering another listenerquestion.
It's really juicy, so getexcited.
If you're an elementary teacher,this next one will be for you.
All right, signing off.
I'm rooting for you.
Bye for now.
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