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The 5 Cs: Goals for Foreign Language Education

  04/15/2019       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Submitted for possible publication. ********************************************************************** Education is used here in two senses: the teaching of foreign languages (FL) and what the purpose of learning a (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages
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a path from learning to acquisition?

  12/02/2018       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Usually it is best to put these tidbits into a larger piece but I wanted to get this onto the blog before I forgot it. (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

An astute approach to the pros and cons of tprs

  06/19/2018       Pat Barrett      11 Comments

Taken from a post to a listserv. An astute laying out of pros and cons: My serious issues with TPRS as a complete methodology can (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages, TPRS

How much do you read in your language(s)

  11/29/2017       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

On a listserv for fl teachers I posted that I have 25 literary novels in Spanish. I got three inquiries. For some reason, all three (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages

Transitioning aka switching horses in mid-stream

  10/24/2017       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

I’ve tried to address these issues, as I told Eric, on my blog, but it’s not organized well. In particular, your mid-stream point of entry (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

What Makes a Good FL Teacher?

  09/16/2017       Pat Barrett      3 Comments

7 This is an article I wrote for the Sept. issue of Le Canard Dechaine, a journal for French teachers. If I can get a (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

The Thirteenth Warrior immersion

  09/14/2017       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

The sequence showing the Arab, Ahmed, gradually picking up Norse in an immersion situation. Often shown to fl classes (incl. mine).

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

corrected version of Writing and SLAM response

  04/27/2017       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Recently, April 25, I responded (Re writing and SLAM) to a post that asked about the efficacy of error correction. I made a hash out (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

Note to accompany post to moretprs re LingQ

  04/17/2017       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

I wrote in a post to moretprs that stories became the heart of tprs via “going back to Blaine Ray’s feeling TPR fell short and (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

Review of thread on moretprs re CI

  04/02/2017       Pat Barrett      7 Comments

RESPONSE TO LONG THREAD ON MORETPRS RE CI My take on this thread is that it continues the discussion labeled “drift” that started a couple (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

One word response to my critics

  03/04/2017       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Over the years on listservs for fl teachers and on some unrelated places like blogs and columns, someone has criticized me for including discussions of (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages, View from under the Bus

An early British head mistress recommends reading for enjoyment

  02/17/2017       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

The other day I found a little book, Helen Waddell’s A Book of Medieval Latin for Schools (1931, that I had set aside. I opened (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

The thread on moretprs re CI and tprs

  01/28/2017       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

My granddaughter is taking first year Spanish in high school. Nothing but verb sheets and memorized phrases and testing. No Spanish spoken by the teacher (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

Response to a teacher feeling down

  11/13/2016       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

A CI Latin teacher described an annual down period and wondered about switching jobs. He puts out a terrific blog on CI methods, so I (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages

Communicative lesson plans I typically used

  08/27/2016       Pat Barrett      6 Comments

Communicative lesson planning is what I call what I am placing on my blog here. It was used daily by me when I was doing (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Teaching foreign languages

Response to Terry’s “Beginner’s Question”

  05/01/2016       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Terry says, “We don’t do “units” that are finished in TPRS — we do language, which is never finished, and keeps spiraling again and again (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages

Advanced tprs reading?

  03/06/2016       Pat Barrett      2 Comments

Terry has written that at the advanced level, i.e. once basic structures have been acquired, internalized, then continued input builds vocabulary, collocations, etc. What I (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages, Uncategorized

What do we do when we disagree?

  01/26/2016       Pat Barrett      2 Comments

I read Grant’s post and find I disagree with him on a number of points. My question is: how do we handle diversity of perspectives (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages

Admin overreach and joining prof org

  01/06/2016       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

This is very a propos to the thread on joining organizations. If ACTFL or some organization were powerful enough to lay down the law on (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages

Naive question re a language

  12/28/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

When to use “России” and when to use “Россия”? Thanks in advance for any answers or tips. I am using Duolingo to begin my learning (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages

The first three days of my career

  12/09/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

My first year teaching I started with a fl, Russian. Having no idea about CI and being a lover of grammar and having studied tons (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages

Do students need to review? Response to Lori

  12/09/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Absolutely right, Lori. One stalwart on flteach once told me that a teacher who did not announce tests and give out review packets was not (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages

Laughable criteria

  12/02/2015       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

From Tasks and Communicating in Language Classrooms by James F. Lee: hilarious Lee lists criteria for successful L2 acquisition in the classroom. See how many (Continue Reading)

Teaching foreign languages
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