A basic tenet of second language acquisition is that people acquire language by comprehensible input. SLA research over the last 50 years indicates that this is accurate. But too often comprehensible input has been interpreted as input only — as if the teacher just stands up in front of the class and speaks in the target language. All period… Every period… All… Year… Long. We need to be clear that “input” (if input is defined as merely listening to or reading the target language, regardless of comprehensibility) is insufficient—the input must be comprehensible. If students don’t understand you, your “input” it is useless—worse than useless because it is teaching them that learning another language is too hard for them. How do you know if the “input” is actually being comprehended by your students?
You have to check for understanding. You have to interact with them. Often and in different ways.
Students can get very good at pretending they understand you. How can you tell if they do? How do you know if students are actually getting it?
To turn teacher talk into effective input, students need to be engaged. Here’s how that happens: When they feel like members of the club of language speakers, students will give more attention.
Giving students the expressions to speak freely and with real emotion is the key. Students need to have ability to respond, permission to respond, and the expectation that they will respond.
The three practices below allow students to interact in ways that feel safe and natural. They will get students speaking more openly, frequently and accurately, and they will help you to create an interactive, student-focused classroom.
• Mixing Culture & Language: CALL and RESPONSE expressions provider a non-threatening way for all students to participate while using authentic and cultural language. The teacher starts the expression… and the students end it. It feels safe because the whole class is responding together.
The best call-and-response expressions mix culture and content in a student-centered way. Using call-and-response expressions regularly is a fun and cultural way to involve the whole class. You can also use them to signal transitions during the class period and to check for understanding. This technique had been used in education for centuries and world language teachers have caught on to it recently… with positive results.
• Giving Students Choice & Voice: REJOINDERS (interjections, responses) are short, useful responses in the target language that students can use spontaneously to express what they’re thinking and feeling.
Rejoinders let students demonstrate active listening, giving them the ability to show emotion and talk back in the target language and letting their personalities come out. The way I like to explain it is like this: “Rejoinders keep the conversation going.” That’s because rejoinders give students tools and permission to interact in a natural, fun, emotional and intuitive way. Quality rejoinders are not made-up teacher expressions like “Uno, dos, tres: No inglés!” The best rejoinders are authentic, meaningful, interactive expressions that come from the culture of the language and overlap with things that real kids in your classroom would say.
• Making Daily Personal Connections with Students: PASSWORDS are expressions in the target language that students are required to say in order to to enter the classroom.
Passwords help the teacher to connect personally with each student before class starts. Using engaging and useful expressions, (rather than merely practicing vocabulary or grammar) makes these interactions more useful, memorable and meaningful.
Occasionally check for understanding with passwords because some kids will just mouth the sounds without knowing what they are saying. So, I ask brief follow-up questions to some students after they have said the password:
• What does that mean in English? (To students that seem to be saying it but don’t get it)
• When would you use that expression? (to mid-range students to be sure they have reflected on it)
• Who else would use it? How? (to the next student in line)
• Where does that saying come from? (to a faster student)
• Who said it? (to a student with a good memory)
For more on asking questions with variety to prompt higher levels of thinking look here.
Passwords, Rejoinders and Calls-and-Responses often overlap. Using Calls-and-Responses and Rejoinders as Passwords gives students more repetitions and confidence with those expressions which will help kids to use them more.
FRENCH
(Scroll down for German, Mandarin, Latin, and Spanish resources)
French Novels: https://www.brycehedstrom.com/shop-for-books-other-french
French Partner Pair Maps
France: https://www.brycehedstrom.com/wp-content/uploads/LES-AMIS-DE-LA-FRANCE.pdf
Northwest Africa (scroll down) https://www.brycehedstrom.com/free-stuff/classroom-management-2
French Special Person Interview Posters: https://www.brycehedstrom.com/wp-content/uploads/La-personne-pre%CC%81cieuse-doc-format.pdf
GERMAN
GERMAN CALL & RESPONSE and REJOINDERS and PASSWORDS
German Special Person Interview Questions
LATIN
Here are some Latin Rejoinders inspired by Magister P, Lance Piantaginni. I print them out on colored 4″ x 11″ poster board according to category. They are posted (in Latin only) on the wall in the classroom all school year for easy reference. Rejoinders liven up the classroom by allowing students to express their opinion.
Here are more Latin Rejoinders from Gin Lindzey. She calls them interjections.
Here are some Latin Call-and-Response ideas from John Piazza.
You can also use Rejoinders and Calls-and-Responses as Passwords in your Latin classes, but I mainly use Latin Mottos as passwords. Read how effective those are here.
MANDARIN
CHINESE REJOINDERS & PASSWORDS
Thanks to Say Eow Quah, who shared these. She credits Haiyun Lu and Diane Neubauer for much of this work. 太感谢了！
Chinese Special Person Interview Questions
Chinese Special Person Interview Questions, P. 2
Thanks to Jian Li, of Dallas, Texas for these translations.
Thanks to Christopher Corbett – 郭锐老师, of DePaul College Prep, Chicago, IL
SPANISH
Spanish Call & Response:
SPANISH CALL AND RESPONSE IDEAS
SPANISH TONGUE TWISTERS Tongue twisters are fun to use as passwords or as calls-and-responses. You can also assign students to memorize one a week from these five lists of authentic trabalenguas.
Spanish Rejoinders:
Spanish Passwords:
INTERMEDIATE LEVEL SPANISH PASSWORDS
Here is a year’s worth of weekly passwords for your intermediate level students. They include historical expressions, rejoinders, idioms, wise sayings from the deep culture, tongue twisters, and some opportunities to express their opinions using typical upper level grammar and vocabulary. Knowing authentic, cultural expressions like these can help immensely on high stakes upper level tests.
REFRANES (WISE SAYINGS) (For upper level Spanish)
These wise authentic cultural sayings will help students understand the language and culture, as well as their own lives. I require upper level students to incorporate at least two expressions like these in every essay and book report to keep them fresh in their minds because repetition is the other of all learning.
NOVICE LEVEL SPANISH PASSWORDS
The novice level passwords are useful idiomatic expressions, rejoinders, interesting (but quick) questions, tongue-twisters and just fun words. I do NOT suggest using non-meaning-bearing phrases or lists such as verb conjugations, or random vocabulary items.
KIND PASSWORDS These are mainly for level 1 Spanish students, but they are useful reminders for any level. To help retrain students after a long and brutal summer, I like to use kind and polite expressions as passwords until they start to understand that we deal with one another courteously in our class. Each of these could conceivably be translated as “excuse me” in English but there are subtle differences that students should know. I like to use these as a fun whole class activity where all are milling about bumping into one another and apologizing.