Teaching Towards Language Acquisition

• Teri Wiechart and Gary DiBianca, presenters
• Two intro sessions August 7 and 8; two follow-up, September 15 and October 27
• Hilliard Darby High School, Hilliard OH
• 8:30 AM-4:00 PM with a 1 hour lunch break
• Register by August 1, 2018 

This 4-day course will present strategies on how to teach contextualized language while staying in the target language. The strategies will be based on Stephen Krashen’s Comprehensible Input Hypothesis—language is acquired when the initial exposure to it consists primarily of oral and reading input that is made comprehensible by the teacher. We will present the idea that a flood of Comprehensible Input ultimately will aid in language acquisition and will lay the foundation necessary for long-term language proficiency.  We will teach unit planning using the Backwards Design approach, while using the Ohio World Language Learning Standards, the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, NCSSFL-ACTFL Can Do Statements, and IPA Summative Assessment.    

The course will include:

• Paradigm shifts for teaching language in the 21^st Century
• Using Kinesthetic Actions and Gestures through TPR
• Contextualizing stories and narrative (TPRS)
• Questioning strategies that keep the classroom in the target language 90%+
• Reading strategies
• Ohio World Language Learning Standards
• ACTFL Proficiency and Performance Guidelines
• NCSSFL-ACTFL Can Do Statements
• IPA Summative Assessments
• Getting students to the proficiency level needed to achieve the Seal of Bi-literacy