#176
How do you address your students’ mistakes or errors when speaking in the classroom? Should you address them? Is it useful, and if so, how do you do it? In this episode we are taking on the last of the High Leverage Teaching Practices, Providing Oral Corrective Feedback to Improve Learner Performance. My personal graduate thesis was on feedback in the language classroom and what has been shown to be most effective. I’ll share a little about my personal findings along with concrete strategies for providing oral corrective feedback to improve learner performance.

Topics in this Episode:

• High Leverage Teaching Practices from Enacting the Work of Language Instruction by Eileen Glisan and Richard Donato
  • Episode 160: Create a Classroom Where Students Use the Target Language Confidently
  • Episode 162: Facilitating Target Language Comprehensibility
  • Episode 164: Teach Grammar in a Communicative Context
  • Episode 167: Guiding Learners to Interpret and Discuss Authentic Texts
  • Episode 171: Focusing on Cultural Products, Practices, and Perspectives
• Oral corrective feedback is the immediate response provided by teachers to learners' spoken errors during language practice. It helps students notice and correct their mistakes, leading to improved language accuracy and proficiency.
• Effective oral corrective feedback supports language development by guiding students towards correct language use, helping them internalize language rules, and improving their confidence in speaking."
• From my thesis Feedback in the Second Language Classroom: The Impact of Explicit and Implicit Negative Feedback on the Interlanguage System: “The unaided learner may eventually learn on his own, but feedback will help him to do this more quickly and efficiently. The research helps to further narrow down the most productive forms of feedback, mainly feedback in the form of negotiation. When the learner is provided with scaffolding that leads him into producing the correct form on his own, he is much more likely to restructure his interlanguage system. This type of communicative feedback will not only provide the most naturalistic communication in the classroom, but will also be the most efficient means of moving the learner toward language that more closely resembles the L2.”
• Strategies:
  • Differentiate Types of Feedback
  • Consider Timing and Frequency of Feedback
  • Create a Supportive Environment
  • Focus on Error Patterns
  • Provide Constructive and Specific Feedback

**Be sure to download the The CI Toolbox. 15 Comprehensible Input (CI) activities for your language classroom to support comprehension and authentic engagement. These suggestions are a compilation of ideas shared on the World Language Classroom Podcast by me and many guests.

Connect with Joshua and the World Language Classroom Community:

• wlclassrom.com
• X (aka Twitter): @wlclassroom
• Threads: @wlclassroom
• Instagram: @wlclassroom
• Facebook: /wlclassroom
• WLClassro

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts on this episode or the podcast.

#175
Do students read in your classroom? What do they do with the reading? In this episode I speak with Jennifer Degenhardt and Theresa Marrama. They are both authors of CI Novels that I have personally used in my French and Spanish classrooms. I thought I’d go right to the source when thinking about the many ways that we can engage our students in target language reading. Jennifer and Theresa share their writing process, inspiration for their stories, and ideas for getting the most out of comprehensible novels.

Topics in this Episode:

• what comprehensible novels are and why they are valuable tools in world language classrooms
• What inspired Jennifer Degenhardt and Theresa Marrama to write comprehensible novels, and how thet decide on the themes and content for their books
• how teachers can effectively integrate comprehensible novels into their curriculum to maximize student engagement and language acquisition
• examples where using comprehensible novels made a significant impact on students' language learning
• practical strategies implementing comprehensible novels

Connect with Jennifer Degenhardt and Theresa Marrama:

• Twitter/X: @digilangua1
• Facebook: @Digilangua
• Website: digilangua.co
• Instagram: @digilangua

Connect with Joshua and the World Language Classroom Community:

• wlclassrom.com
• X (aka Twitter): @wlclassroom
• Threads: @wlclassroom
• Instagram: @wlclassroom
• Facebook: /wlclassroom
• WLClassroom Facebook Group

__________________________
Interested in having Joshua work directly with your department, school or district? Look at options for collaborating in person or remotely.
______________________________
Sign up for Talking Points to get tips, tools and resources for your language teaching.
______________________________
Join Joshua as a guest on the podcast.
______________________________
Join Joshua for a Leveling Up Coaching Episode on the podcast.

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts on this episode or the podcast.

#174
How cohesive are your lessons? Do you feel that activities flow and connect to each other in meaningful ways, or do they sometimes seem disconnected? Today’s episode is a Leveling Up episode, where I coach Cyndi, a German teacher in Idaho. Planning more cohesive lessons that flow more naturally and are connected to each other is the area where she wants to level up her teaching practice.

Suggestions:

• Use a Consistent Daily Lesson Framework Across All Levels. A consistent framework gives you a structure to plug in content without feeling like you're reinventing the wheel every day. It also provides students with a predictable routine, which enhances engagement and learning.
• Focus on Key Learning Targets and Prioritize. By narrowing your focus, you avoid overloading yourself and the students. Lessons will feel more cohesive because everything revolves around a central goal, which helps bring that “flow” you're looking for. Go deep on compelling topics.
• Chunk Your Time for Efficient Planning. By batching similar tasks, you minimize switching costs and make the process more efficient. This also helps ensure consistency across all your classes and lessens the cognitive load.
• Leverage Spiral Review. Students will see the connections between lessons, and it reduces the pressure on you to cover everything perfectly in one class. By spiraling content, lessons will feel more connected and purposeful, and you’ll also create natural review opportunities for students. Perhaps use that additional block each week during the extended period.

Action Plan:

This Week:

• Create a flexible lesson template for your 50-minute and 90-minute classes; figure out how the time will be chunked and determine 2-3 activities for this period of time.
• Focus on one learning target per lesson to maintain clarity and coherence.

The Coming Weeks:

• Incorporate spiral review activities into extended lesson blocks to maintain flow and reinforce learning over time.

You can also be a part of Leveling Up coaching episode if there is an area of your teaching that you like to improve or enhance. Join me on the podcast for a Leveling Up Coaching Episode.

Connect with Joshua and the World Language Classroom Community:

• wlclassrom.com
• X (aka Twitter): @wlclassroom
• Threads: @wlclassroom
• Instagram: @wlclassroom
• Facebook: /wlclassroom
• WLClassroom Facebook Group

__________________________
Interested in having Joshua work directly with your department, school or district? Look at options for collaborating in person or remotely.
______________________________
Sign up for Talking Points to get tips, tools and resources for your language teaching.
______________________________
Join Joshua as a guest on the podcast.

Send me a text and let me know your thoughts on this episode or the podcast.