I used to spend a lot of time on conjugation charts. Like, a lot of time. I couldn’t fathom how my students could “get” Spanish without them. Then I fell into the world of CI and it totally flipped my way of thinking about language acquisition. And one low prep activity really sold me on the whole thinking behind comprehensible input: picture talk. Curious how I switched from a grammar based teacher to a CI teacher using this activity? Read on!
Old me vs new me:
Old me: conjugation charts
New me: Use the verb “va” in context. (Show example from weather pic talk)
Old me: You have to know every single conjugation
New me: Let’s start by focusing on the most useful
Old me: Know the rules for conjugating Things like “stem changing verbs” “I to y in the preterite” sandal verbs in preterite Yo-go verbs
New me: Who cares if they know the rules!… If they can’t use the verbs in context.
After years of teaching my students all the conjugations ever (and my students never being able to use them in context. Duh, because they had them memorized, not acquired), switching to CI gave me the breath of fresh air that I needed. It gave me more time to focus on the things that matter to my students (Try using a picture of them, it’s awesome), topics of social justice, and the space to laugh and have fun with my classes. It reminded me of what it felt like when I studied abroad and learned the expression “Qué tengas un buen día” without even thinking about the fact that I was using the subjunctive.
I hope you will love the transition to CI as much as I do! Want to take the first step with an awesome no prep picture talk activity? Click the link here for tons of options.
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