Oh, I had certainly been told repeatedly that I, as a teacher, was never allowed to speak English in the classroom. I was in graduate school at the time and had already spent time in France as an exchange student, and then again as a university professeur-en-échange. I was perfectly comfortable speaking only in French. What we didn't know very well twenty years ago was that CI, or "Comprehensible Input" was not just a recommendation. It would become central to everything that works or "clicks" in a world language classroom. Remember, my blog, my truth. Your mileage may vary.
I had tried everything from teaching all in French in a traditional, expository way, to TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). I did have more success with TPRS than with any method prior to that. What I hadn't yet completely understood, however, was that when we stay "in-bounds," and use language that is understood immediately by students, magic begins to occur. You may well be sensing that I have moved away from TPRS even though it seemed to contain the very nugget of truth that I needed for the most effective L2 acquisition class. But using Blaine Ray's TPRS method wore me completely out and took everything out of me. I had never been more exhausted and the interrogation-type questioning patterns eventually bored my students. Please understand that I have the utmost respect for TPRS and for Blaine Ray. Without having used that method, I would never have discovered my classroom "truth" for today.
Things are "clicking" for me now in the classroom; it's electric. For the first time in my career, I can speak to my students 100% in French and know in my heart that they understand every single word and every idiomatic expression. In fact, my colleague who teaches Spanish told me that in his 20 years of teaching at The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts (ASMSA), he had never heard students speaking French independently of the classroom until this past year. I just finished my second year at ASMSA. I apologize if I sound as if I am selling something. If I were, I would have already tried a "click-bait" tactic.
What changed for me? What happened? Well, over a year ago, at our state convention for world language teachers, I attended the "French Immersion" workshop led by a teacher from Missouri at Pipkin Middle School whose name is Kristopher Morehead. He was showing student sample work and what he does in the classroom. He had videos of him teaching and various hard data that made an impression on me. What drew me in, however, was his passion and conviction that what he was doing was a secret ingredient. And when I saw the video of him teaching, I knew that he was right. I said to myself, "I have got to have what he has. That is the kind of teacher I want to be". When he showed us the videos of him leading his class, it was the point-of-no-return for me. He explained that he uses a method called the "Accelerative Integrated Method" or "AIM". I started doing research. I started digging. I was sold.
Is it as good as it sounds? For me, it has been. It is the elixir I was looking for. Okay, what is the catch? Well, the catch is that as a teacher, you have to put some time in outside of the classroom learning the gestures for all the vocabulary. I did spend last summer learning all those for the first kit. One other inconvenience is that the kit is geared a tad bit more for learners younger than mine. If I had been a new teacher, I am not sure I would have been able to bridge the method with my current learners. As a veteran teacher, I was more than willing to do this. The technique truly is that good.
What about this method? Well, it's 100% French. No negotiations. You follow the script. You respect absolutely full and total immersion with the knowledge that your students understand you every step of the way. But this post has gone long enough. I will tell you more about AIM and provide some sample student work in my next post. Some teachers may have completely different ideas about what works, and that's great. Remember that the title of this piece begins with "my truth". Yours may be different. Thank you for reading.
