As I sit here and write this post I have a hard time with the title of this post and the phrase “Comprehensible Input.” It seems that these days this is a term only connected to a philosophy of teaching. However, for me, this phrase means a lot more than that. When I refer to comprehensible input, I am referring to using any means possible to make a connection to the second language for students. If language is not understood by the receiver, then communication is not taking place.
I can stand in front of my classroom and use the target language all day long and it really means nothing to students unless I give them some input to help them comprehend. So it doesn’t matter if you are a CI methods follower or a teacher trying to stay in the target language, the following ideas can help you teach staying in the language. Remember the goal in the language classroom is to stay in the target language 90% of the time.
Picture Talk
The easiest strategy to use to teach language is picture talk. Picture talks are simply using any still image to teach vocabulary and other concepts. The pictures should be relatable to students, connect to your unit theme, and can be funny or humorous. You can use any picture you find on the Internet, in a coloring book, or drawn by students or yourself.
This strategy is so easy that I use it at least weekly in my classroom but sometimes I use pictures every day. You don’t have to stick with one image. You can use multiple images to teach language or even a series of images like a comic strip.
The idea of a picture talk is more than using an image to teach a word (although that is totally OK). It is a way to use complete sentences, thoughts, and ideas.
True or False
This is also an easy tool to use with students. It is such a simple activity that people often overlook it. Students create their own true or false statements based on a video or article they read. Students “quiz” their peers and the peer group or partner will answer. This gives students a chance to “create” language and show what they have learned.
This activity is super low prep for the teacher and can actually be used along with picture talks or movie talks (discussed later). This is a great way for students to play with language, the words they are learning, and how they ask questions.
Movie Talk
I LOVE movie talks. They never fail to engage an audience of teenagers. You can screenshot images of a full-length movie, a video short, or selected scenes to provide comprehensible input in the target language. The videos can provide the plot and take away the stress of students having to create their own story. Read this post to learn a more step by step approach to using movie talks in the classroom. If you haven’t tried a movie talk yet, here are a few premade ones ready to go.
Volley Viewing
Volley viewing is based on choral reading strategies. Since ASL does not have a written form, this activity can be tweaked as a viewing activity. You can do this in partners or groups of three. Student number 1 watches a line of a video and signs it to student number 2. Student number 2 says what the meaning is in English and signs the next line to students number 3 and the process continues.
You can do this with a written text to have students put written text into language. This way does not connect to comprehensible input unless you use another strategy to give the information in the written text then move to this activity. For example, you tell a children’s story by using the book images then watch the story in ASL and do a movie talk. After that, the story is given to students to do a volley reading.
These strategies for teaching language work very well with each other and can be scaffolded to connect. You can show images connected to Deaf President Now and tell the story using the images. You can watch a video about DPN pausing to give the information. Then have students create questions for true or false and then give an article or video about DPN for students to do a volley reading.
I hope you can use these four strategies to stay in the target language while using comprehensible input. Tiptoe in by trying these one at a time. Good luck!
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