A practical guide to teaching with compelling, comprehensible input (CI)
Three part online workshop on the motivational impact of teaching languages through compelling, comprehensible inputs (CI).
How is the workshop structured?
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Availability:
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About the presenter
- Dr. Liam Printer is a published author and has been a teacher of English, French & Spanish in a variety of settings for over 16 years. He currently teaches Spanish at The International School of Lausanne in Switzerland where he is also the ‘Leader of Pedagogical Innovation’, focusing on bringing research into classroom practice. Liam has been teaching with a CI-based approach for over 9 years and has been invited to present on CI techniques and deliver the Keynote address at the Agen CI Conference in France, The Dynamic Language Learning Conference in The Netherlands as well as a number of CI conferences in the US. He has been invited as the Keynote speaker at a number of other leading International Language Learning conferences and he also lectures on the Post-graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course with the University of Durham and the International School of Geneva. He completed his Doctorate on ‘the motivational pull of teaching languages through storytelling with CI’ at the University of Bath. Liam now hosts The Motivated Classroom podcast which has had over 280,000 downloads of its almost 100 episodes to date.
What is ‘teaching with CI’?
- CI stands for ‘comprehensible input’. After over 40 years of research, it is widely accepted by language acquisition scholars that humans ‘acquire’ languages implicitly and naturally through receiving lots of rich, interesting and comprehensible inputs.
- Teaching with a CI based approach involves helping learners to acquire language naturally by listening and reading. It focuses primarily on establishing meaning rather than on grammatical accuracy and form.
- While communication and understanding is the central focus, grammar instruction is still present in the CI classroom but it is minimised as the goal is to help students to acquire the language rather than learn about the language.
- A CI approach includes lots of learner autonomy; subtly moving the focus towards the learner, their interests, their passions and helping them to communicate what they want to communicate rather than what the textbook tells us they should say.
- The CI based classroom uses research based strategies and techniques to talk with the students rather than talk at the students.
- CI based approaches have been shown in research to be highly motivating and engaging, resulting in higher retention and uptake of languages.
Who is this course aimed at?
- The 3-part workshop on 'Teaching with CI' is aimed at both new and experienced language acquisition teachers of additional languages.
- It is principally aimed at those teachers who have heard about the Comprehensible Input (CI) approach and want to learn more and see it in action; as well as those who are new to CI or consider themselves 'Novice CI teachers'.
- I try to ensure there is something for everyone in the course through collecting pre-course feedback and planning the sessions accordingly.
- A key focus of this workshop is giving teachers the tools to be able to provide content to learners which is both comprehensible and compelling.
What will I be learning?
- The workshop provides an in-depth introduction to CI strategies, approaches and techniques for your classroom.
- Whilst the course also provides a brief overview of the theory and research behind teaching with a CI approach, it principally revolves around zero-prep, practical, classroom strategies designed to provide rich, compelling, comprehensible inputs (CI) that you can implement right away.
- We will go through some of my favourite, daily, CI activities stemming from research based evidence around intrinsic motivation and developing communication.
- A key goal of this workshop is to provide participants with strategies and approaches that will raise engagement and motivation in your classes resulting in quicker acquisition of the language through intent listening and reading.
- For parts of the day you will be ‘students’ in my class, acquiring a language naturally through the eyes of a learner using CI based approaches.
- At the end of the workshop, participants will have the tools and resources to try out the following techniques in their classrooms:
- Special person interviews
- Creating an invisible character
- Movie-Talk and Clip-Chat
- Picture-Talk
- Building a co-created TPRS story
Where can I get more information?
| Online Workshop - Teaching with CI - Full details 2023 |
What previous attendees said about the workshop:
The Motivated Classroom CI Workshop provides such an excellent balance of theory/research and practical tips, along with opportunities for participants to practice skills. The workshop has encouraged me to consider my practice and how I may be able to improve my teaching. I am excited to work to improve my teaching skills in the coming year and am grateful for a supportive community in my fellow workshop participants to reach out to along the way.
I came away feeling confident that I had some engaging and compelling tasks that I could use immediately in my lessons. It was very interesting to be able to get specific tasks and activities that we could then practice and discuss with other teachers across the globe, in lots of different contexts - it really helped me look at my context from a different perspective and start thinking about changing things up!
- Kathryn, Japanese teacher, Australia
- Antonia, Spanish teacher, Austria
- Lucy, French and Spanish teacher, UK
I came away feeling confident that I had some engaging and compelling tasks that I could use immediately in my lessons. It was very interesting to be able to get specific tasks and activities that we could then practice and discuss with other teachers across the globe, in lots of different contexts - it really helped me look at my context from a different perspective and start thinking about changing things up!
- Joanna, French teacher, UK
- Amanda, French teacher, Canada
- Arwen, French teacher, Canada
- Shelly, Italian teacher, Boston MA
- Irina, French teacher, Canada.
- Lexandra, Spanish teacher, elementary. Quebec.
What is included in the course fee?
Included in the €160 course fee:
10% of every booking fee goes directly towards two projects that are close to my heart:
- Three x 1.5 hour online, interactive, live workshops.
- Recordings of the three sessions for you to go back through them in more detail.
- Pre-course questionnaire analysis.
- Post-course e-mail support.
- Three Q&A videos within 24 hours of each session.
- All presentations, handouts and resources will be provided digitally.
- A post-course certificate of attendance entitled "One day workshop on teaching with comprehensible input".
10% of every booking fee goes directly towards two projects that are close to my heart:
- The Rainforest Trust environmental protection project to help save our planet from destruction.
- Providing sporting and integration opportunities to refugees with the EVAM refugee welcome centres in Switzerland.
Sounds great! How do I sign-up?
- Places are limited and are allocated on a first come first served basis.
- The last three times this workshop has been delivered it was FULLY BOOKED well in advance of the first session.
- Click here to pre-register your interest and sign-up to receive an email when the workshop is available for registration.
- People on the pre-registration mailing list receive the booking details 1 week before it is announced as open to the general public.
Group bookings / Purchase orders:
- If you require a purchase order for your school or a pro-forma invoice, please contact me with the details required.
- Places are not secure until the payment has been made.