My Passion
“My passion is twofold: training teachers using comprehensible-input methods and strategies as well as teaching French using these same techniques. CI helps language classes come alive and allows students to enjoy acquiring a second language more naturally.”
Donna Tatum-JohnsMaking Language Come Alive
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My Passion
“My passion is twofold: teaching French and English (ELL) using comprehensible-input (CI) methods and strategies, as well as training teachers in these same techniques. CI helps language classes come alive and allows students to enjoy acquiring a second language more naturally.”
Donna Tatum-JohnsMaking Language Come Alive
Read MoreBook Donna
Dispelling the Myth
There is an illusion in the U.S. that it takes someone extremely smart to learn a second language. Learning to SPEAK a language, is a natural and unconscious process. It’s learning ABOUT the language that requires work. Language brings people together. It unites. Even when it is not perfect, it connects us and builds bridges. At its core, it is all about communication. It is just what we do.
Language Acquisition
It’s all about Communication
Most adults can tell you that they ‘learned’ another language in high school or in college, but that they can’t speak a word. This is the unfortunate normal in our culture. This has much more to do with the way they were taught, than with their own language learning ability. The mistake we make in our classrooms today, is in teaching about a language, instead of actually engaging our students in the target language using words that they understand. When children learn to speak, they don’t do so by listening to rules of grammar and conjugation. They naturally acquire it. They are learning through communication with us. We interact with our children and make the language comprehensible. They understand it before they can even speak it.
”...The linguistic system is implicit. We do not think about breathing, we just breathe. When we have a typical conversation, we do not think about communicating, we just communicate.
Dr. Stephen KrashenLinguist
Donna’s Tool Box
Tools for Effortless Learning
Today, we have several incredible tools available that assist in the acquisition of language. My teaching emphasizes a comprehensible input-based approach which includes a multi-dimensional toolbox of storytelling, reading, music, film and video, student engagement and laughter. I simplify this process and am able to demonstrate how to combine these tools in a classroom setting and for a variety of age groups.. While constantly working to revise and strengthen my teaching practices, I have also traveled across the country and to Haiti, training teachers how to use these CI strategies (or techniques) in their own classrooms. My vision is to help the language teacher create a positive classroom experience that will lead students to proficiency and confidence with a new language.
StoryTelling
Video
Reading
