This is the second of five in the series Giving students VOICE.

The phrase “express yourself” might conjure up memories of the non-Biblical Madonna for those of a certain age.  Or it could just sound artsy-fartsy* to you.  In the context of school, we have limited subjects to which “express yoursel...

 This is the first of five in the series Giving students VOICE.

¿Donde es la biblioteca?  Many of you can relate.  You took a year or two of Spanish or another language in high school or college, but you were at a loss when it came to speaking the language when the class was over, and you definitel...

In the previous post promised a lesson, so here we go! It's a slightly condensed version to keep the email from stretching a mile. This exercise is excellent for beginners through intermediate, but I also use it as the basis for building exercises for more advanced students.

Step 1. Ask your studen...

Oof. I got “clothed” again a few days before writing this.  During a lower level English class I was visiting, the instructor had a page projected with a dozen pictures of clothing items.  The screen showed the usual clothing vocabulary: shirt, shoes, hat, etc., but also overcoat and underpants. Ove...

A key starting point for successful language training begins with this question: “What’s your teacher to student word ratio?” How many words do you speak in class compared to each student?  

I recently evaluated a class where the instructor probably had a 300:1 teacher to student word ratio.  I’m n...