Misnomers and Misunderstandings

Over 24 hours after the whirlwind of conversations I have had with language educators of all parts of the spectrum responding to  my post, When Labels Hurt, and I am thinking hard. By the way, this is actually attempt 2 at this follow up post since the 3/4's of a draft I had written disappeared into thin air. Yeah. A blogger's nightmare. So, this post will be the condensed version, which will probably be better. Here's what I have learned today:

About the TPRS Community...

• They have wounds, too.
• They have been damaged by their own radical colleagues, too.
• They hate the baggage that comes with the label, but believe in what they are doing.
• They are aware of, sad about and ready to heal the division in our field, too.
• They are very willing to come to the table and talk.
• They denounce the bullies of their community.
• They made up a large part of the conversation today. Thank you all!

On Related Issues...

• Those language teachers who have "seen the light" quickly forget that the vast majority haven't and sometimes get high and mighty about their newly found knowledge.
• Comprehensible Input is not exclusive to any one methodology, but must be the foundation of any proficiency based language program.
• That being true, that makes all of us CI or TCI teachers.
• Most proficiency driven language teachers are doing mostly the same things depending on their level of experience and knowledge in SLA.
• If we want our students to be proficient users of another language, we have to teach them how to understand first in order for them to develop a sense of trust and dependency on the new language, thus the need for CI.
• Most language teachers who seek to develop student language proficiency are hybridized in some way, shape or form because no matter what their primary methods are they are constantly on the lookout for what is compelling, relevant and exciting to students to learn.
• Fortunately, several teachers shared they had no idea there was this fissure in the field and were surprised to hear about it.

A Closing, Gratitude and a Little Edification
The day is done, and conversations have quieted down. The fear I had in posting that blog post has been chased away by overwhelming support and solidarity which is pretty amazing. I am again overwhelmed by the incredible PLN I have and their passion for their work and for their community. Thank you to every single one of you who chatted with me today, sent me messages, posted comments on my blog, emailed me, shared and reshared the post, and quietly liked what you saw to show support. The conversation was wonderful, positive and enlightening. I am so grateful to be connected to so many talented, passionate, professional and mindful language educators. I am so grateful they value me enough to respond to this call and include me in their circle. Sometimes, when I really let the thought of all that sink in I get teary-eyed at how blessed this little, hick of a West Texas girl is to have been given so much just for choosing this career. I am so thankful for all of it!!

I leave you tonight to encourage you to keep the conversations going. Pull people into the conversation and find ways to connect or collaborate with someone who does things a little differently than you. I know I am going to. There is so much we can learn from each other. Finally, while I would probably not say that I am a TPRS teacher, I am adopting TCI because that is what I am and it inhabits everything I do. So, when do I get my membership card???

Happy Coaching!

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