General Thoughts on CI - 10

In my view, the real point of CI is not to focus on the method or the materials. It’s not a method but a framework within which to create naturally unfolding language.

The unplanned framework allows us convey to our students a sense of wonder and awe that such a thing could have happened, that such characters could really have existed and done those things. It also keeps us fresh and from going crazy teaching the same thing five times a day.

We work within the CI framework primarily with our voice – its timbre and tonality and speed (slow!) to ask questions about a tableau or story in a way that generates unplanned marvel and wonder. Think of reading a bedtime story to a child. Do CI that way. But you aren’t reading the story; you’re making it up with your students. We’re not teachers and they’re not students; we are partners in language creation.

Children learn languages because of the way we say them – because of the meaning we put into them, because of the mystery. We inflect, we express surprise, we express wonder, we learn to dance with our students using our voices. We are so proud, so deeply proud of them, that they know such things, things even we didn’t know – about the details of the story. That’s the game.

If we do that, the kids will NEED to tell us more details. We welcome that ouptut in whatever language, their cute answers, for what they really are – pennies from heaven. The Standard is Communication, not accuracy.