Teacher Professional Development Workshops, Certification, & Resources
Teacher Training Workshops
Special Summer Workshop for Teacher Professional Development: Each summer at the CALA Language Institute, we offer language teachers a one-week, 12.5-hour workshop. It is designed to greatly enhance your foreign language teaching methods. We help you practice the skills of using comprehensible input methods such as TPR (Total Physical Response) and TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). This workshop is FREE for any teacher who takes a CALA language class during or prior to the workshop. For full details of the workshop and registration, please click the link below.
On-Site Teacher Professional Development / In-Service Workshops: CALA offers on-site and customized in-service trainings for teachers throughout the year. For complete detail, please see "Teachers" under our Services page.
Teacher Certification
Are you in the field of language education? Do you need some teacher professional development ideas? CALA can help! We are pleased to offer teachers a well-rounded program for certification in the use of comprehensible input tools to teach world languages. This 140-hour certification program features instruction in brain-based teaching and learning. It also gives participants the opportunity to practice techniques through CALA internships. Please follow the link below for complete details.
- Teacher Certification Program (Full Detail)
Workshop Materials
- Brain-Based Teaching and TPR
- Classroom Strategies for Engagement and Comprehensible Input (Eric Jensen Publications)
- Steps for TPR and TPRS Lesson Planning (with Processing Activities): TPR | TPRS
- TPR Lesson Plan (1 Hour with Assessment): English | Spanish | French
- TPRS Lesson Plan: English | Spanish | French
- Materials (TPR/TPRS): English | Spanish | French
Teacher Resources
- Brain-Based Elements for Lesson Planning
- Brain-Based Lesson Plan for Any Subject
- Teacher's Discovery: Offers a wealth of resources for language education. Of key interest are their affordable,
3-ring binder dictionaries (linked below), which are recommended by CALA and high
school TPR/TPRS teacher, Jason Simpson: "One of the bigger logistical issues I've
faced over the year with an off-the-grid curriculum is having a dictionary-type resource
for students. Even if I assigned textbooks to them, there are tons of basic and fun
TPR words that they wouldn't be able to look back up as needed . . . because the words
aren't in the textbook. Unfortunately, they're some of the words that make the TPR
the most fun. So, if I want to guarantee that my students can look up words independently,
I have to have a full [dictionary] for the entire curriculum."
- Online Resources (Free!)
- 10-Minute Lesson Plan
- Created by Eric Jensen, this tool lets you build a brain-compatible lesson plan in a variety of subjects (free with registration).
- About.com French
- A regular article series on French language, culture, and history.
- Conjuguemos
- A classroom management tool for teachers of French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, and Spanish. Teachers create exercises and quizzes; students log in to take them. Scores are automatically tabulated in a gradebook (free to start; donation requested to continue).
- Duolingo
- Learners process target language vocabulary through a variety of processing activities. Now available on an app for handheld devices.
- Edmodo
- A social networking site for teachers and their classrooms.
- French in Action
- A video instructional series (52 hours total) for high school, collegiate, and adult learners of French.
- Kahoot!
- A game-based system that allows participants to answer questions interactively through a web-based interface.
- Lingua.ly
- With a format like that of Duolingo, users can read real articles from a number of sources and collect unknown words, which are then "collected" for drilling and practice (many languages available).
- Linguee
- This is a multilingual dictionary. Unlike many other translators, however, this resource scours the web and finds real articles, ads, and other web content that features your search word (or phrase) in context!
- Mindsnacks
- Learn a variety of languages (and other topics) with this free app (for Apple devices).
- Peppa Pig
- Children's video series for learning French.
- Quizlet
- Create vocabulary banks that are drilled through a variety of games (free basic account).
- Spanish4Teachers
- Lesson plans, activities, and teacher tools for Spanish.
- Tea with BVP (Bill Van Patten)
- This weekly radio broadcast discusses issues in second language acquisition--with humor! Moderated by noted linguist Bill Van Patten.
- TEX's French Grammar
- Explanation of and exercises for discrete grammar points in French. Characters and story lines make it fun.
- TPRS Teacher
- A comprehensive collection of TPRS handouts--prepared by Kristin Duncan.
- TV5Monde
- Lots of listening, reading, and vocabulary exercises based on French television clips (several levels of difficulty available).
- 10-Minute Lesson Plan
Do you know of another resources not listed here that could benefit our teachers? Please let us know at acceleratedacquisition@gmail.com. Thank you!
Bibliography
CALA is grateful to the following authors for their pioneering work in delivering comprehensible input in the classroom. We recommend these seminal texts for anyone wanting to know the theoretical and practical bases in support of teaching using comprehensible input:
Asher, J. (1982). Learning another language through actions: The complete teacher's guidebook (7th ed.). Los Gatos, CA: Sky Oaks Productions. *Description: The original book about Total Physical Response: research, sample lessons, questions and answers, and much more.
Jensen, E. (2003). Tools for engagement: Managing emotional states for learning success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Description: Leading speaker on brain-based learning
Eric Jensen describes the importance of managing learner emotional and cognitive states
to promote effective long-term learning. Includes practical ideas and activities for
keeping students engaged and learning.
Krashen, S. (1997). Foreign language education: The easy way. Culver City, CA: Language Education Associates. *Description: In this little treasure,
the world’s leading second-language acquisition theorist expounds in brief his hypotheses,
most notably that comprehensible input results in language acquisition. He proposes
what he believes constitute the components of an effective foreign language program
at various stages of acquisition, emphasizing ways to provide aural comprehensible
input as well as reading. He deals with various practical issues, among them differences
between foreign-language programs and second-language programs as well as activities
that are effective for bringing about true competence in a second or foreign language
and activities that are not.
Ray, B., & Seely, S. (1998). Fluency through TPR Storytelling: Achieving real language acquisition in school (7th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Command Performance Language Institute. *Description: The definitive treatment of TPR Storytelling by the originator and by a longtime TPR teacher/author. From day one students understand everything they hear and read in their new language and are answering numerous questions about stories. Shows how to keep students acquiring with fascination at every level. Includes a chapter on how to adapt a “standard” textbook to use TPRS.
Roberts, B., & Thomas, S. (2014). Center for Accelerated Language Acquisition (CALA) test scores: Another look at the value of implicit language instruction through comprehensible input. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 10(1). Retrieved from http://mtsu.edu/cala/research.php. Description: CALA test scores reveal that its special approach to comprehensible input results in accelerated acquisition--up to six times faster than students in typical high school classes.
*Description from the Command Performance Language Institute (CPLI) website
