Workshops and presentations

Sounds like a lot of hassle? That's what I thought. On the contrary, getting a class library is the most relaxing thing you can do for yourself and your students. Differentiated? Tick! Individualized? Tick! Compelling comprehensible Input? Tick, tick, tick! And even better, it is research-based and needs much less prep or funds than you thought. Come in and find out!

Which are the most important, most basic techniques of teaching with CI and TPRS? Making sure that your students understand everything you say in the target language, providing repeated exposure to new language elements in a creative way and building a lively interaction with your students. In this workshop you will learn how this all works.

In 2024, I travelled to Canada, Switzerland and Germany to learn more about CI teaching. I visited three different CI teachers in different school settings, observed their classes and discussed their various pedagogical approaches with them. In this presentation I will reflect on what I learned and how it has influenced my teaching back in the UK.

Designing great CI lessons starts with knowing your goals. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to choose or create engaging, comprehensible input activities that match what your students need to succeed. We’ll explore how to plan with purpose, use activities for strengthening skills or even for assessment purposes. You’ll leave with a ready-to-use collection of meaningful CI activities that align with your instructional goals. 

For those who have seen Kathrin’s presentation on Story Listening at this conference or in earlier years, this session will give you the next step towards doing Story Listening in your own classroom. We choose suitable stories, prepare it and try it out. You will leave with a ready-to-go story to use in your classes.

It can be hard to find interesting, suitable text for your beginning students to read. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to use book creator, AI and digital tools to create engaging interactive reading texts for beginning language learners. Bring your laptop so you can walk away with first materials right away!

Are you new to CI and convinced that you would like to change things around in your language classes? Have you received so much incredible input about this approach but don’t know where and how to start? Are you used to teaching with a traditional textbook and don’t want to (or can’t) abandon it completely? This presentation will help you take your first steps. You will receive some valuable tips that make the transition easy and achievable. 

A One Word Image is a character that is created by the whole class through your questioning and the collective use of imagination. It is usually a random object that is given the characteristics of a person.

One of the students draws the image, so that it can be used later for more literacy. OWIs are great and flexible as standalone activities. We can also use them to create characters for a TPRS story or a story-listening.

How do we support young language learners who are still learning to read, or haven’t started yet, in their first language? This session explores practical, CI-based strategies for working with pre-literate children and early readers. Learn how to deliver rich, engaging input that builds comprehension and supports emerging literacy without relying on decoding. You’ll leave with low-prep activities, classroom routines, and tips to help budding readers thrive in your language classroom. 

In a Story Listening class, the teacher selects an appropriate and suitable story for the students’ age, language level, and interests and then tells the story to the students in class. The story is told with the support of drawings, as well as other support, such as occasional translation, to make the aural input comprehensible. Story Listening is an amazing opportunity to provide optimal input. Stories are interesting, rich and use a lot of vocabulary and expressions in context.

When should you teach grammar, how and why? Can both proficiency and grammar approaches be used in the same classroom? Can these approaches be reconciled?  This is not a new dilemma, since Erasmus of Rotterdam already stated that, “it is not by learning rules that we acquire the power of speaking a language, but by daily intercourse with those accustomed to express themselves with exactness and refinement, and by the copious reading of the best authors."

You will leave this practical session with ideas and resources to teaching grammar efficiently, naturally and meaningfully.

Do you like to use short movies in your classes and do you feel that you're not yet getting the most out of it? Do your students like short movies and would you like to use movies to your advantage? Then this workshop is perfect for you: activities and conversations based on engaging videos.

What is there in the wild and magical world of CI teaching to satisfy our needs to give grades or feedback? We don't want to quash our students' love for the language and ideally use the time for the exam well for another round of compelling comprehensible input. And is it possible to grade fairly even when some students have prior (and private) exposure to the language and others come to our class without any knowledge?

Stuck with a textbook but want to teach with Comprehensible Input? This presentation shows you how to align CI strategies with textbook units so you can meet curriculum goals and deliver rich, engaging input. Learn how to adapt exercises, plan around target structures, and bring textbook content to life through stories, conversation, and meaningful communication. 

In his keynote speech, Bryce shares with us he scientific support for reading in the classroom, combined with some hi-impact reading strategies. In this keynote you can expect to learn both principles and practice — the why and the how — of Second Language Acquisition theory and solid classroom practices that apply to teaching.