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What if some of the most common beliefs about language teaching are actually getting in the way of acquisition?

In this special episode of Growing With Proficiency, I sit down with Dr. Bill VanPatten for a powerful conversation originally livestreamed in the IFLT Facebook group as part of CI Reboot.

Dr. VanPatten helps us unpack two foundational myths about second language acquisition: the idea that learners internalize grammar rules and patterns, and the idea that children and adults acquire language in completely different ways.

We also talk about what this means for world language teachers who are trying to teach with comprehensible input, communication, and proficiency in mind while still navigating textbooks, pacing guides, standards, and assessments.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

✨ Why learners do not acquire language by memorizing grammar rules

✨ Dr. VanPatten’s “linguistic acorn” metaphor

✨ Why acquisition takes time, input, and interaction

✨ What teachers can do when they are required to follow a traditional curriculum

✨ How to think about assessment when students acquire language at different rates

✨ Why teachers need to understand acquisition in order to advocate for their programs

Whether you are new to comprehensible input or have been teaching with an acquisition-driven approach for years, this episode will give you clarity, encouragement, and language to keep moving toward a more communicative classroom.

So grab your cafecito and join us for this important conversation about second language acquisition, comprehensible input, grammar, communication, and the myths that may still be shaping our classrooms.

🎧 Press play and let’s grow together.

Resources

📌 Dr. Bill VanPatten’s books on Amazon:
While We’re on the Topic
The Nature of Language
Language Acquisition in a Nutshell
Cuentos cortos

📌 Download the free Teacher Guide:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/teacherguide

📌 Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

📌 Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott

📌 Growing With CI FB Community

📌Blog

📌 Teacher Pay Teachers Store

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Have you ever looked at your students and wondered:

"Why aren't they communicating in the language?"

In this special episode of Growing With Proficiency, the tables are turned as my friend and fellow educator, Bethanie Carlson Drew, steps in as host and interviews me about my journey from lawyer to language teacher, the challenges that transformed my classroom, and the lessons I've learned along the way.

Together, we explore what happened when I realized that despite teaching vocabulary, grammar, and textbook lessons, my students still weren't communicating in Spanish the way I hoped they would.

That realization led me down a path of professional growth, curiosity, and discovery that completely changed how I think about language teaching, comprehensible input, and second language acquisition.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

✨ The powerful teaching advice my mother gave me that still shapes my classroom today

✨ Why following the textbook wasn't producing the communication outcomes I wanted

✨ The moment I discovered second language acquisition research and how it transformed my practice

✨ How comprehensible input and meaningful communication support language acquisition

✨ Why asking one personal question every day can strengthen relationships and increase student engagement

✨ The importance of professional learning and finding a community that supports your growth

✨ Three practical ways to begin creating a more communicative and comprehension-based language classroom

Whether you're new to proficiency-based teaching or you've been teaching world languages for years, this conversation will encourage you to reflect on your practice, embrace growth, and focus on what truly helps students acquire language.

If you've ever felt frustrated that your students know about the language but struggle to use it, this episode is for you.

So grab your cafecito and join us for an honest conversation about language acquisition, communicative language teaching, comprehensible input, professional growth, and the courage to change.

🎧 Press play and let's grow together.

Resources 

📌 Student reflection survey.

📌 Download the free Teacher Guide:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/teacherguide

📌 Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

📌 Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott

📌 Growing With CI FB Community

📌Blog

📌 Teacher Pay Teachers Store

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At the end of every school year, I ask my students one question:

What activity or strategy helped you grow the most in Spanish this year?

This year, their answers surprised me.

Some students chose Daily Personal Questions. Others selected Silent Sustained Reading. Some preferred podcasts, cultural articles, Calendar Talk, Star Student Interviews, content-based units, or creating stories.

What stood out most?

Nobody agreed.

And that led me to an important realization about language acquisition, student engagement, and comprehensible input.

In this episode of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, I reflect on what my students taught me about Dr. Stephen Krashen's concept of optimal input and why the search for the "perfect" activity may be keeping us from creating truly sustainable language classes.

If you've ever wondered how to keep students engaged while providing rich, comprehensible input throughout the entire school year, this episode is for you.

✨ In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why there is no single activity that every student finds engaging or effective

• What my students' survey responses revealed about language acquisition

• How to provide compelling, comprehensible, rich, and abundant input

• Why students need multiple entry points into the language

• How daily routines like Silent Sustained Reading, Calendar Talk, podcasts, and Daily Personal Questions support acquisition

• Why 50 or 90 minutes of any one activity can become exhausting

• The planning shift that transformed my classroom and reduced decision fatigue

• How routines create a more sustainable world language classroom

Whether you teach Spanish, French, German, Latin, Chinese, or another language, this episode will help you rethink student engagement and build a classroom that is both acquisition-driven and sustainable.

🎧 Listen now.

Resources Mentioned

🖥️ CIReboot 2026

📌 Student reflection survey.

📌 Download the free Teacher Guide:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/teacherguide

📌 Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

📌 Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott

📌 Growing With CI FB Community

📌Blog

📌 Teacher Pay Teachers Store

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What actually helped students learn this year?

As language teachers, it's easy to spend our end-of-year reflection focused on what didn't work. In Episode 191, I shared some of the challenges I faced this year. In Episode 192, I reflected on behavior, classroom culture, relationships, expectations, and the lessons I learned from a particularly challenging freshman class.

But reflection isn't only about identifying problems.

It's also about paying attention to what worked.

After surveying 158 students and reading every response, I noticed three themes that kept appearing. Interestingly, none of them were new strategies or trendy activities. Instead, they were reminders of the foundations that have guided my teaching for years.

In this episode, I share:

✔ Why strong student-teacher relationships continue to be one of the most powerful tools for language acquisition

✔ What my students' feedback revealed about classroom community and belonging

✔ How stories, reading, and meaningful communication continue to support student growth

✔ Why students consistently named routines like Free Voluntary Reading and daily conversations among their favorite activities

✔ What student survey data taught me about engagement, structure, and success in the world language classroom

✔ The feedback students gave me about vocabulary support, group activities, classroom noise, and participation

If you're reflecting on your own school year, planning for next year, or looking for ways to create a more engaging and effective language classroom, this episode will help you identify the practices worth keeping.

Resources Mentioned

📌 Download the free Teacher Guide:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/teacherguide

📌 Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

📌 Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott

📌 Growing With CI FB Community

📌Blog

📌 Teacher Pay Teachers Store

Send us Fan Mail

¿Tus estudiantes conocen las expectativas de tu clase, pero aun así siguen apareciendo interrupciones, conversaciones paralelas o dificultades para mantener la atención?

En este episodio comparto tres lecciones sobre comportamiento que aprendí este año después de reflexionar sobre mis clases, analizar las encuestas de mis estudiantes y observar los desafíos que surgieron incluso en grupos donde existían buenas relaciones y una cultura positiva.

Hablamos sobre:

✅ Por qué las relaciones con nuestros estudiantes son esenciales, pero no enseñan habilidades de interacción.

✅ Cómo la claridad de expectativas y consecuencias pierde fuerza cuando no va acompañada de consistencia.

✅ Por qué muchos problemas de comportamiento pueden ser en realidad problemas de habilidad y no de actitud.

✅ Las estructuras y apoyos que planeo implementar el próximo año para ayudar a mis estudiantes a tener más éxito.

✅ Cómo reflexionar sobre nuestro manejo de clase sin caer en la culpa ni en la frustración.

Este episodio es una conversación honesta sobre lo que aprendí este año, los errores que cometí y los cambios que haré para seguir construyendo una cultura de aprendizaje basada en la conexión, la consistencia y el crecimiento.

Si estás cerrando el año escolar y pensando en lo que quieres mantener, cambiar o mejorar para el próximo año, este episodio es para ti.

Recursos mencionados en este episodio

📌 Descarga gratuitamente el Cuaderno de Reflexión para Fin de Año y la Encuesta para Estudiantes:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/reflections

📌 Lee el blog completo de este episodio

📌 Únete a la lista de espera de Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy: https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

🎧 Escúchalo y luego cuéntame: ¿qué lección sobre comportamiento aprendiste tú este año?

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As language teachers, we love sharing strategies that work. But what about the strategies that suddenly stop working? What happens when activities that worked for years begin falling apart, student engagement drops, and classroom dynamics feel different than before?

In this honest end-of-the-year reflection, I’m sharing what did NOT work in my Spanish classroom this year, and the important lessons I learned about classroom management, student engagement, comprehensible input, routines, relationships, and structure.

In this episode, I reflect on:
✨ Why some communicative activities and partner work stopped working
✨ The difference between movement and structured interaction✨ Why clear expectations without clear consequences created tension
✨ How relying only on relationships and classroom connections was not enough
✨ The importance of routines, accountability, and consistent classroom management
✨ What I learned about disengagement, scaffolding, and supporting struggling students
✨ How student feedback surveys helped me recognize important patterns in my teaching

This conversation is about recognizing that teaching is deeply connected to context, relationships, structure, and flexibility.

If you’ve ever ended the school year questioning your classroom management, wondering why certain strategies failed, or feeling frustrated by student behavior and disengagement, this episode is for you.

Resources:

• End-Of-The-Year Reflection Took with Student Survey
• Becca Silver’s episode: “Students Didn’t Meet Expectations? Why That’s Not the Real Problem”
• “How Do We Support Neurodivergent Learners in the World Language Classroom? Designing Inclusive Classrooms”
• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy
• Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott
• Growing With CI FB Community
• Blog
• Teacher Pay Teachers Store

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You see a 60-second classroom video on social media. Students are engaged, speaking, producing. And you go straight to: "That is not happening in my class. Something is wrong with me."

But you're missing the other 44 minutes — the class size, the school, the context behind that clip.

In this episode, Claudia sits down with world language teacher Dahiana Castro to talk about something our profession doesn't say enough: every strategy has to meet your context. That's not a limitation — that's good teaching.

This is not about lowering expectations. Your students can and do grow. But a strategy that works with 15 motivated students in a selective program will likely need real adaptation for a class of 37 in an under-resourced public school — and making that call is a valid, professional decision.

In this episode:

• Why that viral classroom video is missing more context than you think
• The real factors that shape whether a strategy succeeds
• How to adapt strategies for your actual students — not the ideal ones
• Why blanket statements like "if you do X, students will do Y" ignore real classroom complexity
• How to reflect at year's end without the shame spiral

The goal isn't to replicate what you saw online. It's to ask: how can this work here, with these students?

🔗 Resources & Links:

• 📋 Free reflection resource + student survey: growingwithproficiency.com/reflection
• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy
• Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott
• Growing With CI FB Community
• Blog
• Teacher Pay Teachers Store

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If you’ve ever wanted your students to feel genuinely excited before reading a novel or watching a movie in class, this episode is for you.

In this conversation, I sit down with Rita Barrett, an outstanding Spansih teacher, to talk about the Tea Party strategy, an engaging pre-reading activity where students become characters from the story before they even begin reading.

Students walk around the room meeting other characters, uncovering relationships, discovering conflicts, making predictions, and communicating in the target language the entire time.

One of the biggest takeaways from this episode is this: Tea Party is NOT the moment to introduce lots of new language.

Instead, the focus is on highly comprehensible language so students feel confident speaking, interacting, and listening while building curiosity for the story ahead.

We also talk about:
✨ How to set up a Tea Party step-by-step
✨ What character descriptions should look like
✨ How students create relationship webs and predictions
✨ Why this strategy creates authentic communication and engagement

Rita Barrett teaches Spanish at Portland Adventist Academy in Portland, Oregon. The 2016 COFLT TOY, Rita has been a frequent presenter at state and national conferences and co-hosts a Portland area language teacher PLC. She is passionate about inspiring students to become lifelong language lovers. 

Resources Mentioned:
Growing With Proficiency:
https://growingwithproficiency.com

The Spanish Teacher Academy:
https://growingwithproficiency.com/academy

AnneMarie Chase’s Tea Party Blog Post:
https://senorachase.com/2025/11/15/tea-party-round-up/

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Feeling exhausted trying to keep students engaged at the end of the school year? 😅

In this re-released episode of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, Claudia Elliott shares three powerful low-prep strategies that help world language teachers create communicative, comprehensible, and sustainable lessons without spending hours planning.

If you need great strategies to keep students interacting and using the language, this episode is for you.

In this episode, you’ll learn:
✨ How to use anchor charts to co-create vocabulary and ideas with students
✨ Why model texts increase confidence, comprehension, and participation
✨ How Write and Discuss creates compelling and comprehensible input
✨ Ways to support mixed proficiency levels with student-centered activities
✨ Why low prep does NOT mean no prep in the language classroom

These strategies work for Spanish classes, French classes, and any world language classroom focused on language acquisition, comprehensible input, and communication.

Whether you teach novice learners or upper levels, these routines can help you reduce overwhelm while increasing engagement and interaction during the final weeks of school.

🎧 Listen now and discover practical strategies you can use tomorrow!

🔗 Resources & Links:
Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy
Follow Claudia on Instagram @claudiamelliott

Send us Fan Mail

At this point in the year, many of us are feeling it. Students are distracted, energy is low, and if we say “read,” suddenly half the class needs the bathroom.

In this episode, I’m sharing a simple sequence I use to turn any reading into an engaging station-based lesson that keeps students reading, moving, and participating without creating more work for you.

Whether you’re using a Cinco de Mayo article, a Panorama Cultural reading, or your own class text, this structure helps students process one shared reading in a way that feels interactive and manageable.

✨ In this episode, I share:

• How to choose the right text (this part matters most!)
• Simple pre-reading activities like predictions, images, and quick movement
• How I structure the “during reading” phase with audio + small groups
• My favorite post-reading stations: matching, sequencing, graphic organizers, and open-ended questions
• Why I duplicate stations instead of creating more
• How one reading can easily become 3 full class periods

🎁 Resources mentioned:

• Free Cinco de Mayo Reading Resource
• Full blog post with classroom pictures + step-by-step breakdown
• Panorama Culturales for more high-interest readings
• Episode 21 if you want more station ideas beyond one shared text