The Motivated Classroom

We all have to teach the 'basics' like numbers, dates, colours and letters in one way or another... or do we? What if the students just naturally acquired all of this basic vocabulary through motivational strategies and activities in the classroom? In this episode I explain how I introduce these items and the various, zero-prep, activities I use to embed these key words in the students' long term memory without having them sit and rote-learn in lists of vocabulary.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

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In this question and answer episode, we look at the topics of teaching culture, the one important thing to change in our languages classrooms (from my perspective at least!), how to build confidence in our learners and how to adequately challenge our high achievers in each lesson. Thank you to all the lessons who submitted questions!

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

Episode 25 of The #MotivatedClassroom is all about Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) and the most common questions people have about it as a way to help learners acquire language more naturally. I go through some of the questions you have submitted about assessment, units, planning and many others! This is a very practical episode for language teachers who are trying out TPRS and still have lots of questions. 

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

Building on the interview with Adriana Ramirez in Episode 23 on using novels and reading to motivate our language students, this episode focuses on 11 zero-prep practical strategies for the languages classroom aimed at growing a love and passion for reading among your students: 

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

The inspirational author and teacher, Adriana Ramirez, joins Liam Printer on The #MotivatedClassroom for this episode where they discuss how we can instill a love and passion for reading in the target language through the use of graded novels. These are novels that are specifically written for learners of the language and use a Comprehensible Input approach to ensure the students read lots of repetitions of the target language so they can acquire new vocabulary and structures naturally. Adriana has already written a variety of novels for Spanish learners and has presented at numerous conferences. Her YouTube channel is hugely popular with teachers where they can see her unique approach to teaching Spanish with lots of reading. 

This is a must listen episode for all #languages teachers, and especially those who want to instill a passion and love for reading among their students. Adriana shares a wide array of minimum prep strategies for boosting reading in the languages classroom.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

So you listened to Episode 21 and you started your #TPRS story... but now what? This episode provides some detailed, zero-prep, practical, strategies you can implement in your language classes to build on and compliment the story asking process. I present comprehension techniques, homework tasks, formative assessment options. An overview of how the 'circling', questioning, strategy is done in a Comprehensible Input classroom is also provided.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

Now that we understand the research behind #storytelling in the #languages classroom from episodes 19 & 20 and why it is so motivating for both teacher and students, its time to learn how we actually put it into practice! In this episode I explain how I set up my class for its first TPRS story. I go through the ground rules, the physical make-up of the classroom and the jobs students have to ensure the story goes to plan. This is a must listen episode for any teachers who have heard about the power of TPRS storytelling and are eager to give it a go! It is full of hands-on, practical tips to get you started on y storytelling journey in your classroom that will raise motivation and engagement for both you and the learners.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

As a follow up to Episode 19 of the podcast, which provides an overview of the year long doctoral research into teaching languages through storytelling and its impact on student and teacher motivation, I am delighted to be joined in this episode by Chloé Lapierre who was the French teacher-participant during the longitudinal research study. Chloé described herself as a 'novice' teacher of TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) or CI (comprehensible input) at the beginning of the enquiry. In this episode she explains her journey in detail and how the TPRS approach completely revolutionised her own motivation and that of her students. This is a fascinating listen, particularly for those languages teachers who are new to teaching with storytelling or for those who have heard about it but have yet to give it a go! Chloé provides excellent advice and provides compelling evidence as to the huge benefits that teaching languages with storytelling can bring to the classroom.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

This episode provides a synopsis and summary of the findings from Doctorate research into the motivational impact of teaching languages through storytelling and reading. The episode begins with an overview of how the research was conducted using Self-Determination Theory and its basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness to measure changes in motivation. It then presents some of the quotes from both the teacher and her students regarding their motivation, need satisfaction and engagement throughout the year of the study. 25 minutes is unfortunately never going to be enough to go into all the findings so there will be more episodes that go into further detail around some of the core conclusions from the year long research study.

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏

In this third interview of the series, the inspirational Beth Skelton shares with us her vast experience and expertise relating to teaching languages through compelling, cultural and historical content. Beth outlines how we can use language classroom to engage our learners via experiential learning with students immersed in fascinating cultural and historical content related to the target language. This one is an absolute must listen for all EAL and world languages teachers containing lots of practical, easy to plan, activities that you can try right away!

For full details a list of these strategies, check out the programme notes with further information and links to research and resources at www.liamprinter.com/podcast.

Keep sharing and spreading the word. I'd love to know what you think, please get in touch or leave me a review 🙏