Guest blog post by Jessica Charlton, Secondary Education World Language Teacher
If you’ve ever taught a group of students with diverse learning needs, neurodivergent thinkers, anxious learners, gifted creatives, and everyone in between, you know there’s no such thing as a typical class! And as teachers, our classes (and class dynamics) change every semester or year, or even more frequently as schedules change and students move between classes. Every room has a mix of students with different needs, processing styles, strengths, and sensitivities. Over time, I have learned as a teacher that leveraging Comprehensible Input (CI) is not a challenge to manage, but rather an opportunity to connect and collaborate with all kinds of learners.
This fall, I’ll be attending (and HIGHLY recommending!!!) FLAVA, Virginia’s state professional development conference open to all language teachers, all about using current and proven strategies in language classrooms to reach all learners. I especially want to invite teachers who feel burned out by grammar drills or frustrated with traditional methods that only seem to reach a few students, or teachers who feel like their students…JUST. AREN’T. GETTING. IT. Comprehensible input isn’t a one-size-fits-all magic pill, but I have seen that it works. In my classroom over the past decade, teaching nearly a thousand students across multiple states, it has been transformative. This is because it creates a low-anxiety, high-engagement space where learners can relax into the process, get to know themselves better as people and learners, and with time and supports in place, even surprise themselves with what they can do.
Why CI Supports All Learners
One of the most powerful shifts I’ve made as a language teacher has been designing my classroom with inclusion in mind. I feel that this has come as a result of attending school at a time when inclusion simply wasn’t prioritized, and being different meant getting left behind. As a gifted student, this meant being set aside in a separate class simply because my brain operated differently from other students; however, when I was in classes that weren’t just filled with gifted students, my needs as a learner often times went unmet or ignored. Now in my life as a teacher, using CI means offering multiple ways for my learners to access and interact with the language through visuals, movement, stories, and conversation, while creating a space where inclusion is prioritized and is the focal point of the class. In this way, it is about making the learning environment welcoming and understandable for everyone.
I feel that this is more important now than ever, coming out of the pandemic, because we have all learned and seen that anxiety blocks learning. We have all had a time in our lives where we entered a shutdown or freeze phase, after getting bad news, taking a hard test, or watching an accident take place on the highway. Now imagine this scenario, except you are a student in school in a language classroom, and on top of that, you do not yet have the skills to monitor or regulate these feelings of anxiety and panic. This situation and experience are especially true and in many cases common for students with ADHD, autism, sensory differences, or high anxiety, but many times they can be even more elevated when students are in a language classroom because they are already being pushed in terms of vulnerability when seeking to acquire and learn a new language. This is where CI holds power, as more traditional or grammar-centered approaches often leave these students overwhelmed and in a state of shutdown, where CI helps to lower that emotional barrier or mental block by creating a safe space built around connection and meaning. This is because CI leverages and respects how the brain learns best, which makes a lot of sense when you think about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: when students feel supported and seen, they grow.
Why It Works
Comprehensible Input (CI) is based on language that is understandable, engaging, and grounded in context. Rather than requiring perfection, it encourages active participation. This approach relies on strategies such as gestures, visuals, repetition, and the co-construction of meaning. Through these methods, we possess the ability to create a classroom environment that communicates to every student: you belong here.
In my classroom, this looks like:
- Asking students personalized questions based on their lives and interests, and using this information to drive class stories and activities, as students care more when they know you care about them
- Using storytelling to introduce and repeat new structures consistently as students gain exposure and confidence
- Incorporating movement and real interaction to keep energy focused and students engaged
- Ditching grammar drills and forced output in favor of real communication and connection with students
When we move beyond textbook-driven instruction, we start teaching the students sitting in front of us, not the imaginary ones who memorize conjugation charts for fun.
Try It Out
If you’re curious, try this: pick a short story or reading with high-frequency structures. Tell it slowly, using images and gestures. Ask questions as you go. Watch what happens, especially with students who oftentimes zone out or shut down. You’ll likely see more engagement and confidence than you expected.
And if you want more tools for supporting all learners through language acquisition, come to FLAVA this October 9-11 in Norfolk, VA. You’ll leave with practical strategies you can use right away and a renewed sense of what’s possible in your classroom.
As you may have noticed above, there is a deep connection between the mind and body, or mental health and learning. When we teach with that in mind, and we seek to understand and know the students sitting in our rooms, we don’t just help students succeed in our classrooms. We help them feel capable and understood, and excel beyond the walls of our classrooms, and that makes all the difference.
Let’s teach the whole child. With stories. With connection. With care. Let’s make language learning a place where all minds can thrive. I hope to see you next month at FLAVA for my two presentations, one with Allison Perryman (The Cultural Classroom), and a workshop with Hillary Buckner.
Ready to reach all your students? In my presentation with Allison, we’ll explore empathy-based approaches, practice using classroom scenarios, and walk away with an accommodation tracker and actionable strategies you can use tomorrow to better support neurodivergent students and yourself. Our time slots are included below:
| Session A5: Hillary Buckner and Jessica Charlton: Language Teachers Fret Not: Navigating Thematic Units via Comprehensible Input: 1:00-3:00 pm, Thurs Oct 9th |
| Session B4: Jessica Charlton and Allison Perryman: Teaching all Minds: Inclusive Strategies for Neurodivergency in the Classroom: 4:00-5:00 pm, Thurs Oct 9th |
| Session I5: Allison Perryman: Harmonizing Justice: Exploring Social Justice Through Music in the World Language Classroom: 10:45-11:45 am, Sat Oct 11th |
Contact information:
Jessica Charlton, jessicaannecharlton@gmail.com
Allison Perryman, theculturalclassroomtpt@gmail.com
References
Chomsky, N. (2006). Form and meaning in natural languages. In Language and Mind (pp. 88–101). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791222.007
Fiedler, K., Friese, M., & Wänke, M. (2011). Psycholinguistic methods in social psychology. In K. C. Klauer, A. Voss, & C. Stahl (Eds.), Cognitive methods in social psychology (pp. 206–235). The Guilford Press.
Glisan, E. & Donato, R. (2017). Enacting the work of language instruction: High-leverage teaching practices (Vols. 1 & 2). ACTFL.
Krashen, S. D. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Pergamon Press.Krashen, S. D. (2003). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Prentice-Hall.
