Teaching Latin to Humans

Twofer! Announcing… “Teaching Latin to Humans,” an article just published in Eidolon, and LIMEN, a Latin teaching portal here at indwellinglanguage.com Whether or not you are learning or teaching Latin, it’s likely that you have a reason to view or share these: 1. “Teaching Latin to Humans: How to Honor both the Language and the Learner” diagnoses the […]

Celebrating Others’ Success in 2015

2015 was a year of great successes for language learners and teachers. Here are some of those successes just from people in my circles, shared so that you can join in the joy! Why not add your own or others’ joys and successes in the Comments section or on social media using hashtag #joysuccess ? B.M. started learning Spanish from […]

Top Ten Posts of 2015

Every blogger’s doing it, and I’m glad. It’s great to see what’s been most helpful to language learners and teachers this year! Here, for your undelayed gratification, are the ten most popular posts published at indwellinglanguage.com in 2015, in chronological order. Preparing a Lesson vs Preparing Yourself How to teach well and save your sanity. (01/13/2015) 9 Ways To Happify Your […]

4 Myths about Comprehensible Input

Ever since Stephen Krashen made it central to his Input Hypothesis, since rebranded as the Comprehension Hypothesis, “comprehensible input” (CI) has been part of both academic discourse and shop talk among language teachers. It’s easy to have misunderstandings surrounding a concept that has engendered so much spinoff research and so much water-cooler conversation, so let’s […]

The Bummer about ‘Acquisition’ (Part 2)

In the last post, I lamented that the distinction between acquisition and learning that developed in 20th-century academia is prone not only to misunderstanding, but also to misrepresentation. In this post, I point out some deficiencies in the term acquisition itself and suggest another way of picturing the process. Bummer 2: ‘(Second) language acquisition’ suggests the transfer of a commodity […]

The Bummer about ‘Acquisition’ (Part 1)

I love it. I aim for it. I teach for it. I travel all over presenting about it. It pervades this website. If I had a gerbil, this would be its name. But it also carries two bits of baggage that I wish could be lost in one of those airline warehouses where duffels go to die. I’m talking about the third […]

Share Your Greatest JOY and SUCCESS

When have you experienced your greatest JOY or SUCCESS as a language learner or teacher? Were these at the same moment?–in other words, were your joy and success linked? As the purpose of Indwelling Language is to help learners and teachers maximize their joy and success, we’re always eager to hear about experiences that link […]

The Number One Mistake in Language Learning

There are lots of things language learners do or don’t do that block the joy and success of their language-learning. But the single biggest and most widespread mistake I observe is this: Spending too much time learning about the language and not enough time in the language. Or, put in other terms, spending too much time studying the […]

The Savvy Language Learner (infographic)

There are lots of savvy language learners with different interests, different personalities, and different opportunities, but there are two things they pretty much all have in common: Savvy language learners consume large amounts of well-chosen content. Savvy language learners engage in both scheduled and opportunistic habits. Check out this infographic–or indwellfographic–for a handy overview of wise principles pertaining to […]

Indwelling Language at MIWLA 2015 (session descriptions)

Happy 1st of October, the month of the Michigan World Language Association‘s (MIWLA) annual conference! I’m excited to meet colleagues there and honored to present three sessions, all of which I’ve presented before in some form or another, but never in Michigan. In case you’re interested, the titles and official descriptions are below. Feel free to follow up if you’d […]