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Growing With Proficiency The Podcast
Welcome to Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast! Are you a World Language teacher who is looking for ideas, strategies, activities, and inspiration to create a World Language class where you and your students enjoy using the language to learn about the world and each other? Do you want to transform your class into an acquisition-driven instruction space where you intentionally provide a ton of comprehensible input?
If you are, you're in the right place.
Let's start this journey together. Head over to IG, and send me a DM @claudiamelliott to let me know what topics you would like me to cover in an upcoming episode.Join my free Facebook community, Growing With C. Also, check out my blog to start discovering some of these ideas and strategies at growingwithproficiency.com
Growing With Proficiency The Podcast
Episode 177: How to Ask Better Questions in the World Language Classroom (Using 5-Minute Blocks)
In this episode of Growing With Proficiency, we continue the series on how to build foundational skills for language acquisition in intentional 5-minute blocks.
This episode focuses on one powerful — and often underestimated — skill: asking better questions.
We know questions are essential for staying in the target language, checking comprehension, and personalizing instruction. But when questions feel too complex or unsafe, students shut down. When we stay too long in low-level questions, attention drops.
In this episode, I break down how to sequence questions intentionally so students feel successful, engaged, and ready to communicate — without overwhelming you or them.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why asking questions is a foundational skill for acquisition-driven instruction
- The difference between display questions and referential questions — and why we need both
- How to use circling to add repetition and processing time
- Why circling alone is not enough to sustain communication
- A step-by-step questioning sequence you can use in just 5 minutes
- How to manage cognitive load while increasing student participation
- How to move from comprehension to communication intentionally
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
🎧 Episode 175:
How to Maximize Target Language Use in 5-Minute Blocks
🎧 Episode 157:
Episode with Dr. Karen Leachman and Jason Fritze on the three basic skills for language acquisition
🎧 Episode 54:
Episode with Paulino Brenner on display vs. referential questions and question complexity
Free Webinar Invitation
If you’re thinking, “This makes sense, but how do I put it all together into an actual lesson?” — I’ve got you.
I’m hosting a free live webinar where I’ll show you how to plan ONE lesson for different levels.
👉 Register at growingwithproficiency.com/onelesson
📅 January 15 | 7:00 PM ET
Five minutes at a time — that’s how we build clarity, confidence, and sustainability in our teaching 💛
