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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 195: 4 Lessons I Learned When My Students Couldn't Communicate in Spanish
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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
