Spanish Intensive Language lab
CI Conference for Language Teachers
We acquire languages in one way, and only one way, when we get comprehensible input in a low anxiatey environment.
Stephen Krashen
Do you want to learn Spanish with CI?
In this fourth edition of the #soydeidiomas conference, we are introducing an important change compared to the previous three editions.
This year, in addition to the usual itinerary with the German language lab led by Antje Peterie and Tina Abour, we will offer an alternative itinerary with an intensive Spanish language lab for those who want to learn or improve their Spanish through CI. Additionally, this is an opportunity to see how different experienced teachers bring their unique perspectives to various types of activities. After the language lab, there will also be a daily theoretical workshop in English.
We are not yet able to provide the final schedule as we are still planning the workshops, but we can confirm that the conference will be divided into two distinct parts to offer a comprehensive view of the methodology:
First, we will have the Language Lab, where participants will experience, from a student's perspective, what it means to acquire a language using CI methodologies. This lab will be longer than the regular language lab, about three hours with a break.
Next, there will be some theoretical and practical presentations showcasing different types of activities that can be implemented in the classroom. These presentations will be conducted in English.
The breaks in both itineraries are scheduled at the same time to allow participants to connect and share experiences.
It is not mandatory to strictly follow any on these itineraries. That is, participants can take the Spanish language lab but attend theoretical presentations in English, or vice versa, depending on which sessions interest them the most.
What is #soydeidiomas?
#soydeidiomas is a professional development conference aimed at all individuals involved in the teaching of foreign languages.
Our goal is to promote a shift in the way foreign languages are taught and learned, based on the theories of natural acquisition through CI (Comprehensible Input) developed by American linguist Stephen Krashen.
You may have just started teaching languages, or you may have been teaching for a long time but feel like something is missing—that you keep repeating the same concepts over and over without seeing improvement in your students, or that they lack motivation, which in turn frustrates you. We’ve been there too.
Through our continuous efforts to improve, we discovered CI based language acquisition methods or ADI (Acquisition Driven Instruction), which completely transformed our understanding of language teaching and, most importantly, our approach to applying it in practice.
This methodology includes different types of activities, all aimed at making our classes always comprehensible, engaging, and motivating. The advantage of this diversity is that, depending on our personality and teaching environment, we can choose the activities that best suit us and our students. Regardless of the approach, the energy and motivation in our classes have increased significantly, as have our confidence and satisfaction as teachers.
After years of training and implementing these methodologies, which are still not widely adopted in Europe, we decided to organize this four-day intensive conference to allow participants to experience first-hand what this mindset shift entails.
Conference Pricing and Registration
The registration fee for the conference is €335 (€300 if you sign up before February 28). This fee covers organization costs, speaker participation, and catering provided during the breaks.
Additionally, in this fourth edition, we want to reward those who help promote the conference by offering a 10% discount for each person who registers through your referral.
To register, please send an email to soydeidiomas@gmail.com, and we will provide you with the payment instructions and details to complete your registration.
If you have any questions about the conference or need further clarification, feel free to email us at the same address.
Organizers
We are a group of language teachers who, at some point in our careers, discovered CI methodologies —each in our own way— and realized that this was the right way to teach a language. Once you shift your approach and experience what it means to teach with CI, there is no going back.
[Ana Cadena]
French teacher in a bilingual public primary school in Barbastro (Huesca)
[Albert Subirats]
English teacher in a public primary school in Barcelona.
[Anna Torrandell]
English teacher and associate professor of Catalan at a public university.
[Marta Aguirre]
English and German teacher in secondary and high school at a charter school in Valladolid. Also a Spanish teacher for foreign learners.
Presenters
[Antje Peterie]
Antje Peterie has been teaching German at Millikan High School in Long Beach, California, for the past 23 years. After 2 frustrating years teaching with the textbook, she discovered TPRS at a three-hour workshop and switched all her classes to TPRS/CI in 2003. Since then, her German program has grown from 3 classes to now 10.
Antje absolutely loves her job, especially seeing her students grow from novice learners to almost fluent German speakers. Outside of the classroom, she loves arts and crafts, especially knitting and crocheting, and is also an avid hiker in the mountains around L.A.
[Tina Abour]
Tina Abour discovered teaching with comprehensible input during an internship in an American high school. She observed how successfully the students acquired German in classes taught with CI. Ever since she has been applying CI techniques in her own classes. Tina teaches English and French at a Gymnasium near Frankfurt.
She is also the founder and chairperson of the FUNN association, a non-profit group of language teachers who strive to spread the word about CI in Germany through their annual conference.
[Janique Vanderstocken]
Janique has more than 30 years of experience in teaching Dutch and reading to illiterate immigrants in Belgium. In 2007, she started developing "Zwart op Wit", a course in technical reading for illiterate adults.
She also trains teachers in teaching strategies for this specific group of learners at the Centre for Professional Development and Education. And because she highly values pleasure reading, she runs a website with reviews of books that are suitable for learners of Dutch as a Second Language.
[Albert Subirats]
Albert discovered the world of Comprehensible Input (CI) through Blaine Ray’s book Fluency Through TPR Storytellingin 2014. His need to go deeper into these methodologies led him to train at The Agen Workshop in 2019, which marked a radical shift in his teaching approach. Since then, he has been using CI methodologies with students from 1st to 6th grade.
Although he incorporates a variety of activities depending on the group and age, Kathrin Shechtman and Beniko Mason introduced him to Storylistening, which has become his main activity in nearly all sessions. However, he also frequently uses Movie Talk and OWIs (One Word Image).
[Ana Cadena]
She discovered the world of Comprehensible Input (CI) in 2019 and has been continuously training ever since, deepening her understanding and refining her approach to language teaching.
In 2021 and 2022, she attended The Agen Workshop, which allowed her to see how other teachers applied CI in their classrooms.
She has been implementing CI for five years with her 5th and 6th-grade students. Her classes are always filled with stories, in one format or another, and activities adapted to each group and age. However, the methods she relies on the most are enriched Movie Talks and Storylistening.
