Dance, language teachers! DANCE!

"Curriculum Incorporating Gestures has Language Teachers on their Feet" by the AP

Education Week

published May 6, 2011

accessed May 7, 2011

Summary and Key Points: "Accelerative Integrated Methodology" (AIM) may become the next big thing in language education... or it may not! The technique of using one's body in order to "target the part of the brain that can assimilate and retain foreign language most easily" sounds a whole lot like TPR, or total physical response, which is (if I recall correctly) a technique that is widely recognized as valuable in at least the world languages, and perhaps other disciplines as well. Anyway, the focus on the most commonly-used words that AIM espouses is something any language teacher can get behind.

Intended Audience: language teachers and learners

Relevance: I covered this a bit in the summary above. I like the idea, but it sounds like complicated words for old ideas. Maybe as I find more information about it, and the "creators" of this particular curriculum move out from French and Spanish to cover other languages, I will be better able to see the enhanced utility of this particular technique. It's always valuable to gather new ideas, I suppose!