This is a very special episode of the Practical Proficiency Podcast on refining our comprehensible input strategies to use more language and also be more comprehensible. I am so excited to introduce you to a workshop that was previously only available to members of the Practical Proficiency Network. But after this “hot fire” session, I decided this needed to be shared with everybody.
Consider this your special sneak peek into what a hands-on workshop looks like inside the PPN. This is an all-important topic: 15 common target language mistakes teachers make when trying to use more TL in the classroom, and exactly how to fix them.
This is a masterclass on target language and comprehensible input strategies in detail. We are going beyond the “intro layers” of adding target language to your class. We’re going to tweak, refine, and help you move towards a target-language-rich environment a lot easier by looking at 15 different aspects of your practice.
I guarantee you that at least one of these comprehensible input strategies is affecting your classroom right now, because I used to make them all! When I work with schools, districts, and individual teachers, we are usually addressing at least three or four of these. So buckle up—this is a longer one, but it’s the shift you’ve been looking for.
1. Making Interaction a Memory Test
This is the number one thing I encounter when I work with schools focusing on comprehensible input strategies. It is so common because it’s how we were taught to teach. We have this notion as teachers that we should be checking all the time and holding kids accountable to their work. We think, “If they know the vocab, they are with me.”
But when we talk about interaction—any moment you ask a student a question in French or Spanish, or any time they respond on a worksheet—if you make it about individual word recall, you lose the magic.
- The Mistake: Asking a kid a question and then waiting for them to “remember” a specific word before they can answer.
- How to Fix It: Interaction is a multi-step brain process. It is already difficult on its own. Don’t make it a memory recall thing. If a student needs a word to understand you or to answer you, give it to them! Write it down, translate it, or draw it on the board.
- The “Estar” Example: Instead of asking, “Tell me what you remember about the verb ‘estar’ vs ‘ser’?” (which usually forces everyone into English), just use it! Ask, “¿Cómo estás hoy?” or “¿Dónde estás?” Contextual interaction works so much better than recall. Make your end goal the interaction and the response, not the quiz.
2. Talking for More Than 60 Seconds Without “Self-Interruption”
When people say “be comprehensible,” they often forget the pacing importance of comprehensible input strategies. If you are talking for more than a minute (honestly, even 30 seconds) and you haven’t interrupted yourself, you’re losing them. You’re making a mistake.
- The Mistake: Letting a sea of language wash over the students without giving them a chance to anchor themselves.
- How to Fix It: You must be your own biggest distraction. Every 30-60 seconds, you should be interrupting yourself with a Check for Understanding (CFU).
- Stop and ask a student a quick question.
- Point to a drawing on the board.
- Ask students to point to something in the room.
- Pause to write a word or underline a phrase.
- The Lightbulb Moment: As one PPN member mentioned during our live session, these CFUs are the lightbulbs. If you don’t pause to let them blink, the room eventually goes dark. CFU is a key to making your comprehensible input strategies in class stick.
3. The “Content Obsession” (The Overcoverer)
We are all guilty of thinking the floor is ours all the time. We have a lot of one-sided conversations and a bit of content obsession in teaching. This is when you are entirely the focus of the conversation and you never ask for a student’s contribution. One of the keys to comprehensible input strategies is respecting the value-add of students.
- The Mistake: Being so focused on “covering” the unit or the grammar list that you miss the moments for students to develop communicative fluency.
- How to Fix It: Be a Party Host. Be actually interested in your kids! If you’re doing a unit on personal preferences, don’t get lost in the sauce of me gusta vs te gusta.
- Instead: Use the target language to find out: What do you like? What does your mom like? What does your best friend like? * Culture Check: If you’re presenting a festival or a cultural artifact, don’t just interpret facts or give True/False quizzes. Ask for their opinions and connections. You can do this in Level 1! Just make the questions accessible. Every exercise should be inquiry-based.
4. Expecting Interaction to Happen Naturally
This is a profound shift from the idea of covering content to using comprehensible input strategies. You cannot expect interaction in another language to happen naturally when students have the buoy of English to hang onto.
- The Mistake: Setting up a water-driven classroom but leaving pool chairs (English) everywhere for students to lounge on.
- Your Class is a Pool Party: Your classroom is like a backyard pool party. The language is the water. You are inviting students to jump in and get wet. But if you have English chairs on the deck, your nervous students are going to stay dry.
- How to Fix It: You have to take away the chairs. You must intentionally create an environment where English is not the most feasible option.
- Create games that require the water to play.
- Make interaction a lesson plan priority.
- If students feel they can spend the whole hour out of the water, your pool setup needs work.
5. Testing Comprehension with Output (The CFU Trap)
This is a low-hanging fruit mistake that I once got called out on in an evaluation. I spent a whole class teaching sixth graders how to say Cómo te llamas through a song. They loved it! But my exit ticket was: “Write your name in Spanish (Me llamo…).” * The Mistake: Checking listening/speaking comprehension with a writing task that they haven’t practiced yet.
- How to Fix It: Match your Check for Understanding to the skill you just taught. If you just did 20 minutes of oral input, your exit ticket should be:
- Sorting pictures.
- Answering an Either/Or question.
- Circling the correct answer from 3 choices.Writing is the most common CFU we use, but it is often the least appropriate for interaction-based lessons.
6. Using Complex Language for Simple Situations
We are proficient in our languages, so when a student has their feet on a desk, our native-level or Advanced Low brain rattles off a command like “Bájame la pierna” (Put your leg down). But for a Spanish 1 student, that might be noise. Comprehensible input strategies rely on being understood by using the lowest level language possible.
- The Mistake: Using high-level, un-sheltered language for classroom management or redirections.
- How to Fix It: Make it accessible, not just “stay in the TL.”
- EXAMPLE: Point to the leg, say “La pierna.” Point to the desk, say “Escritorio.” Then say, “No.” *
- The Hand Motion Strategy: One PPN member shared a brilliant example of waking up sleepy students in her French class. Instead of a complex sentence, she uses a hand motion that looks like opening eyelashes and says “Ouvrez les yeux” (Open your eyes). Because she uses the gesture every time, the students know exactly what she means. Don’t shelter the word; make it accessible.
7. Thinking Immersion is the Problem (Sea vs. Pool)
Many people think that using 90% target language is what prevents students from understanding when you’re working with comprehensible input strategies. Full stop: it’s not. The problem isn’t the immersion; it’s the lack of floaties.
- The Mistake: Throwing kids overboard into an unfamiliar ocean of language.
- The Metaphor: On the left, we have kids in a shallow pool with floaties. They are safe, their heads are above water, and they have something to hold onto. On the right, we have an adult swimming in open water.
- How to Fix It: Your Level 1 and 2 students need the pool with floaties.
- The Floaties: Scaffolding! Write meanings on the board. Use repetitive routines. Pair everything with cognates and visuals.
- The Growth: As they become stronger swimmers, they will let go of the floaties naturally. By AP/Level 5, you want them in open water. But don’t expect a non-swimmer to jump into the sea without a life vest.
8. Thinking New Activities Will Fix the Silence in Your New Comprehensible Input Strategies
If you’re experiencing a lot of silence in class—the “lights are on but nobody’s home” vibe—your instinct might be to find a brand new, high-energy activity to shake them up.
- The Mistake: Constantly trying new tactics to achieve engagement when the students are actually just lost.
- How to Fix It: There is power in trusted routines. Everything else about a target-language classroom is already scary. Routines make it welcoming.
- The Strategy: Focus on mastering 3 to 5 great techniques. Add novelty (like an escape room) only when you really need a spark. If you constantly switch activities, you have to spend your precious TL time explaining how to do the game instead of actually playing it. Disengagement usually means a lack of comprehension, not a lack of novelty.
9. Quitting When Kids Don’t Understand
Transitioning is a grind. It may be simple, but it is NOT easy to shift to comprehensible input strategies. Every time you stop the target language because the kids look confused, you are stopping your momentum.
- The Mistake: Stopping the run to walk for four minutes. Your body (and your students’ brains) thinks the work is over.
- How to Fix It: It takes more energy to restart the TL than it does to just keep going slowly.
- Permission to fail: Sometimes a lesson sucks. It flops. That’s okay! Use it as a teachable moment. Tell them, “Hey, I failed today. Let’s pivot.” * The “Endurance” Win: You build that language endurance by pushing through the awkward moments and negotiating meaning. Start small, get a win, and maintain a routine.
- Celebrate the 2-minute interaction instead of mourning the 50% English use.
10. Correcting Instead of Celebrating (Kintsugi)
This is one of my biggest soapboxes. Correcting spelling, grammar, and accents in everything is an outdated practice that we need to let go.
- The Mistake: Correcting a two-year-old on how they walk.
- Example: When a baby takes their first wobbly steps, we don’t correct their posture. We celebrate! We only act as a crossing guard once they’ve been walking for years and there’s a safety issue.
- How to Fix It: Celebrate the attempt! In Japan, there is a practice called Kintsugi, where they fill the cracks in broken pottery with gold. The error becomes a beautiful part of the story.
- Classroom Application: Answer with compassion. If they communicate the idea, you win. When we focus less on errors, we get better conversations and better relationships with students. Correct only when they are ready: Level 4/5 or high-stakes writing.
11. Letting L1 Slide
When students use English for things you know they can do in the target language, and you let it happen, you are losing key Target Language real estate.
- The Mistake: Allowing English for simple classroom needs (bathroom, tissues, “What page?”).
- How to Fix It: Be consistent and clear. Equip your students to communicate in every possible way. If they ask in English, point to the poster and have them repeat it in the TL. Celebrate the attempt so they aren’t afraid of their lack of pronunciation. If you expect them to say it, you must have taught them exactly how to say it.
12. Worrying About the “What-Ifs”
Teachers often hold back on 90% target language because of the 10% “Worst Case Scenario” moments.
- The Mistake: Letting the fear of a crisis keep you from using TL in everyday moments.
- How to Fix It: Trust your gut. There is a reason ACTFL suggests 90% and not 100%. Use English when it serves the student.
- If a student is emotionally distraught, trying to ask “¿Qué te pasa?” in Spanish can feel disrespectful. Honor where they are.
- The Low-Hanging Fruit: Focus on the everyday transitions. Moving seats, passing papers, asking to look at the board—these should be 100% in the TL. If it happens more than 5 times a day, teach the phrase and stick to it.
13. Putting Input Last (Admin Time Sucks)
Input should be the primary purpose of every lesson, yet it often ends up on the back burner because of admin work.
- The Mistake: Switching to English to take attendance, collect papers, or explain a test.
- How to Fix It: Turn admin into an interaction.
- I used to take attendance in Spanish. You can too.
- I collected papers in French. You can too.
- The Shared Strategy: As one PPN member mentioned, try listing your instructions on the board in simple TL and reading them together. This prevents you from over-talking and switching to English because you’re tired.
14. Teaching Culture in English
Culture is wonderful, but it is a massive target language time suck because the concepts feel too complex for novices.
- The Mistake: Abandoning the target language the moment a cultural artifact is introduced.
- How to Fix It: Change the way students interact with the text.
- Summarize: Instead of a complex article, write a one-paragraph summary in simple TL.
- Visuals: Use pictures and “Write and Discuss” to explain the holiday.
- Task adjustment: Ask True/False or Either/Or questions about the culture so they can participate without needing native-level output.
15. The Fast Pace Trap (Present Less, Converse More)
Most curricula are obnoxiously overstuffed. You feel like you aren’t doing your job unless you are constantly presenting new tenses.
- The Mistake: Rushing through content so fast that there is zero room for kids to play with the language they just acquired.
- How to Fix It: Pump the brakes. If you have the freedom, cut the unnecessary out of the assessments.
- Your New Mantra: Present Less, Converse More. * The Level 1 vs. 2 Reality: Level 1 is often too easy because of English creep, and Levels 2-5 are too hard because we rush the tenses. Give them the space to interact with what they already know before adding more to the pile.
Bonus: The Assessment Mismatch
You can have the most joyful, target-language-rich interactions in class, but if your gradebook says otherwise, the students will stop trying.
- The Mistake: Having a communicative classroom but a form-based, grammar-only final exam.
- How to Fix It: Make sure your assessment matches your vibe. Give students credit for the cool interactions they are doing with you every day. If you don’t reward the communication, the kids will treat it like fluff and wait for the “real” (English) work.
Your “Parting Shot”: Inviting Them In
Increasing your target language use is not about perfection. It’s about looking at these 15 ideas and seeing where your “momentum” is being chipped away.
- What is one everyday moment you can switch to the TL tomorrow?
- How can you celebrate a student’s wobbly “first step” in a conversation?
- How can you provide one more “floatie” to a kid who looks like they’re drowning?
Take the Next Step Toward Joy
If you want the full versions of these workshops—plus the unit guides, the lesson plans, and the community that helps you troubleshoot these 15 mistakes in real-time—I invite you to join us in the Practical Proficiency Network.
And if you haven’t yet, grab my FREE audio workshop: The Joyful CI Classroom System. It is the perfect training for your commute to help you reclaim your time and your joy.
Click here to get the FREE audio training!
Thank you for spending your time with me today. Remember: your class is a pool party. Invite those kids into the water!
Bye for now!
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