Teaching with CI

Three part workshop: Teaching with compelling, comprehensible inputs (CI)

Three part online workshop on the motivational impact of teaching languages through compelling, comprehensible inputs (CI). This is a highly practical workshop where participants will be in “my class” and experience learning with CI first hand.

How is the workshop structured?

Availability:

The September 2024 3-part workshop on teaching with compelling CI is now fully booked.
The course will run again in Spring 2025.
Please add your name to the newsletter form at the bottom of this page in order to receive advanced notification of the next course before it is opened to the public.

Format and Dates:

The online teaching workshop is split into three 1.5 hour sessions held over three Saturdays:

Saturday 21 September 2024
Saturday 28 September 2024
Saturday 5 October 2024

Time:

In order to accommodate those teachers in Australia and New Zealand, the next three-part teaching with comprehensible input (CI) workshop will take place from

08:00-09:30 Central European Time (Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam).
- ⏰ 16:00-17:30 Australian Eastern Standard Time (Sydney)
- ⏰ 18:00-20:30 New Zealand Standard Time (Auckland)
Click here for global time-zone converter
All sessions are recorded and shared with registered participants.

Hello!

i’m Dr. Liam Printer

Dr. Liam Printer is a published author and has been a teacher of English, French & Spanish in a variety of settings for over 16 years. He currently teaches Spanish and English at The International School of Lausanne in Switzerland where he is also an instructional coach, helping teachers to improve their practice through evidence informed 1-on-1 coaching. Liam was most recently the ‘Leader of Pedagogical Innovation’, focusing on bringing research into classroom practice for the entire secondary school.

Liam has been teaching with a CI-based approach for over 9 years and has been invited to present on CI techniques and deliver the Keynote address at the Agen CI Conference in France, The Dynamic Language Learning Conference in The Netherlands as well as a number of CI conferences in the US. He has been invited as the Keynote speaker at a number of other leading International Language Learning conferences and he also lectures on the Post-graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course with the University of Durham and the International School of Geneva. He completed his Doctorate on ‘the motivational pull of teaching languages through storytelling with CI’ at the University of Bath. Liam now hosts The Motivated Classroom podcast which has had over 400,000 downloads to date.

What will I be learning?

The workshop provides an in-depth introduction to CI strategies, approaches and techniques for your classroom.
Whilst the course also provides a brief overview of the theory and research behind teaching with a CI approach, it principally revolves around zero-prep, practical, classroom strategies designed to provide rich, compelling, comprehensible inputs (CI) that you can implement right away..
We will go through some of my favourite, daily, CI activities stemming from research based evidence around intrinsic motivation and developing communication.
A key goal of this workshop is to provide participants with strategies and approaches that will raise engagement and motivation in your classes resulting in quicker acquisition of the language through intent listening and reading.
For parts of the day you will be ‘students’ in my class, acquiring a language naturally through the eyes of a learner using CI based approaches.
At the end of the workshop, participants will have the tools and resources to try out the following techniques in their classrooms:

Special person interviews
Creating an invisible character
Movie-Talk and Clip-Chat
Picture-Talk
Building a co-created TPRS story (Day Two)
Active learning strategies using mini whiteboards

What is ‘teaching with CI’?

CI stands for ‘comprehensible input’. After over 40 years of research, it is widely accepted by language acquisition scholars that humans ‘acquire’ languages implicitly and naturally through receiving lots of rich, interesting and comprehensible inputs.
Teaching with a CI based approach involves helping learners to acquire language naturally by listening and reading. It focuses primarily on establishing meaning rather than on grammatical accuracy and form.
While communication and understanding is the central focus, grammar instruction is still present in the CI classroom but it is minimised as the goal is to help students to acquire the language rather than learn about the language.
A CI approach includes lots of learner autonomy; subtly moving the focus towards the learner, their interests, their passions and helping them to communicate what they want to communicate rather than what the textbook tells us they should say.
The CI based classroom uses research based strategies and techniques to talk with the students rather than talk at the students.
CI based approaches have been shown in research to be highly motivating and engaging, resulting in higher retention and uptake of languages.

HEAR FROM PREVIOUS ATTENDEES:

Play Video

This workshop gave us very useful information, student friendly strategies and teachers effectiveness. Dr. Liam gives very specific tasks for us to put into practice what we learn, this let us try the new strategies and have immediate feedback in the next workshop with him.

Lexandra, Spanish teacher, elementary. Quebec.

It was very thoughtfully planned with the perfect ratio between Liam’s sharing some theoretical knowledge/his experience, his doing demos and us trying to apply new knowledge immediately. Perfect balance between theory and practice, and the immediate application part made learning stick. Plus, there was an opportunity to reflect in a friendly and supportive atmosphere which also strengthened the new learning.

Irina, French teacher, Canada.

Liam Printer’s workshop on CI strategies was excellent. Although I had listened to most of the podcasts, the workshop showed the strategies in action and gave me more confidence to implement them in my classroom. It was also amazing to share insights with teachers from around the globe. I love how Liam is very efficient and concise in his presentations. All the information was very practical. And the three 90 minute sessions with time to try things out in between workshops was perfect.

Shelly, Italian teacher, Boston MA

Liam presented in a way that was well scaffolded, clear, empowering, and provided strategies that can be implemented easily and right away to my students.

Arwen, French teacher, Canada

The course was presented in a dynamic, enthusiastic way and it was great to feel part of a global community with the same purpose.

Amanda, French teacher, Canada

Absolutely brilliant course covering all the basics of teaching using Comprehensible Input methods. Highly recommended!

Lucy, French and Spanish teacher, UK

This workshop was so useful and I absolutely would recommend it to anyone who is interested in teaching with CI. A really learned a lot – and had so many ideas to try out in my classes.

Antonia, Spanish teacher, Austria

This is a great session for anyone who is new to CI teaching. It gives the WHY and the HOW. It was amazing, and I would take it again.
I came away feeling confident that I had some engaging and compelling tasks that I could use immediately in my lessons. It was very interesting to be able to get specific tasks and activities that we could then practice and discuss with other teachers across the globe, in lots of different contexts – it really helped me look at my context from a different perspective and start thinking about changing things up!

Joanna, French teacher, UK

The Motivated Classroom CI Workshop provides such an excellent balance of theory/research and practical tips, along with opportunities for participants to practice skills. The workshop has encouraged me to consider my practice and how I may be able to improve my teaching. I am excited to work to improve my teaching skills in the coming year and am grateful for a supportive community in my fellow workshop participants to reach out to along the way.

Kathryn, Japanese teacher, Australia

What is included in the course fee?

Included in the 160 CHF course fee:

Three x 1.5 hour online, interactive, live workshops.
Recordings of the three sessions for you to go back through them in more detail.
Pre-course questionnaire analysis.
Post-course e-mail support.
Three Q&A videos within 24 hours of each session.
All presentations, handouts and resources will be provided digitally.
A post-course certificate of attendance entitled ”One day workshop on teaching with comprehensible input”.

10% of every booking fee goes directly towards two projects that are close to my heart:

The Rainforest Trust environmental protection project to help save our planet from destruction.
Providing sporting and integration opportunities to refugees with the EVAM refugee welcome centres in Switzerland.

registration:

Places are limited and are allocated on a first come first served basis.

The September 2024 3-part workshop on teaching with compelling CI is now fully booked.
The course will run again in Spring 2025.
Please add your name to the newsletter form at the bottom of this page in order to receive advanced notification of the next course before it is opened to the public.
Discounted rates are available to patrons of the podcast, full-time students and those who are currently unemployed.

Book here now

Three-part compelling, comprehensible inputs online workshop
CHF 140.00 – CHF 160.00 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page

GROUP BOOKINGS AND PURCHASE ORDERS

If you require a purchase order for your school or a pro-forma invoice, please contact liam@liamprinter.com with the details required.
Places are not secure until the payment has been made.