Brain, Strategies and Backward Design with Comprehensible Input: A conversation with Haiyun Lu

Episode 104 of Growing with Proficiency The Podcast is part of my celebration of the 100th episode, and our guest is Haiyun Lu, a Mandarin teacher renowned for her expertise in comprehensible input (CI). Haiyun shares her insights on brain-based learning, practical strategies for implementing CI in language classrooms, and how backward design can work in a CI based classroom.

The Brain and Learning

Haiyun explains that the human brain is wired to respond to novelty, conserving energy through autopilot mode in familiar situations, for instance, like when you are driving and you don’t remember driving home. So, anything routine or familiar, the brain will turn on autopilot. It’s the same in the classroom, you can do drills after drills, and students are not going to show much interest.

Additionally, with our ancestors, humans walked on average 11 miles a day to hunt, gather, and seek shelter. We learned while we moved. However, the modern education system, with its emphasis on routine and repetition, can lead to disengagement and lack of progress in learning. Learning is conducted in a closed room with little movement. Because of this, we must find ways to create environments that are optimal for student learning. 

Safe Environments

Next, we discussed the learning environment. Teachers must create a safe environment for students to learn, as trauma and stress can impede learning. Haiyun stressed that our students might have situations in their personal lives that put them in the flight, fight, or freeze response. We can’t expect these students to walk into our class and be ready to learn. 

Constant exposure to information on social media can also affect learning in the classroom. Students are constantly on alert by consuming so much constant information. So, what can we do?

Strategies in the Classroom

There are so many strategies that you can use in the classroom. Haiyun talked about her go-to instruction with her students, personalized questions and answers, PQAs. By using students’ interests, aspirations, dreams, opinions and stories as the curriculum, we can create a very safe and trusted community for everyone to be there.

Teachers should always prioritize building relationships with students, starting with asking personalized questions about their weekends or sharing their own experiences, to create a sense of belonging and safety in the classroom.

Next, Haiyun touched on how active a TCI classroom really can be because it’s very different from a traditional classroom. There are illustrators, class actors, reader’s theater in a TCI classroom. Students are not only engaged intellectually, they are engaged physically, psychologically, emotionally, mindfully, and spiritually as well. 

In episode 104, Haiyun and I also discussed bringing your authentic self into the classroom and to not be afraid to take risks. There should be authenticity and vulnerability in the classroom, creating a safe environment for students to learn and feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and experiences. Students feel safe when they get to know the real you and will be more likely to share themselves as well. 

Starting the School Year

Haiyun suggests starting with a summer recap activity to get students’ brains ready for learning. You want to personalize summer experiences to create relatable human connection. Some questions to ask:

• Your happiest moment in the summer
• Your darkest time in the summer
• What’s the latest time you got up?
• How late did you stay up?
• Most meaningful experience that you experienced during the summer
• What kind of things have you never done before that you tried?

Backward Design

When I asked Haiyun about lesson planning to create this type of environment for our students, she then talked about backward design. Backward design is about keeping a bigger picture in mind. Then, breaking that bigger picture into kind of puzzle pieces. Basically, start with the end goals in mind and plan lessons that build towards those objectives.

Haiyun shared an example of how she would teach a mid-autumn festival legend to students through family dinners, costumes, and rituals. Listen to episode 104 above or here to hear her break it down. 

You can use various approaches to teaching language with this, including storytelling and picture talk. We also need to consider different learning styles. Besides using text, images, videos, and audio sounds, we should also bring in movement, a logical reflection, etc. 

As a bonus, we had time for Haiyun to tell us about the legend she used as the example for the lesson plan. The mid autumn festival is the second largest holiday in China. It’s equivalent to Thanksgiving in the US. It symbolizes togetherness and unity in the family. There’s a legend to be learned, and there are costumes and rituals which are associated with the holiday. She explains the legend as that there are about 10 songs in the sky that were shot down with an arrow to save humankind from a heat wave. Listen here to the legend.

Haiyun encourages listeners to find their own unique way to teach and connect with students. Use authentic resources in language learning, such as stories that evoke emotions and create connections to culture and community. Don’t forget to consider the whole picture of language acquisition, including cognitive and social factors, to create powerful language classes. 

Listen to our whole conversation here.