I still have that magazine with the phone numbers penciled in the margins as I sought them out. They are gracious and generous people. For readers who don t have back issues, I will describe the meat of the Communications Based Instruction as I understood it. Its focus is relevant communication between people, rather than vocabulary lists or grammatical structures. For instance, we wanted to begin by having parents and children speaking Paiute phrases that have something to do with every day activities.
Teachers present new vocabulary in the language to be learned.
The students hear a sentence again and again. They see us hold up an item and say a word until they understand we are identifying the piece of clothing. Students may join in the skit and put on the clothes themselves to add hands-on participation to the lesson. This helps new words to stick with the students. Teachers present the lesson entirely in the target language.