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Silence in the language classroom doesn’t mean students aren’t saying anything. Silence is information.

In this episode of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, we explore why silence can be a valuable source of information and how teachers can use it to foster curiosity, lower risk, and create more meaningful engagement.

You’ll learn:

• The 3 main reasons students don’t respond to questions
• How to make your questions comprehensible and accessible
• Low-prep strategies that lower response risk and boost participation
• Ways to connect unit content to your students’ lives without rewriting your curriculum

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Episode 161 with Becca Silver: Moving Past the “Shoulds”
• Episode 157 with Dr. Karen Lichtman & Jason Fritze: Three Key Skills for Teaching Acquisition
• Episode 54 with Paulino Brenner: Asking Better Questions in the Language Classroom
• Episode 88 with Dr. Bill VanPatten: What about Output?

If you’re ready to reframe silence from something frustrating to something informative, this episode will give you practical tools and a new perspective to bring into your classroom tomorrow.

More resources:

• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy → growingwithproficiency.com/academy
• Follow me on Instagram @claudiamelliott
• ​​📑 Discover culturally rich, month-specific resources for Spanish classes in my TPT Store: Growing With Proficiency.

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Are errors or strong accents really blocking communication—or is it about how we listen? 🎧

In this episode, I share why comments about my accent made me reflect on how we approach communication in our classrooms and in our teacher communities. Together, we’ll explore:

• Why the hidden goal of “sounding native” can get in the way of real communication.
• What research says about listening, comprehensibility, and sympathetic listeners.
• How we can become better listeners by valuing diverse voices and stopping the cycle of criticism.

Because communication is a two-way street—and our job as educators is to help students (and ourselves) walk it with confidence.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Dr. Vijay Ramjattan – on antiracism and the reminder that listening is not neutral.
• ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines – defining accuracy as the use of linguistic features to convey meaning.
• Dr. Diane Neubauer & Dr. Reed Riggs – conversations reminding us that most communication is listening and reading, not speaking.

More resources:

• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy → growingwithproficiency.com/academy
• Follow me on Instagram @claudiamelliott
• ​​📑 Discover culturally rich, month-specific resources for Spanish classes in myTPT Store: Growing With Proficiency.

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Have you ever felt like getting your students to really use the target language with each other is the hardest thing? You want them to share ideas, agree or disagree, and ask questions. But when the moment comes, silence takes over—or worse, they switch to English.

In this episode, I sit down with my friend and incredible Spanish teacher, Chelsea Lawrence, to talk about a game-changing strategy: Silent Discussions.

✨ What you’ll learn in this episode:

• What Silent Discussions are and how to set them up step by step.
• Why this strategy works so well to lower stress and build success in interpersonal communication.
• Real classroom examples—from connecting the Panama Canal to a local tunnel, to jigsaw activities with biographies and even telescopes.
• Practical scaffolds to support your students: graphic organizers, sentence starters, question stems, and even a “How do you say…?” board.
• What to do after the Silent Discussion to extend the learning with gallery walks, reflections, or presentational tasks.

👉 If you’re a Spanish teacher and are looking for resources to create great jigsaw activities plus Silent Discussions, check out the Biographies to Celebrate Hispanic Women or explore the Panoramas Culturales, where you can assign one article to each group.

Listen now and discover how one big sheet of paper can transform into a powerful tool for authentic student interaction in your classroom.

📌 Resources

• Join the waitlist for Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy → growingwithproficiency.com/academy
• Follow me on Instagram @claudiamelliott
• ​​📑 Discover culturally rich, month-specific resources for Spanish classes in myTPT Store: Growing With Proficiency.