I love language teacher conferences and training. I mean, I REALLY love them. And with that love comes some critical reflection on who they serve, and hopefully some solid ideas for how to spend your very precious time and money.
I also need to say that as someone who organizes workshops and trainings, I am totally going to reveal my biases - and give myself a shoutout when appropriate. Because it *is* my blog!
I want to discuss the different types of acquisition- driven conferences (aka comprehension-based, comprehensible input) that I know about, their pros and cons, and give some suggestions for which kind of training / conference is best suited to you, your experience, your teaching context, and your individual needs as a teacher-learner engaging in professional development.
I am not going to talk about world language conferences that are not specifically acquisition driven (e.g. regional conferences such as SWCOLT, state conferences, or ACTFL). I am also not going to address virtual trainings (such as The Comprehensible Classroom's Acquisition Boot Camps and Micro-Courses, or Mike Peto's CI Master Class) or ongoing professional development such as La Familia Loca PLC, Au Salon des profs, or the Growing with Proficiency Academy. I am just going to focus on workshops and conferences.
Any errors and all opinions are my own!
Definitions:
Workshop- usually 1-3 days, led by one speaker or organization, usually with one lead trainer who guides the learning.
Conference- 1-5 days, produced by an organization (profit or non-profit), with sessions presented by different teachers. Some conference models, especially those focused on acquisition-driven instruction, have different tracks for teachers based on their experience with acquisition-driven instruction.
Let's break this down into more specific categories:
The Expert-Led Workshop
Examples: Teach and Assess for Acquisition from The Comprehensible Classroom, Acquisition Academy from The Comprehensible Classroom (not offered in 2025), In-person training from Mike Peto, Annabelle Williamson, Jan Kittok, or Bryce Hedstrom. (Some virtual trainings fall into this as well, e.g. Liam Printer's workshops.)
This type of workshop usually has only one main speaker. (If it's Acquisition Academy, you get two main speakers!) It is often only one day (unless it is one of mine!), and it is *usually* built to meet the needs of the maximum number of people.
There are many, many pros to this kind of workshop, especially if you are interested in experiencing learning in a sequenced, planned way with one person's overall idea of what acquisition-driven instruction looks like. If you are new to acquisition-driven instruction, I think this might be the best use of your money because the folks who provide these workshops work really hard to make them meaningful and applicable.
Usually there will be some kind of language experience through demonstrations (often in less commonly taught languages- Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, etc.), and maybe opportunities to practice or observe in a skills lab.
The really adept workshop designers are able to present material that works for those who are brand new and those who have been to a ton of trainings- they create subtly differentiated content that can be accessed by a variety of experience levels.
Another pro of this kind of workshop is that no matter how experienced you are, it is *always* helpful to review the basics of acquisition driven instruction, and be a learner in another language. Always.
My Teach and Assess for Acquisition workshops are this kind of workshop, as is the Acquisition Academy that we run. I carefully design every moment, leave nothing to chance, and spend a lot of time thinking about how to sequence each learning experience to maximize impact and minimize overwhelm. And I usually include skills labs somewhere too, because I think they are SO important.
Pros:
- Sequenced learning designed with specific outcomes.
- Highly experienced presenters
- Less chance of overwhelm because the presenter is sharing one single vision / approach based on their principles of acquisition and instruction.
- You might have the opportunity to work in small groups in a "skills lab" with an experienced coach to practice what you have learned.
- Being a student in another language
Cons:
- You might think that you don't need "the basics" any more. (Tip: you might be wrong about that!)
- One single track- experienced and brand new grouped all together. This can be frustrating if you are already knowledgable because participant questions will likely be focused on entry level ideas rather than fine tuning your practice.
- You may or may not jive with that one person. If you don't, the training will be long.
"Tracked" Acquisition Driven Conference
Examples: The CI Summit. Examples from history: IFLT, Fluency Matters Conference, NTPRS
This type of conference is a bit of a hybrid. It will include many elements of a an expert led workshop, such as opportunities to be a language learner in a new-to-you language, and a sequenced learning path that will be different for each level of experience. Usually, the trainers at these sessions are highly experienced. In the past, some of these conferences have also offered the opportunity to observe highly experienced teachers teaching actual kids. There is usually a keynote as well as a variety of sessions presented by many different teachers. The other really key part of this kind of conference is the Skills Lab and the coaches who work with different groups on different skills, both in their individual tracks as well as in an open Skills Lab. In my opinion, Skills Labs are where the magic really happens, and this makes these conferences really special. Plus there's usually some social activities (Karaoke, open mic, that sort of thing) to create community and connections.
Pros:
- Being grouped with similarly-experienced teachers is really powerful because the presenters/trainers can tailor content to different levels of understanding. Bonus: you can find like minded teachers with whom to keep learning! (See below!)
- Skills labs and coaches: There is something about being in a skills lab- whether you participate as a teacher, student, or observer, that will have a profound effect on your teaching. Being part of the Coaching team is one of the professional achievements that I am most proud of because it is transformative for teachers.
- Ideally, each track will have a leader who understands the experience level, the types of roadblocks that are likely to come up based on that experience, and a plan to help everyone through those blocks.
- Usually the trainers for the different tracks are highly experienced.
- Opportunities to be a language learner (and sometimes observer of students in a classroom).
Cons
- Depending on your track (and the conference), the training can be sequenced and intentional, or scattered and piecemeal. It really depends on a lot of different factors.
- The sessions outside of the tracked plan can be hit or miss. Because they are all individually created, there is no overarching plan and you might hear some people say things that are the opposite of what someone else said, and that can be confusing and frustrating.
- Mix of experienced and inexperienced presenters.
Acquisition Driven Conference
Pros:
- These are often regional, so they are easier to get to (depending on if one is in your region or not)
- You might meet people in your region with whom to keep collaborating! (See below)
- Often lower cost.
- Variety, variety, variety! There will be a lot of different sessions on different topics! And lots of different presenters!
- There might be skills labs (Agen) and opportunities to be language learners (also Agen!)
Cons
- If you are new to acquisition driven instruction, it can be very overwhelming to attend lots of different sessions.
- There is no sequence of learning- so you might learn about a skill in one session, and a technique in another, and assessment in another, but not have any idea how to put it all together.
- Mix of experienced and inexperienced presenters; sessions can be hit or miss.
- Variety of opinions can lead to confusion and overload.
What conference should I choose?
- I am looking to dip my toes in to acquisition driven instruction and get a lot of different ideas and strategies. I just want some professional development to keep me from getting in a rut.
- You might want to look at an Acquisition Driven conference that has or doesn't have tracks.
- I am new to this whole Acquisition Driven instruction thing and I really want to learn how to do it.
- Consider a workshop to take advantage of highly experienced presenters and a sequenced series of learnings. If none of those work for you, the next option would be a tracked conference.
- I feel like I have the basics; I want to go further.
- This is where a tracked conference with skills labs really shines! You can take a new language, participate in skills labs, and meet other teachers with similar levels of experience.
- Don't discount the power of an expert-led workshop. Skilled trainers are often teaching on multiple levels, and the most experienced ADI teachers know that they can get a lot out of very beginner training (see below).
- I am very experienced. But I still want more training.
- Tracked conferences are great if they have an experienced track or some kind of "teach the teacher" track.
- Anything that has a skills lab with coaches will be very, very good for you! (Trust me!)
- Acquisition Driven conferences can be very good for highly experienced teachers. The variety means you can get what you want, and you probably gravitate toward presenters that you click with. One thing that worked very well for me at these conferences was to go with one theme in mind and attend sessions on that theme, e.g. assessment, reading instruction, upper levels, etc.
Speaking of folks who are experienced and have a lot of training?
It is super common for people who are enthusiastic about teaching with acquisition-driven instruction to poo-poo beginner training. I know I did. I wanted the advanced stuff- badly. I talk to teachers all the time who want "advanced" training. And while I absolutely think there is a place for leveled training experiences, I have come to believe what all the most experienced ADI teacher trainers and coaches kept telling me: you can never work enough on the most basic skills, and you can't be reminded of them enough. AND...
Here's the tricky part (and one possible solution)- although I truly believe that all teachers interested in comprehension based communicative language teaching (aka acquisition driven instruction, comprehensible input) benefit from a back to basics approach, it can be extremely frustrating to be in trainings where the same questions are asked over and over again, and there are no opportunities to dive into what you really need.
My solution for the very experienced:
1) Go to all the trainings you can- beginner, advanced, whatever. Do not poo-poo beginner training.
2) Any time you can get into a Skills Lab with a coach...do it.
3) Find or create a professional learning community (PLC) of teachers with similar training (hint- look for them at conferences!) and process what you learned with them, through your more experienced teacher lens.
4) Set up a time to meet with them regularly- zoom, google meets, at the local library, etc. One year, my little PLC couldn't find a time to meet so we used the Marco Polo app to leave each other asynchronous messages.
I hope to see you all at some upcoming conferences and workshops this year!
If you are the organizer of a conference and you feel like I am representing your work unfairly, please get in touch and we can have a conversation about it, ok? My goal is just to share my own opinions.