Sip n’ Speak italiano classes debut at Cattivella restaurant in Denver

So why Sip n’ Speak? Why do I love teaching language the way I do it? I’ll start by repeating part of the spiel I give every year on back to school night. I tell parents, my goal is for your kids to not be standing here in 20 years saying, “I had ____ (insert number ranging from 2-6) years of ___________ (choose Spanish or French) in ___________ (insert high school and/or college), and I can’t speak a word.”

I, the language lush, am here to tell you there has been a revolution in language instruction (hopefully, and in most classrooms– where the teacher has a pulse). Gone or severely restricted are the days of direct grammar instruction, drilling, and verb charts. We have entered the era of comprehensible input. This means giving students language he or she can understand in a context the student cares about. It has to be both understandable and relevant. In my high school classroom, I am still somewhat constricted by what is in the textbook. I have to teach the word pupitre, an antiquated term for “student desk” that 3 out of 4 native speakers I’ve interviewed do not know. Since my pet peeve is body parts draped listlessly across desks during my highly engaging lessons, I make the best of this word by telling students, “Get your head off my poopie-tray! It’s gross,” received by much laughter.

But when I am not wearing my virtuous civil servant hat, the classroom is mine.  I am free to make the rules to best suit my students and their real world goals. I do this by making sure the environment is stress-free (hence the popularity of sipping for adults and singing for kids). This is research based (the lack of stress not the booze), but you’ll have to take my word on it unless you want to read my 35 page master’s thesis on language acquisition. We put gestures to new words to help store them in long term memory, and we give priority to informal, oral language over grammar, since 99% of us won’t go on to be a Spanish or Italian linguist but will need to be able to respond to and ask basic questions.

On Sundays over the next coming weeks at celebrated Chef Elise Wiggins’ acclaimed Denver restaurant Cattivella, students will get to laugh, relax, and learn Italian while drinking vino. They will use gestures to help them remember basic vocabulary and conversation, as well as engage in travel dialogues. They will immediately be able to use what they’ve learned to order from the menu and will hopefully be so engaged that there is not a single head down on a table. I just hope they don’t fight me on the Italian pop songs.