Kinesthetic Language Learning: How an Accident Led to a Revelation

This essay analyzes a critical incident that took place in a hybrid distance‐learning Hebrew language class that was adapting interactive, immersion‐style, kinesthetic pedagogy during the week‐long face‐to‐face intensive portion of the class – including Total Physical Response techniques in which students respond to the language with whole‐body actions, entering into the world created by the language and the particular biblical text. Memorization, performance, interactive games, songs, and skits also contribute to the immersion‐style learning environment. A snafu on the final day of the week led to a serendipitous solution that demonstrated Parker Palmer's idea of subject centered pedagogy. A brief description and analysis of the critical incident is followed by two short responses.