Directions

Today in German 2 the directions lesson went really well. Yesterday we started the vocabulary from the chapter (using photos with the German words so there is less translation happening) and I had signs that I kept the translation of the sign in original German (not L2 learning German). I was surprised today at how many students remembered some of the words that I didn't even go over with them... for instance, I had spoken about the bike paths in Germany and how some are separated and some are together. Then after speaking about it, I quickly went past the slides that said how to say that in German (not having the students do the normal "repeat after me" thing). Today they even remembered that it was a "getrennter Rad- und Fussweg"... wow.

The second "wow" from this class (perhaps an "a ha"?) was when I (instead of going through a bunch of easy left-right sort of things) put the "nach links" and "nach rechts" on the board and then started giving directions. Students followed and then after three times, they tried it with their partner! Some students tried it for me in front of the class and they did a great job! They needed a bit more practice using the words that were there for them, but they had no practiceup until that point and had felt wonderful enough to give it a shot and really do it! Very cool.

So my question is this: is it because the directions are easy? (once you know about 4-5 words you can do so much) Is it because the directions are obviously useful? (but that's the thing about language... it all is used and is useful...) Or is there something else?