Why do I believe Teaching with Comprehensible Input is the most effective method for producing speaking fluency? Before proceeding, it is important to make a distinction. TCI is not TPRS. While TPRS is one method of providing Comprehensible Input, it is not the only method. Experts on Second Language Acquisition (e.g. Asher, Krashen, Van Patten, Omaggio, Pinker) consistently remind us that studies show the single most important thing for acquisition of a new language is comprehensible input. How that comprehensible input is delivered can vary, but it must be delivered.
To review, grammar-based instruction, the audio-lingual method and immersion do not deliver sufficient amounts of comprehensible input in a short period of time to be effective. Grammar-based instruction was not designed to do this and relies on the native language; ALM relies on meaningless repetition; immersion has too much incomprehensible input.
Teaching with Comprehensible Input is “immersion light”; teachers write on the board/overhead/paper an English translation of words that cannot be understood any other way (or that would take up far too much time to teach another way) but keep the flow of sound in the ?target language. An occasional bit of spoken English may be necessary, but how much? “Just enough” to stay in the target language. That “just enough” will vary depending on students, day, teacher and any number of ?variables but will never exceed 10%.Teaching with Comprehensible Input is better than?100% immersion: it makes more efficient use of the time available. This allows the emphasis to put on meaningful repetition as one element of constructing meaning.
TCI fits with what we know about the brain because the emphasis on “structures” is one version of “chunking”. By introducing students to the lexical unit “wants to go to the store”, the teaching embeds numerous grammatical and syntactical elements in a single unit. That leaves the +/-7 items limit of Active Memory with plenty of cognitive power rather than overloading it with rules. The emphasis on meaning allows the unconscious brain to process the form along with it.
The use of personalization, story structure and meaningful repetition are powerful tools for acquisition. By allowing students to guide discussion through their suggestions, the teacher makes instruction student centered and more engaging for learners. TCI is far more student centered and engaging than any scope and sequence scheme set out by a textbook
Will I “cover” as much vocabulary via TCI as via grammar-based instruction? No, but students will learn the structure and its accompanying grammar, morphology, phonology, and even orthography from repeated exposure. The ear and unconscious brain will work on those so that students are meeting the standards without having to learn a third foreign language: grammar terminology.
Does this mean that in Teaching with Comprehensible Input one never explains grammar? ¡De ninguna manera! It does mean that we explain grammar in small doses. Repeated short episodes of practice or exposure are much more effective for acquisition / long-term memory than a single long session. I will retain more if I practice the piano 15 minutes per day over four days than if I try to learn it in a single one-hour session. That’s simply the way the brain works, no matter whether it is language, music, history or science. So, instead of spending a day explaining the rules, a day practicing the rules and then thinking students have “got it”, we touch ?on the grammar briefly but repeatedly.
Because students learn/acquire at different rates, students will ask the same question at different times. For a teacher who has just done a full day of grammar instruction, this is a cause of frustration. For someone wh does short grammar tidbits, this is a cause of joy, because it means one more student has reached the stage where it is important, and the teacher gets to give everyone another repetition on the item. In giving these explanations, strive to make them meaning based and devoid of needless technical jargon. While most of these explanations last mere seconds, I have had these sessions last up to half an hour because students continued to ask questions. The instruction is not forced – students are genuinely interested. It is instruction as Plato described it: a joy and full of play.
Teaching with Comprehensible Input is so far the method that best aligns with the goals I have for students, with brain-based research and with what we know about Second Language Acquisition. When something better comes along, I will gladly adopt it.