The thing about TPRS was that not only were there too many rules, but also it required a certain type of personality. Since there was no real road map, or system, only certain teachers could handle it.
On the other hand, non-targeted CI has no such confusing rules and, more importantly, is much more systemized, and so if a teacher wants to try NTCI, they will be pleasantly surprised.
Yes – NTCI is a system. That sounds counterintuitive. But it is in fact a system (ANATS) that any new teacher to CI can easily put into place even if they don’t have a particularly outgoing personality.
In NTCI, we need not be stage actors. The kids provide all the energy, because they are so fired up about the images they create, both individually and as a class (one word images).
It’s so different in NTCI when we base our instruction on images that kids create and not on words in the form of high frequency lists, thematic units, semantic sets, or lists of words to backwards plan for a novel. Images are more interesting than words to kids, especially when they create them.
I taught using TPRS for 15 years, and for less than one year using NTCI. But I like NTCI better. I’m not saying that TPRS is not good. I am saying what works best for me.