If we can focus a bit less on the skills (the bone) and try to establish a more genuine and compelling and soft and flowing communication with our kids (the marrow) we may be able to find out the magnificence of this work. Genuine and compelling and soft and flowing communication is what comprehensible input instruction should be about.
By trying to get TPRS to align with what we do in schools, we have lost our way. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Dr. Krashen were to one day formally rescind his 2009 endorsement of TPRS based on our changing his and Blaine’s vision to fit what schools demand. It’s like Blaine’s genius, his original pure vision, was slowly funneled into a system of formalized education and nobody noticed it.
The real nature of this work is not about hammering repetitions. It never was. The skills are the engine, of course, but robots could do them. The heart quality is the vehicle that actually brings the acquisition. Making the structures the star of the show has reduced storytelling to mere robotic learning of words, when language by its very nature is far more subtle and human than that.
Things should emerge in our comprehensible input classes, and they should emerge within a context of lively and happy heart-filled humor. Then the words will stick with the kids. We can free ourselves in this work and get rid of a lot of the frustration that has held us down over the years if we stop focusing so much on targets and allow the story to develop on its own.