From TPRS in a Year! – Skill #41: The En Route Event When an actor is transitioning from one location to another, funny things can happen: Class, Cinderella is going through the forest. Does she go by automatic toilet or by toad, class? That’s right, class, she goes by toad! C’est évident!. …… Class, a […]
Q. If we don’t use stories to help teach grammar, then how will students be able to express themselves without these “tools” to communicate their own thoughts? They only hear us (teachers) speaking Spanish for 80 minutes/day, 5 days/week for a few semesters. How will students know how to compose high level essays for the
A lot of us have great ideas, but because we are lower down on the pecking order in the school system, what we really think and do is rarely heard by those around us, above us, in spite of all the pointless meetings. The assumption is that the department chair, the district coordinator, the principal
From TPRS in a Year! – Skill #20: Chants The repetition of chants can burn new language into the kids’ minds better than practically anything else! If you can just get the words into the kids’ bodies via a good gut-based chant, it will, via the repetition, work wonders for retention. In my view, chants are
Q. When you describe the transportation scenes to get the actors from level 5 to level 6, you don’t mention how much time they take and you don’t build that time into the overall 25–35 minute desired time frame. Wouldn’t the transportation scenes add time to the story and “blow it up” too much? A.
Fun Skills – Whacky Transportation Scene – Part 2 Read More »
From TPRS in a Year! – Skill #43: The Whacky Transportation Scene Whenever an actor needs to go to another location in a story, the potential for a humorous mode of travel exists. The conveyance can be merely described in words, or it can actually be put into action, which the kids love, because they
In my book, TPRS in a Year!, written a decade ago, I identify a number of skills and strategies which have morphed into the current version of comprehensible input that Tina and I recommend. It’s been a long and winding road. In an important, searchable post here called “Hit List” – which is also a
My first career choice was to repair lava lamps, but they went out of style, although you can still get them at Walmart. My next career preference was to become a choral conductor, but that didn’t happen either. So my third career choice was to become what is now called a traditional language teacher. I
A re-post from 2010: I’ve always been slightly puzzled about why people reject TPRS/CI without deeper investigation. It just seems so silly. Here we have a way of easily reaching kids by staying in target language that is interesting and fun for them, something we never had before, and people toss it off out of
The other day I asked my French 2 students to watch one of Alice Ayel’s short story videos on YouTube at home and write whatever they understood in English over the weekend and bring it to me on Monday. They all actually understood a lot of it! Two students handed me the exact same thing
Cameron reminds us about the silent period (it is so easily forgotten!) – “My son was 3 years old when we moved to Japan. He started at a Montessori preschool at 3 1/2 years old. We were worried when at 5 years he was still only producing words and phrases in Japanese. We speak Spanish
Steven said in a comment here this morning: …output as per BVP is “original thought being communicated unrehearsed”. ACTFL distinguishes between two terms: Performance (what is rehearsed and memorized) vs. Proficiency (unrehearsed output). Language acquisition should be effortless and accessible to all because it is hard-wired in the brain. It is innate for us to
