At the end of the conversation with [the IB principal mentioned here a few days ago], he insisted that I talk to [a certain teacher], who felt slandered by some of the content connected to one of her students [described in that same blog].
This teacher actually came out of class to speak with me on the phone. At the end of a civil conversation, she threw me a curve ball. She asked me to stop telling people that I thought that teaching using TPRS is better than other ways. She specifically requested that I now start telling people in workshops and such that approaches other than TPRS are as valid in foreign language classrooms.
In my fervent desire to get off that phone and pick my head off the floor after those roughly 45 minutes – it felt like 3 hours – of heated discussion with her principal, I agreed to her request!
Now I want to set that brain burp straight. I want to tell that teacher that I didn’t mean to agree to something so preposterous. I was quite upset in that moment and I said something that I didn’t believe, but it was done in confusion and motivated by the fear generated by the overall situation (if one can call being yelled at by someone you’ve never met for an extended period of time an actual discussion).
I must set the record straight for that teacher while this blog is still public over these next few days. I believe deeply that comprehension based instruction, in which the target language is used as the main vehicle of instruction at least 95% of the time, is in no way the equal of other approaches – it is better, more fun, and more effective.
Comprehensible input methods are far superior in terms of actual language gains.