Effectiveness of Stories

4 thoughts on “Effectiveness of Stories”

1. Eric Herman

   January 27, 2014 at 8:55 pm

   I agree. I wish there were scripts for PQA, or as I recently suggested, doing 2 completely different story scripts with the same structures. It is important to train new teachers how to use the script when asking a story. Experienced teachers take some elements for granted, e.g. You do not have to ask everything- often the details we ask are peripheral and we sometimes just read a line from the script in order to move the story forward.

   If you watch Blaine in his most recent demo (posted on moretprs) you will also see that circling a sentence is not mechanical and not to be overdone. If we circled verb, noun, predicate, as taught at TPRS conferences, then yes, you’d have reps, but not be compelling. Good scripts have 3 locations/events and get the reps automatically.

   The whole line about just having to provide CI to the kids may be true in a second language environment, but in a FL classroom if you just give the kids CI, not following the 3 TPRS steps, not spending 2+ weeks on the same structures, then you go WIDE and the kids do NOT get the reps. The results were frustrating for me and the students. I saw this happen when I first started MovieTalk (MT). I could stay in the target language 90%+ of the class and be comprehensible, but unless the MT had repetition built into the plot, then this “non-targeted CI” seemed too wide and my kids were not getting the reps necessary to acquire the words. So now I only use 1-2 minute clips that have repetitive plots and I have various listening and reading activities that last at least 3 classes around that same clip.

   The other great thing we have to remember about TPRS is that we rarely say more than 1 sentence without asking a question. CI for 50 minutes is great, but only if the kids are paying attention to it. We have to demand interaction via choral responses. Even then, there are weaknesses: I’ve been in TPRS conferences and I myself found my mind drifting, even when choral responses were required. It was easy to delay/fake my response and join the mumble of the rest of the class, not too unlike what happens at Church when you aren’t sure of the response/prayer. And in those big classes, we can’t call on everyone individually to check for comprehension and engagement. I bet this is partly why I saw Blaine Ray in the demo require students to give an IMMEDIATE choral response. He got upset when they took too long to answer and asked for faster responses. But then you’ll have kids that need more processing time. Dilemma. . .

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   1. Andrew

      January 28, 2014 at 9:18 am

      “Good scripts have 3 locations/events and get the reps automatically.”–this is a fantastic point, Eric.

      I just used a script last night with only two locations and it was seriously lacking and the repetitions were forced. Students lost interest because there were too few natural reps.

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2. kate taluga

   January 28, 2014 at 7:35 am

   One of the things I really loved about Blaine’s demonstration 2 summers ago and last fall when I saw him in action was telling a story in all the tenses and persons (there is probably a proper linguistic term for that, but . . .)

   At first I was a little concerned. But as the process happened over the 90 minutes, it sank into me how easily it was to understand the concept of really telling the story. Checking in with the person who was in the story, asking questions of them, transferring back to the students in the classroom, it flowed.

   It was all there. A real conversation was happening and the passive students were seeing it (cause I was passive as Spanish is not my language–though many more times to TPRS and it will be).

   I am no Blaine. But when I came home and tried out, my students got the gist of what I was doing and they were less apt to just parrot back to me what I said. They also stayed more connected to the story line as they didn’t know who or where I’d jump to. It wasn’t the game they’d seen before which I sometimes think the PQA sets up. While the structure of PQA is great for awhile, it loses it’s spontaneity which is what the brain requires to stay engaged.

   It is all so hard sometimes to just stay in the target language for long periods of time that if you are doing that, you should just give yourself a huge big pat on the back. As Ben pointed out a few days ago to me. Hearing the language consistently for long periods of time over extended periods of time is the best way to unconsciously grasp the language which is how we learn.

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3. Sean Lawler

   January 28, 2014 at 12:52 pm

   …it’s spontaneity which is what the brain requires to stay engaged.

   I’m making a mental note of this as I start a new semester of kids and begin new routines. Thanks, Kate.

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