Stephen Cook and I were having lunch a few months ago in the Staff Canteen of the American Embassy School here in New Delhi. We were just settling into our new jobs and feeling pretty good about everything.
During our conversation, Stephen seemed to want to find some common link between TPRS instruction as we use it and his general instruction in ESL. In particular, he seemed to want to hear more about how we use Dr. Krashen’s work in TPRS. We also talked a lot that day about personalization and compelling input.
At the end of our conversation, Stephen put up his lunch tray, walked into his next class, ditched his lesson plan, and told his kids a story about how he jumped into his father’s arms from their burning house at the age of three years old.
The result, of course, was a different class. The kids came to life, because the class was instantly compelling. They devoured the reading. They made all sorts of connections. Something human in Stephen’s students had been reached on a deep level.
Major gains in the language were made that day in Stephen’s class. It is because the students weren’t focused on the language but rather on its meaning.