Eric wrote this to Dr. VanPatten:
Dear Dr. VanPatten,
I am reaching out to you in an attempt to bring our worlds closer together. I teach Spanish to grades 3-8 using an approach called “Teaching with Comprehensible Input (TCI).” This subsumes TPR, TPRS, MovieTalk (of the Focal Skills Approach), FVR, as well as other Natural Approach and fluency building activities. I do feel our teaching approach most closely aligns with your philosophy, e.g. we both consider SLA to be dependent on communicative input.
I am a huge fan of your work. I have read many of your articles, your authored and edited books, as well as viewed the presentation “What Everyone Should Know about SLA.” Within the TCI community (and the FL field in general) I am one of the teachers more well-read in SLA and I frequently share the findings of other researchers (often your research) on online teacher listservs such as:
moreTPRS: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/moretprs/info
Ben Slavic’s PLC*: https://benslavic.com/blog/
*I am sure that Ben Slavic would happily make you a non-paying member of his website (benslavic@yahoo.com)
This past October I spearheaded a conversation on ACTFL’s teacher listserv challenging their recommendation of “authentic resources” and “thematic/topical units.” Your research came up a few times and your video presentation shared. On ACTFL I have only begun to challenge FL testing (National Spanish Exam, WebCape, etc.) and have spent considerable time learning about and developing better tests of monitor-free (implicit) knowledge.
TPRS is the main vehicle of the TCI teaching approach and can be considered synonymous with TCI since from one perspective TPRS is simply a collection of strategies for communicating comprehensibly with students. What is uniquely TPRS is the storyasking technique and the 3-step process of personalized conversation -> storyasking -> reading. If you have not already, I do encourage you to attend a TPRS workshop and/or take a TPRS class in an unfamiliar language, since that experience is most convincing.
NTPRS, July 20-24, W.DC: http://ntprs.org
iFLT, July 14-17, Minnesota: https://tprstorytelling.com/conference/
I am sure Blaine Ray (NTPRS) and Carol Gaab (iFLT) would be thrilled with your attendance and perhaps waive any fees. Additionally, what we call the “Green Bible” – the TPRS How-To book by Ray & Seely – has just come out with the newest edition: http://www.blaineraytprs.com/component/virtuemart/general/fluency-through-tpr-storytelling-detail?Itemid=0
Whether you realize it or not, you have already been idolized by the TCI community, alongside Dr. Krashen. TCI teachers believe that our approach is one that aligns with contemporary SLA research and certainly better aligns than mainstream, traditional instruction. Yet, we face so many obstacles to spreading our approach, many of which have been the subject of your critique. We are currently discussing your article “Where are the Experts?” on Ben Slavic’s PLC and a few members are forwarding your concluding letter to our administrators and even deans of universities and language department chairs.
Thank you for your work and advocacy. This correspondence is long overdue. I hope we (the TCI community) can become your partner in changing the current state of language instruction.
Respectfully,
Eric Herman
Spanish Teacher
Edgartown School