Claire shares below an idea that is of monumental importance in our work. What she says below describes an overarching position that actually aligns with the research, and thus conflicts badly with the way TPRS is currently done in our schools:
Not only do we need to fix the assessment, we need to adopt targetless curriculum documents. Our Scope and Sequence and our syllabi should not have targets, or our assessments and instruction would be out of alignment.
Targetless instruction, targetless assessments, targetless syllabi.
Because that’s what’s most appropriate for early language learners.
We encourage beginning students to use circumvention and focus on understanding the message of the whole story, because that’s what’s most appropriate. Heritage Learners, advanced, fluent ESL students, that’s a different matter.
Take a big step back and consider the full Scope and Sequence of SLA.
I hate to get too deep in theory, but you need to know why we don’t teach targets. Here’s an overview of what you teach (most levels foreign language fall on the right column (BICS).http://www.unm.edu/~devalenz/handouts/decontext2.html
You’ll notice what you don’t teach: we don’t teach the “Thematic cues are lexicalized” –that’s CALP. We don’t teach “Language used in ways that eschew reliance on shared social and physical context in favor of reliance created through the language itself.” We don’t teach “Formal definitions.”
It’s not just Krashen. There is a litany of SLA research that supports the idea that a focus on discretely targeted language is not appropriate for most foreign language or early language learners.
Conversational language is best taught without targets because they simply don’t have the language to use discourse and text to find a “right” answer; they rely on context built by very simply language in familiar settings with paralingual and paratextual clues (body language/gestures, realia, visuals, etc.). Finding the “right word” is a late-acquired skill, and depending on the level of support we give (or don’t) it can be an exercise in futility.
You help students acquire content-reduced, contextualized language. Therefore, you need to ditch your targeted, thematic vocabulary or grammar-driven syllabus. Then, you’ll be ready to “go targetless.”