The interface between ESL and TPRS is found in the word “compelling”. Stories bring the highest levels of compelling instruction. Therefore, all the ESL folks need to do with their students is some stories while dropping all that other stuff they do that makes their instruction so dry.
If ESL instructors were to make up a story with their students, they would see them smile and kick up their heels. Students whom they thought boring and distant would begin to show them sides that they never even imagined were there.
And ESL instructors need not teach so much grammar either. They embarrass themselves when they do that. There is nothing good in forcing ESL students to manipulate grammar terms.
ESL teachers need to stop bringing in all that boring social studies stuff also. Grammar and social studies don’t belong in ESL classrooms – they stifle learning. ESL teachers need to let their students out of their straitjackets.
And why do ESL researchers who never lived in classrooms advocate forcing kids to speak and write beyond their capacity? When ESL instructors force kids to speak and write beyond a level that is fun and comfortable for them, they turn their students off to the language.
It’s easily changed. Talk more about them. Respect their interests. Find out what those interests are and shift the focus on the class from the language to the meaning of what is being discussed. When focus shifts away from language to meaning and especially meaning that is personally connected to the lives of the students in the class, the language gains will skyrocket.