Two Recent Studies

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Chris I did find a few studies Dr. Krashen sent me last year:

Two Recent Studies

In both cases, TPRS was compared to traditional methodology for first year Spanish as a foreign language students in high school.

Varguez, K. 2009. Traditional and TPR Storytelling instrucion in beginning high school Spanish classroom. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 5 (1): 2-11.

Watson, B. 2009. A comparison of TPRS and traditional foreign language instruction at the high school level. International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching 5 (1): 21-24.

Varguez (2009)

  • Teacher philosophy aligned with class taught, traditional vs. TPRS.
  • All students true beginners.
  • Low SES TPRS had student teacher for a part of the year.
  • TPRS significantly better than comparisons (t = 10.56, p < .0001).
  • Low SES TPRS class not significantly different from comparisons (t = .62, not sig.)

group

n

mean (sd)

TPRS

22

32 (4.7)

TPRS low SES

13

22.3 (38.2)

Comp

48

23.45 (21.2)

Measure: combination of listening and reading

2 comparison class results combined

Effect size: TPRS vs. Comp = .49

Watson (2009)

  • 4% of TPRS students used Spanish outside of school, 15% of traditional students.
  • TPRS teacher asked far more questions, used Spanish far more, class was more teacher-fronted.
  • Students in both classes reported doing similar amounts of homework and both classes included reading. The traditional class read Pobre Ana as homework, TPRS read Pobre Ana and Patricia va a California in class.
  • TPRS significantly better than comparisons (t = 4.06, p = .0001).

group

n

mean (sd)

TPRS

50

63.9 (4.0)

Comp

23

58.2 (7.9)

Measure: combination of listening, vocabulary/grammar (fill-in-the blank in sentences) and reading

2 TPRS class results combined

Similar results obtained in oral examination

Effect size: TPRS vs. Comp = 1.02

Summary

  1. When classes are of equal SES, TPRS is a clear winner. Effect sizes were modest (.49) and large (1.02).
  2. A low SES TPRS class with a student teacher for part of the time did as well as traditional instruction.
  3. Watson’s results may be understated because a larger percentage of traditional students reporte  using Spanish outside of class (eg at home).