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6 thoughts on “What Should New People Do?”
Experiment:
1) Attend a “methods” course in a graduate teacher preparation program that begins with a Blaine Ray TPRS workshop. Record the questions students have about implementing this in their classroom.
2) Attend a Blaine Ray TPRS workshop. Record the questions teachers have about implementing this in their classroom.
My prediction is that teachers bring too much baggage to TPRS and need all sorts of assistance altering what it is they’re familiar with, whereas the students bring less of everything. EVERYONE will likely undergo some disequilibrium since we’ve all basically come up through the grammatical syllabus system. What’s more troublesome, is that we all enjoyed that, else, we wouldn’t have taught (or continued?) language at all.
So, it’s in the baggage teachers bring that demands steps, just like why we include chapters on ordering food in textbooks because people expect them to be there (a la BvP).
“too much baggage”
Nail on the head, Lance. That is what Ben said on his post (Message About My Workshops): “It’s more about unlearning.”
Im glad I never truly learned to do thematic units and setting up partner or whole class output activities. I barely remember my grammar that was easy to unlearn.
As a Blaine Ray workshop presenter, I think I have a unique perspective on this. I would agree that teachers with no baggage can do this much easier than teachers that have taught in traditional ways for a number of years. Normally the problem with newer teachers is their own proficiency level. New teachers lack the confidence to believe that they can speak comprehensively 50 minutes per day with beginners.
Essentially in workshops you do have to retrain them. They have to experience this process as a student at the same time analyzing it from prospective that they’re unfamiliar with. It is my experience that even native speakers have a tremendous amount of learning curve when doing this.
I love what’s Ben said in another post about returning to mini stories… this is where some magical training can happen!
New teachers lack the confidence to believe that they can speak comprehensively 50 minutes per day with beginners.
I would need to formulate some speech with my non-native level French, at least in the non conventional way of circling: adding always, why, still to questions to spice things up. I know it, I’ve slightly acquired it but practice is whats needed.
Native speakers I would imagine neeed practice sheltering, going slow and staying in bounds…. My problem in Spanish.
…new teachers lack the confidence to believe that they can speak comprehensively 50 minutes per day with beginners….
Three things to help you do that, Steven:
1. Slow down.
2. Work from a text.
3. Spin out from the text to ask them humorous questions that compare them to the people/characters in the text. The best texts to read with them are the stories they created. That is why I have 21 steps in Reading Option A.