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Berty Segal Cook: A question I've heard so frequently this year and last has been, " Do we still need TPR if we have TPRS?" How to apply TPRS for best results by James J. Asher, Ph.D Originator of the Total Physical Response, known worldwide as TPR A high school teacher of Spanish asked me recently, "I was at a TPRS storytelling workshop and the presenter advised us to jump right into storytelling without TPR. I was surprised. What do you think?" There is no research that I am aware of supporting storytelling without at least three weeks of student preparation with classical TPR. After that, make a transition into storytelling but continue to use TPR for new vocabulary and grammar. This strategy applies to students of all ages and all languages. After about three weeks, I recommend a variety of activities using the vocabulary the students have inter with TPR. These include role reversal, story telling, skits created and acted out by students, games such a Bingo, pattern drills, and dialogues. All of these activities will ease students into speaking, reading, and remember to TPR the words first. As you know from your own experience, variety is essential to keep students interested day after day. There is no one magical all-purpose technique that will work for everything. Running a successful language classroom is like a Ringling Brothers Circus. A "one-trick pony" is not enough attract and keep the audience's rapt attention. A successful language classroom needs many different acts Heather Fairbanks, who is working to preserve native languages in North America, explains storytellin' "I think that students of all ages will get tired of sitting day-after-day going over-and-over a short ~ but I think the approach would be good to use part of the time as a follow-up to classical TPR." Dr. James J. Davidheiser, Professor of German at the University of the South (Contact at jamesdavidhei~l11ail.com) "For over five years I have been teaching TPR for the first three weeks of the term in Elementary German to college students ... They love it and learn rapidly. Mark Vinson Jones, EFL Instructor at Chormam National University, Gwangju, South Korea "Day 1: An enjoyable learning experience for me and my students works like this: I TPR the word grammatical structures that will appear in a short story I will introduce on Day 2. Dr. David Wolfe, Supervisor of Foreign Languages in the Moorestown Township of the New Jersey and Professor at Temple University. (Contact at dwolfe70@aol.com) " ... We believe that one should do classical TPR for about three weeks; then begin storytelling. One should apply TPR to internalize any concrete vocabulary that will appear later in the story. Dr. Francisco Cabello, Associate Professor of ModernLanguages at Concordia College and author of "Total Physical Response in First Year Spanish, French or English". (Contact at flcabell053@hotmail.com) " ... there is no substitute for fast vocabulary acquisition with TPR. .. Now, I have observed that when TPR students begin role reversal and try speaking for the first time, they tend to use the imperative for everything because that is what they have heard most. However, after telling a few stories in the new language, they make the transition to other verbal structures." Stephen M. Silvers, Professor of Modern Languages at the University of the Amazons in Brazil and author "Listen and Perform books" and the "Command Book: How to TPR 2,000 words in any language" (Contact sms@Mgo.com.bt:) I have three comments: Laura Zink de Diaz, Prize-winning Teacher of Spanish, French and Russian for more than 20 years in t area and publisher of a cutting-edge newsletter for FLIESL teachers. (Contact at lal.llil@earthlink.ne1 " ... The beauty ofTPR is its fluidity, its adaptability. I think that TPR, properly applied, is far less I to produce 'ingrained' structures (a fixation on the imperative) than following any text even a TPR storytelling book, because classical TPR enables the teacher to work so much variety into the use of structures.
References: Asher, James J., Ph.D (2007) How and When to Transfer from TPR to TPRS {www.tpr-world.com/tpr-storytelling.html} Asher, James J. (2003). Learning Another Language through Actions (6th edition). Sky Oaks Productions, Inc., P.O.Box 1102, Los Gatos, CA 95031. Asher, James.J. (2002). Brainswitching: Learning on the right side of the brain. Sky Oaks Productions, Inc., P.O.Box 1102, Los Gatos, CA 95031. Asher, James J. (2000). The Super School: Teaching on the right side of the brain. Sky Oaks Productions, Inc., P.O.Box 1102, Los Gatos, CA 95031. Cabello, Francisco (2004).TPR in First Year English. (Also available in Spanish and French). Sky Oaks Productions, Inc., P.O.Box 1102, Los Gatos, CA 95031. Garcia, Ramiro. (2001). Instructor's Notebook: How to apply TPR for best results (4th edition). Sky Oaks Productions, Inc., P.O.Box 1102, Los Gatos, CA 95031. McKay, Todd. (2004). TPRS Storytelling: Especially for students in elementary and middle school. Spanish or French). Sky Oaks Productions, Inc., P.O.Box 1102, Los Gatos, CA 95031. Materials Level 1 Level 2 & 3 Order Form Workshops inclusive - Berty Segal Cook |