Letters to Kelsey - 2

Kelsey wanted to know what circling was exactly, if I did it with adults and if it didn't get boring.

This is why at TPRS workshops they put you in the place of a student and teach you a language you don't know, so you can experience how it feels to be a student in a TPRS class.  I did Swedish at one workshop and Mandarin at another.  It may seem boring to you (the teacher) because you understand every word you are saying.  Your student, however, is struggling.  His ears aren't atuned to the language; he's decoding every word you say. When you see that he's no longer struggling, that he's answering your questions easily, that's when you move on in your story, before it has time to become boring.

Yes, I do this with adults in private lessons. With more advanced students I rarely circle, just when there's a particular structure that's giving them problems. Beginners need lots of circling. As Ben says, we never go SLOW enough.  He says we have to hang in there and go so slow it hurts.  You watch your students' eyes to see how well they're understanding. 

Circling :  Make a statement.  Make sure your student understands the statement.  "Jim likes big American cars."  

 Ask  a Yes/no question.           "Does Jim like big American cars?"

 Ask either or questions.           

 "Does Jim like big American cars or does Tom like big American cars?"

 "Does Jim like big American cars or does Jim detest (cognate) big American cars?"

 "Does Jim like big German cars or does Jim like big American cars?"

 "Does Jim like big American cars or little American cars?"

Each time the student answers with short, one word answers, you nod and repeat the original statement as you would in an ordinary conversation when you agree with the person.

         Ask a question with a negative answer.  

"Does Jim like little Japanese cars?"  

This is called Two for One, because you agree when the student says no, saying "No, Jim doesn't like little Japanese cars.  He likes big American cars."

         

Ask as many Wh- questions as possible.  "Who likes big American cars? What does Jim like?  What kind of car does Jim like?"  When your student has the information, or when he's been trained to use his imagination, you can ask Where? When? Why? How? How many?

Circling is milking one statement for as many repetitions as possible, so the student is understanding and hearing the structures over and over again.  With practice you'll be able to circle in your sleep, and your student will spontaneously use the correct structure that you have been repeating because through the constant repetition his subconscious mind has acquired it.  Even traditional teachers have found circling to be a valuable tool in their kit.  You can use it in the lycée with your students there.

Once you have circled one statement, you can add another to continue the story.  You circle the second statement and then go on to the third, etc.  You can see how it can take an hour to do one simple story.  From time to time you recapitulate the story, and when the student is comfortable with it, you can ask him to "retell" the story.  In the example I gave you it doesn't matter what the man's name is or what he likes or what kind of car he likes.  So those are elements you can get your student to volunteer, so it becomes his story. "Jim" could be his brother or best friend or wife, etc. 

Have a poster with the question words and their translation in front of you or on the wall.  While you are circling, point at the words as you say them, as it will take a long time for them to sink in. The French often confuse where/when.  It helps to have a translation visible until they have really acquired them.

There was nothing wrong with what you did for your first lesson and you're right, you want to build up a vocabulary of what we call "high frequency" words, basic building blocks in any communication.  Did you know that there are 100 words that make up 65% of any written text in English?  However, it's important to understand the difference between "learning" and "acquiring".  Basically, you gave your student some basic vocabulary and told him to learn those words/verbs.  If he's motivated and a hard worker he will spend a lot of time doing it.  But they will not be acquired, because the conscious mind learns vocabulary, rules, etc., but the subconscious mind acquires the language.  When vocabulary is acquired, the student can use it spontaneously, without even thinking about it.  By rough estimation it takes 70 repetitions for a word to become acquired.  Fewer for very high interest words (like cuss words, parts of the female anatomy, etc.) and more for very boring stuff.  Which is why we circle.

We don't present students with lists of pronouns to learn.  That's probably how you and I both learned French, but we're part of the estimated 4% of the population that can learn a foreign language in that abstract way.  And as old as I am, I can still remember that it took me a long time to get those horrible pronouns sorted out.  With TPRS you present pronouns (and everything else) in context.  In a private lesson you'll be using I and you a lot, so your student will learn them first of course.  Then you start a story about Jim, so he'll be hearing he/him/his, always in context.  If your student asks "what does him mean?" you tell him. and circle the sentence with "him" in it.  Later, when you come across "him" again, you ask the student to find the word that means "lui".  another time you'll ask him, "what does 'him' mean?" These are what we call pop-up questions.  I call it homeopathic grammar, because a pop-up question should only last a few seconds.

In your next lesson, be sure you talk about a woman, so you'll be using she, her.

At some point you'll want to talk about more than one person, so you'll have they/them/their.  Much later, you can compare Americans and French people and use "we/us/our". Note that in the story of Pirate the dog, I introduced dialog.  This was to get in I/you.

Krashen believes that our subconscious minds acquire another language when we are so focused on content that we forget it's in another language. This is what we try to do with students, making the stories so fun and interesting that the students forget they're in a different language.  That doesn't happen every time (when it does we call it a "homerun") but Blaine Ray says that "Even bad TPRS is pretty good."