Zen and TPRS

Greg is a young teacher who first heard about TPRS last week and has decided to start using it in his classes Monday ... tomorrow.  That's a remarkable decision and a very brave one.  He's got one of the best tutors in the world in Ben Slavic who is guiding him through the transition.  In his case, as Ben says, it's more like a high dive, but he's probably right.  The sooner you shake off your doubts and hesitations and dive right in, the easier it will be.

Greg was worried about lesson plans.  He has 90 minute classes and is used to having them programmed.  Ben pointed out several routines that other TPRS teachers use and which are posted on his site.  I can remember my first training session after having passed the CAPES in France which made of me a "real" language teacher employed by the ministry of Education.  (In the States you train and when you are certified, you look for a job.  In France you get the job first and then they train you.)  We were given a lesson plan template:  

• 5 minutes warm-up 
• ten minutes revision 
• ten minutes presentation of new material 
• 15 minutes application 
• 10 minutes reading a text
• 5 minutes discussion
• 5 minutes summary + trace écrit ( an elegant way of saying copy into your notebooks what is written on the board)

When we were inspected, the inspectors expected to see this basic plan (with a few brilliant innovations if possible).  Our students expected to see it too, since that is how they were used to being taught.  If you didn't follow it, your lessons "were not structured".  Parents and inspectors checked students' notebooks for the trace écrit and used it to judge what was happening in your classroom.  And if you didn't manage to jump all the hoops within the allotted time, you had pacing problems.

When I realized that TPRS allowed me to throw that kind of lesson plan out the window, it was a breath of bracing sea air, tasting of freedom and open spaces.  I now go into classes with little more than three structures in my mind.  

Hears something - is afraid - runs away*  

I start chatting, asking my students if they had a good week, what they did, where they went.  Why it was good or bad.  Then I hush them and ask if they hear anything.  What do they hear?  When they are at home at night, do they hear anything?  These questions in English allow me to work on something/anything/nothing, always a good idea, and to learn a little more about my students.  We're doing PQA according to the plan, but I'm actually just having a relaxed conversation with my students.  Talking about what they hear at night gets us into what they are afraid of.  Spiders and snakes, etc.  I tell them that I've lived in Africa and I'm not afraid of spiders and snakes and rats, etc., but I'm terrified if I see a little mouse.  I run away.  What do they do?

When they seem to have nothing more to say, or I can think of nothing more to ask them, I announce that we are going to "make" a story.  Since they are starting to understand how the game works, they grin and look at each other.  I understand this to mean that they are ready to play, eager to come up with fun ideas.  I ask who the story is going to be about, we spend a little time inventing our hero and learning more about them, then I start asking the questions that build the story.  They make suggestions and I accept or refuse as it suits where I think the story may go.  

If the story becomes complex and we run out of time, we'll continue it next time.  Or not, depending on how interesting it seems.  If there's a resolution and we still have time, I can ask for retells.  Or, as I did yesterday, give them their story as a dictation.  I asked a question, got an answer that starts the story, repeated it and asked them to write it down as a dictation.  Then I wrote it on the board so they could see if they had it right.  We had enough time to go through the entire story, though as we progressed I stopped asking questions, just gave them the next line as a dictation.  They really seemed to enjoy doing this, made very few mistakes and self-corrected almost without any help or explanations from me.  It did allow me to make a few pointers. And we have the story all written down for a reading.

My point, as I explained to Greg, is that in TPRS the important thing is the journey and not where you end up.  As long as you are speaking in the target language and your students are engaged and understanding everything you say, they are acquiring the language.  So it doesn't really matter how far you get with your lesson plan.  What matters is how much they acquired along the way. "The journey matters more than the destination."

* Thanks to Anne Matava for her Story Scripts

In the Ghetto .... my old standby

The first time I taught this song I was merely looking for a good example of the simple present tense in English.  Which it is, since it contains examples of all the uses of the simple present tense and there is no other tense used in the lyrics.  Since it went over well, I used it again and again, with an explanation of the simple present tense and asking the students to find the examples in the song.  This was before I had learned about TPRS.

Then one day as we were listening to the song, it suddenly hit me, who the child born in the last stanza was.  Her young man.  You don't call a mother's child "her young man".   The mother who cries at the end is not the mother who cries at the beginning.  So, with the students we talked about "vicious circles" and universal truths and repeated actions.

Today I'm still using the song but I no longer talk about the simple present.  We talk about the song and the boy in the song and we talk about what a child needs.

I use an embedded reading to present the song.  Usually we do readings I and II before hearing the song and reading III after we've heard the song.

Reading I

A baby was born in the Chicago ghetto.  His mother cried.  She had six mouths to feed.

The little boy grew up.  He played in the street and he was hungry.  He learned how to steal and he learned how to fight.  He became an angry young man.

He was in desperation.  He bought a gun and he stole a car.  He didn’t get far.  He died in the street with a gun in his hand.

Another little baby boy was born.  His mother cried.

Reading II

As the cold wind blew and the snow flew, a baby boy was born in the Chicago ghetto. His mother cried because she had no job, too little money and six mouths to feed.

The little boy grew up in the ghetto.  He played in the street and he was always cold and hungry.  He learned how to steal and he learned how to fight.  He became an angry young man because he never had a chance.

One night he was in desperation.  He needed money. He bought a gun and he stole a car.  He didn’t get far.  He died in the street with a gun in his hand. A crowd gathered round.

That night another baby boy was born.  The baby’s mother cried.

Reading III

In January, 1969, as the cold wind blew off Lake Michigan and the snow flew, a baby boy was born in the Chicago ghetto. His mother cried because she already had five children and her husband was in prison. She had no job, too little money and six mouths to feed.

The little boy grew up in the ghetto. He played in the street and he was always cold and hungry. No one gave him a helping hand. In the streets of the ghetto he learned how to steal and he learned how to fight. He grew into an angry young man because he had never had a chance.

He had a girlfriend who loved him, and one night she told him she was going to have a baby. He needed money because he wanted his child to have a different life. He looked for a job, but no one wanted to give a job to a boy from the ghetto. People turned their heads and looked the other way. Everyone was blind. He was desperate, but no one understood his desperation.

He broke away from society. He bought a gun and stole a car. He tried to rob a bank, but the police saw him and shot him. He died face down in the street, his gun in his hand, as a curious crowd gathered round to watch him die. They were the people who had turned their heads to look the other way when he was alive.

That night his son was born and the baby’s mother cried because her child had no father.

**********

After doing the first two readings, I give the students the lyrics as a cloze exercise.  Notice that in the song he says 'she don't need'. With beginners I correct it and put in 'she doesn't need' and they don't notice.  With more advanced classes I leave the original expression and if someone notices I explain that many people who are not well-educated talk like that.  And that singers of popular music sometimes use incorrect grammar in order to identify themselves with ordinary people.

This is the cloze exercise I give my students:

In the Ghetto

As the snow flies …

On a cold and grey _____________ morning,

A poor little baby child is ____________, in the ghetto.

And his mama ________________

'Cause if there's one ___________ she doesn't need

It's another hungry mouth to feed in the ghetto.

People, don't you ________________?

A child ____________ a helping hand.

Or he’s going to be an _________ young man some day.

Now, take a look at you and me,

Are we too blind to ______________?

Or do we simply turn our heads and _______ the other way?

Well, the world turns…

And a hungry little _________ with a runny nose

Plays in the _____________ as the cold wind blows, in the ghetto.

And his hunger burns.

So he starts to roam the streets at _______________

And he learns how to steal

And he _____________ how to fight, in the ghetto.

Then one night in desperation

The young __________ breaks away.

He buys a gun, steals a _____________.

He tries to ____________ but he doesn't get far.

And his mama cries.

As a crowd gathers round an ___________ young man,

Face down in the street with a gun in his _______________, in the ghetto.

And as her young man dies

On a cold and grey _______________ morning

Another little baby child is born, in the ghetto.

And his mama cries. In the ghetto. In the ghetto.

Notice that the missing words are easy words that I'm fairly sure my students know and can hear.  Even so, it's not simple for the students.  Often I chose "easy" words that my students did know, but could not recognize as they were sung.  "Some day" was an expression that they could not hear. So I have adapted my blanks to make the exercise doable.  The point to this kind of exercise is NOT to test our students' listening skills.  The point is simply to get them to listen several times to a song they can understand.  Comprehensible Input can't get any sweeter.  They should feel successful and enjoy doing it.  I always insist that they must not write while they are listening. I have them put their pens away and follow with a finger.  Then we go back and see what words they remember.  That is when I allow them to write in the blanks.

The song dates from 1969 but unfortunately, as my students realize, the problem it describes still exists, so the message is not at all dated.  Many have told me that they downloaded it and enjoy listening to it.