Grant Boulanger says .....

Changes are coming in our local language instruction ecosystems. Administrators who are paying attention to what happens in their buildings have become openly concerned about the lack of equity in language education in the United States.

When administrators understand that method is important (it isn’t important in all subject areas) and shifting method (which we can do if we have a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset) can increase results, they begin to understand that the goal of comprehension based language teachers is not a personal vendetta against colleagues who do things differently.

Rather, it’s about college readiness for more students by getting more and more people of all shapes and sizes through second year language classes and into the upper levels. It’s about growing, changing and adapting as professional educators to improve what we do for the benefit of our students.

Darcy Pippin, a teacher-leader in Oklahoma, has some amazing statistics as her department has transitioned to comprehension based instruction (TCI – Teaching with Comprehensible Input) over the last six years – going from approximately 15 kids in 4th year and 15 in AP to 30 in each. Besides that, she went from around 30% passing the AP test (that’s about 5 kids of 15) to around 75% passing (that’s about 23 kids of 30). Those are impressive stats.

If we contrast this with existing district statistics where TCI (Teaching with Comprehensible Input) is not used, it’s all the more powerful. What is your district’s retention rate over four years? Retention rate in a traditional public high school, which will be mirrored across the country, will be <10 4="" over="" p="" retention="" years.="">

Those students who make it to upper levels of study will be mostly white, mostly female, nearly all high-achieving students. Does that reflect your district’s student demographic? If not, why not? Does it reflect your district’s dedication to closing the achievement gap? If not, should it? If so, what changes do we need to make?

But these are just statistics. And people are naturally skeptical of statistics, as they should be. It’s only one part. The stories that are being told in schools across the country right now are what people are starting to notice and respond to. It is the stories about comprehension based instruction that will create in other teachers the feeling that they can be a part of this change.

Everyone wants to feel successful and feel like they’re good at what they do. Everyone wants their kids to buy in and feel successful too. So, there’s the special education student who shines in your class and, in fact, outshines many higher-achieving kids.

There’s the social outcast who raises her head, laughs and smiles. There’s the obnoxious kid who gets kicked out of all his other classes but not yours. There’s the high-achieving kid who is writing better by March than many level three kids from grammar-centric classes.

There’s the shy kid who doesn’t say a word, yet scores at Intermediate Low on listening and writes beautifully. What’s the common denominator here? How do we tell these stories to colleagues and administrators?

Then there’s teacher X who, just three years ago was a staunch traditional grammar/book based instructor, honing his explanations and packets for years and who had written off TCI (an umbrella term that includes TPRS) because of an underlying fear of change. It probably sounded more like, “I tried that already and it doesn’t work”.

But, after more encouragement and better understanding of the method, he now says things like, “Wow, my kids are so much more engaged. They’re not resisting me anymore. We have so much more fun and I’m so much happier.”

These are the stories that are now being told in various parts of the country and tipping points are being reached inside many WL departments, one teacher at a time, even as the corporate model applied to education is moving students into a more robotic mode.

Teachers are being evaluated now largely in terms of work accomplished, and kids are increasingly becoming mere robotic memorizers plagued with more work that can reosonably be accomplished in one day. There is less pursuit of happiness and more pursuit of work.

When comprehension based instruction/TCI is used in a classroom, however, the opposite happens, as described in the examples above. The human part of language education, which alone guarantees mastery of the language, is preserved in language classrooms that are based on comprehensible input, and great gains in actual fluency (vs. bogus testing) are the result.

In my district, we’re reaching the tipping point. Working from within the existing structures, we have crafted and presented a TCI-friendly goal statement that will be adopted for the district secondary language classes. It’s only a starting point, but this statement is clearly drawn from our district’s own language around equity and the ACTFL 90% statement published in 2011.

It’s a statement of district intent that is very hard to argue with. The harder part will be putting the goal statement into action. But our district is supportive. They’re implementing Balanced Literacy in language arts and it’s a big shift for a lot of teachers.

So, the district people are saying that they will support our department in the same way, with ongoing training and a transitional period so people don’t feel as if they need to change tomorrow. This is critical. They’re recognizing that change is scary, but that transitioning to a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset, is the first step.

Grant Boulanger is a teacher of Spanish in St. Paul, MN.  

Big News!

There will be a TPRS workshop in Agen, France in August, 2013. As far as I know, this is the first TPRS workshop to be held in France.

I have been able to organize this opportunity for teachers in France with Teri Wiechart, who coaches at NTPRS.  Alike Last from the Netherlands and Lynnette St George from Wheaton Academy near Chicago are in on the adventure too.

When?

August 6^th – August 10^th, 2013

Morning sessions 9:00 am – 12:00 am

Afternoon sessions 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm

Why?

Teachers of English as a foreign language in France or elsewhere will discover TPRS in sessions where they are taught a new language with the method and then they will learn to use it in training sessions with students.

This international workshop is also designed for teachers of French as a foreign language who wish to visit France while improving their teaching skills with TPRS.  Teachers of other languages are welcome. Both beginners and advanced users of the method will benefit from being coached by our experienced staff.

Where?

Agen lies in the Garonne valley in Southwest France at the heart of a rich agricultural area.  You can get to Agen by high speed train (TGV). The trip takes about an hour from either Bordeaux or Toulouse and a little over four hours from Paris.  The site of the workshop is within easy walking distance of the main shopping area, a dozen hotels and the train station. There is a free bus to get around the city center every twelve minutes.

Prices at downtown hotels range from 25 euros to 125 euros a night. You can get a decent meal for 12 euros in numerous excellent restaurants. For more information you can visit the Tourist Office site:   http://www.ot-agen.org/

Who?

Teri Wiechart

Teri Wiechart worked as a French teacher at Delphos Jefferson High School from 1975 to 2010.  Since then she has been working as a consultant to the Ohio Department of Education, working on updating the learning standards for Ohio’s K-12 students and implementing the new standards.

She has been a TPRS/CI trainer since 2001, working as a Presenter and Coach at the National TPRS Conference since 2007.  She has also served as the coaching coordinator at the International Forum for Language Teachers, 2010, 2012, and 2013. Teri has a Masters of the Arts in Teaching and she studied abroad at l’Université de Strasbourg. She is currently President of the Ohio Foreign Language Association.

Lynnette St George

Lynnette St. George grew up in a French-American family in New England in a community infused with multi-cultural influences  from France and Canada. Lynnette holds 2 Masters degrees, an MATL from Nova Southeastern University in Miami in Florida and an MA in French with a specialization in pedagogy and linguistics from L’école française of Middlebury College. She recently adapted the novel Le nouvel Houdini and its teacher's guide for TPRS publishing. Currently, Lynnette is the head of World Languages at Wheaton Academy, a Christian prep high school in the Chicago suburbs. Lynnette is a frequently requested speaker at professional conferences as well as a guest lecturer for University methods classes. 

Alike Last

Alike Last lives in the Netherlands. She is a French teacher and organization psychologist. She introduced TPRS in the Netherlands in 2007 and organized several TPRS workshops for Blaine Ray and Susan Gross in the Netherlands. Alike Last initiated network meetings for Dutch and Belgian TPRS teachers who are interested in TPRS and she is co-founder of a Dutch platform for TPRS. Alike Last bases her French lessons on Multiple Intelligences and she teaches French with TPR and TPRS to adolescents at a Hotel school and in her own language institute she teaches French to adults. Alike Last is also a TPRS-teacher trainer and in 2012 she gave several workshops at the NTPRS in Las Vegas, one with Bryce Hedstrom, called: "The art and genius of going slowly".

Judy Dubois

Judith Logsdon-Dubois began teaching English to French speakers in 1967 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.  Married to François Dubois, she moved to France in 1984 with their four children.  She began teaching adult learners in 1986 and earned a Masters and then a DEA in English Literature and Civilization from the University of Bordeaux III.  In 1991 she began teaching translation and American literature at the DEPAA, an antenna of the University of Bordeaux for future English teachers.  In1995 she passed the French civil service exam for teachers and obtained the aggrégation in 1997. She taught at the Lycée Jean-Baptiste de Baudre in Agen from 1996 to 2012.  She is a published author and since her retirement has been giving private lessons and travelling around France to talk about TPRS. She has led TPRS workshops in France and in Switzerland.

What?

The workshop program will be centered around experiencing the method, first as a student, learning Dutch from Alike Last in Fluency Fast sessions, then observing experienced teachers work with real students, and finally practicing with the same students while being coached.  There will be sessions on classroom management, Embedded Reading, working with films, Krashen’s underlying theories, and French literature and culture. Considerable time will be spent in debriefing sessions, so that there will be more back and forth communication between the presenters and the participants than can be handled in larger programs.  On Saturday, August 6^th, there will be an optional  trip to Bordeaux with a guided tour of the city.

We will help participants to find lodging if requested, but we cannot advance the cost of booking a hotel.

How Much?

For five days, morning and afternoon sessions, the price is 395 euros. We are deliberately keeping the price much lower than is usual for a five day workshop with such highly qualified presenters in order to encourage European teachers to discover TPRS. We are able to offer this exceptional price only because of the generosity of our workshop presenters who hope to see TPRS develop in Europe as it has in the United States.

Contacts:

We will be glad to answer any questions.  Don’t hesitate to contact Judith Logsdon-Dubois by e-mail: judyldubois@aol.com  

Special early bird price : 295 euros

The Hungry Cowboy

This is the second story which I use to introduce the vocabulary which my students need to understand a song. I give the students more liberty with this story than I did when I presented Michael Jackson, the blind grey bat.  They decide on the cowboy's name, how many children and grandchildren he has and where he goes.  We do the arithmetic of figuring out how many mouths to feed he has on the board, practicing our numbers.  In almost every TPRS story you ask how many there are, in order to work in the use of numbers as often as possible.  When students do arithmetic regularly, instead of in a specific unit, they retain the numbers better and no longer flinch when they have to say anything larger than twenty. This story is fun to act out and the entire class can play the "angry crowd".  Have you guessed what song we are going to listen to?

The Hungry Cowboy

Mark was a cowboy. He lived in Kansas City. He had thirteen children and 26 grandchildren. He had 39 mouths to feed. He had no money and no job. His children and his grandchildren were very hungry. They were cold because they didn't have jackets.  They had runny noses. Mark decided to break away. 

 He went to Chicago. He wanted to buy 39 hamburgers, but he didn't have enough money. He asked Bill Gates to give him 152 dollars, but Bill Gates didn't understand. He looked the other way. 

Mark roamed the West. He got to Phoenix, Arizona. In desperation, he stole a horse with three legs. He went into a bank with a gun. He stole 318 dollars, but he didn't get far, because the horse had only three legs. An angry crowd gathered round him. Mark cried.

Michael Jackson the Blind Grey Bat

This is a story that I use to preteach vocabulary which my students need to understand a song that I use often in class.  I'll not give you the title of the song, an old classic, older than Michael Jackson.  Let's see if you can figure it out.  

There was a blind bat.  He wasn't black and he wasn't white.  He was grey.  So his name was Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson, the blind grey bat, lived in Alaska.  He had a big problem.  In Alaska it snows every day and the cold wind blows.  In Alaska there are not a lot of insects.  Bats eat insects.  Michael Jackson, the blind grey bat, was a very hungry bat.

So Michael Jackson, the blind grey bat, decided to break away.  He flew to the ranch of Michael Jackson the singer in California.  

In California it doesn't snow and the wind doesn't blow.  It isn't cold in California.  There are a lot of insects in California.

Michael Jackson, the blind grey bat is no longer hungry.  Now he is a fat blind grey bat.   

*     *     *

This story is easy to circle and you can get in a lot of repetitions.  It's good for weak students or beginners.  It's possible to use the present tense throughout the story if you prefer. I explain to my French students that "blind as a bat" is an expression that corresponds to "myope comme une taupe."  I also point out that any verb followed by "away" is likely to mean partir.  So they are able to grasp the idea that to break away would imply a kind of rupture with the past.  And they often use the French expression se casser to translate it.

New Year's Eve and the Yellow Ferrari

This story was made up by my class of adult beginners.  It's based on Anne Matava's "Who's paying?"

It’s New Year’s Eve.  Gerald and Frank go to Le Tal Toul. They go on foot, slowly.  Gerald wants six bottles of champagne. One bottle costs 46.32 euros.  Six bottles cost 277 euros and ninety-two cents.  Laura asks, “Who’s paying?”  

Gerald says, “I’m not paying!”  

Frank says, “I’m not paying!”  

No one pays.  Laura says, “Get out!”

Gerald and Frank go to Le Ranch in Aiguillon.  They go on foot, very slowly. At Le Ranch Frank orders six bottles of Veuve Cliquot champagne. One bottle costs 125.05 euros.  Six bottles cost seven hundred and fifty euros and thirty cents.  The manager asks, “Who’s paying?”  

“I’m not paying,” says Gerald.  

“I’m not paying,” says Frank. 

No one pays.  The manager says, “Get out!”

Frank and Gerald walk. They go on foot, very very slowly.  Angelina Jolie sees them.  She drives a yellow Ferrari. She stops and smiles at Frank.  She says, “Get in.”

There are only two seats in a Ferrari.  Gerald is in the trunk.

They go to Bordeaux.  They go by car and they go very quickly.  They go to the Grand Théatre.  Gerald orders six bottles of Dom Ruinart Rosé 1996. One bottle costs 204 euros.  Six bottles cost one thousand two hundred and twenty-four euros.  The barman asks, “Who’s paying?” 

Frank says, “I’m not paying.”  

Gerald says, “I’m not paying.”  

“I’m paying,” says Angelina Jolie. 

The champagne is very good.  Happy New Year!

Adults can make stories too.

I have a new group of students, adults who want to improve their English in order to travel.  Some of them are planning a trip to Australia.

We often think that TPRS stories are for kids, but adults can have fun with them too.  Here is a story that my new students came up with.  I used Anne Matava's script "The Thirsty Boy".  The original structures were : is thirsty, goes to and I'm sorry. I suspected that my students were already familiar with I'm sorry, so I replaced it with an expression they will certainly hear often when they travel, What would you like to drink?  

There was a very handsome vampire.  His name was Edward and he looked like George Clooney.  He lived in a castle in Scotland near Loch Ness.  Edward was very thirsty.  He wanted to drink.

He took the Eurostar from London to Marmande.  Then he hitchhiked.  Angel was driving from Marmande in her yellow Ferrari and she saw the handsome vampire, so she stopped. 

“Where do you want to go?” she asked.

“I want to go to Aiguillon,” Edward answered.  “I’m very thirsty.”

So Angel drove Edward to Aiguillon and they stopped at the Terrace.

“What would you like to drink?” asked the waitress.

“I’d like some champagne,” said Angel.

“I’d like some blo….. cranberry juice,” said Edward.

The waitress brought a glass of champagne for Angel and a glass of cranberry juice for Edward.  Edward drank and said, “Yuck! This is horrible.”

So Edward and Angel left the Terrace and went to the Bierbel café.  “What would you like to drink?” asked the waiter.

“I’d like a glass of champagne,” said Angel.

“I’d like some ..... tomato juice,” said Edward.

The waiter brought a glass of Buzet for Angel and a glass of tomato juice for Edward.  Edward drank and said, “Yuck!!! This is awful!” 

So Angel and Edward went to the Ranch. “What would you like to drink?” asked the barman.

“I’d like some champagne,” said Angel.  “I’d like some pink champagne,” said Edward.

The waiter brought a big bottle of pink champagne.  Angel drank the whole bottle and Edward was very happy.  He likes champagne-flavored blood.

The End

Kim's Game

Kim is Rudyard Kipling's best character, a lovable little scoundrel that jeers at all that is pompous.  Trained by a master spy, he develops his memory and gift for observation by playing what is now known as Kim's game. I used it to help students remember vocabulary before I discovered TPRS.  I still play the game with my students, but in a more effective manner.

I go into class with a large covered basket filled with things that I've picked up around the house.  I uncover the basket and I start taking items out of the basket one by one.  I ask the students if they know what it is, and if they don't know the word in English I tell them.  When the basket is empty we count the objects and then I start putting them back in the basket, asking if the students remember the words.  Then I cover the basket and ask what is in it.  When a student says a name I take out the object and set it on the table. They try to remember everything and I give hints to help them out. 

How has TPRS changed the way I play the game?  Well, for one thing, I try to set up pairs of objects.  A little pink monkey and a big black monkey.  A little white shoe and a big red shoe.  an old blue toy car and a new green toy car.  Constantly repeating the adjectives helps them get a feeling for the place and order of adjectives in English.  

And I no longer simply call out the names of the objects.  I make a constant running commentary.  "What is there in the basket?  A little pink monkey?  Is there a little pink monkey in the basket?  Yes, there is!  There's a little pink monkey in the basket."  

" A green tractor?  Is there a green tractor in the basket?  No, there isn't.  There isn't a green tractor in the basket."  

So my students are not hearing isolated words, but words in context so that they acquire the structures words need to make sense.

Once they know the items in the basket and can remember and identify all of them, you could start a story with an object or several objects.  The little pink monkey and the big black monkey can have lots of adventures.

This is a simple game that can be played with very small children, but older students and adults can also enjoy Kim's Game.  It's a good way to familiarize them with vocabulary dealing with meals and everything we find on a table, cups, glasses, napkins, etc.  It can also be used to teach specific vocabulary such as tools and office material. Doll house furniture is a lot of fun.  You could even use a woman's handbag instead of a basket.  If you do, be sure beforehand to teach them the expression "everything but the kitchen sink."  And then put a miniature kitchen sink in the handbag.

The Dangers of Forced Output

A lot of teachers who say they are "eclectic" or "communicative" have a quick glance at TPRS and say, oh, that's a lot like what I do.  And they pick up circling or embedded reading and add it as one more tool in their teaching kit.

And there's nothing wrong with that.  That's how I first got into TPRS.  But as I read more about it, followed the discussions on moretprs and went to workshops and listened to speakers at conferences, I realized that TPRS is not just a technique we can pull out of our hats from time to time.  It's a unique approach to language learning, a philosophy, a way of looking at the world that requires honesty.  You either believe that people learn to speak a language through comprehensibile input or you don't.  And once you have become a true believer, there's no turning back.

I read a few articles by Stephen Krashen, but mostly I followed his comments and arguments on the moretprs forum.  He convinced me because everything he said fitted in with my own experience, both as a learner and as a teacher.  I was taught German for nine months by a teacher using something like the Natural Approach.  (I don't remember her ever giving a name to her method.)  I must have acquired something because today, fifty years later, I can still catch the gist of a conversation in German.  I studied French, Spanish, Latin and New Testament Greek with more traditional methods and only became fluent in French through immersion.  My Spanish, Latin and Greek are long gone.

If we accept that comprehensible input is the key to acquiring language, then it follows that we need to give our students as much input as possible, to use the limited time we have with students as efficiently as possible. Asking students to produce language is what Krashen calls weighing the pig, measuring what has been acquired.  And he states quite emphatically that weighing the pig doesn't make it heavier.  In the real world we live in, it is necessary to test students and give them grades, but with as little stress as possible.  Since TPRS is concerned with what has been acquired in the long term memory and not with what the students have memorized the night before a test, it is suggested that tests be unannounced. Or regular little exit quizzes on what has been acquired during the class.

In a perfect world, students receive maximum input in a relaxed setting, listening to stories that amuse them and touch them, and one day the language just "falls out of their mouths".  In an imperfect world an inspector sits in on your class and tells you that you're being too frontal.  That you need to organize debates among your students and have them work on projects.  Teachers who feel the pressure push their students to produce language, to give presentations, to make reports.  Student output looks great in a lesson plan.  I've done this.  And sat there and cringed at the language I heard.  And felt sorry for the shy, tongue-tied student clenching his notes in sweaty hands, never once looking up.

Ben Slavic says, "Output activities should not be done until many hundreds of hours of input have occurred.  That's what the best research we have says."

I would like to make the point that forced student output is almost always incorrect, poor quality language when it is not totally incomprehensible.  Whether or not it is helping the speaker in any way, it is definitely harmful to the other students to listen to it.  When we force output, we oblige the student to try to say things that he has not yet acquired, so he mobilizes his notions of grammar, however vague, and cobbles together sentences that are neither fish nor fowl.  The damage comes when he does this often enough that it begins to sound right.  And he hears his fellow students saying more or less the same thing, so he's convinced that it is right.  Eventually the error is repeated often enough to be acquired. He writes it and his teacher underlines it in red.  His brain remembers it, because it was underlined in red.  The error becomes fossilized, and it will take a major excavation to get rid of it.

The other day I had a discussion with my riding instructor about mistakes that I make when riding.  I know perfectly well what I should be doing, my conscious mind is quite clear about what the correct position should be.  I've been taking lessons for almost ten years and I've read dozens of books. But as soon as I become apprehensive, my subconscious takes over and does what it learned to do when I first started riding.  I was sixteen when a friend of my father's put me on a horse and told me to kick to make her go forward and to pull on the reins to stop her. Until ten years ago that was my one and only riding lesson.  My riding mistakes are fossilized because I wasn't taught correctly at the beginning.  The instructor and I agreed that it's much more difficult to unlearn something than it is to learn it correctly from the start. It takes endless hours of conscious practice to erase the wrong muscle memory.

When we give our students high quality comprehensible input without forcing them to produce, we are giving them a chance to learn the correct forms from the start.  When we force them to produce before they are ready, we are pushing them to make errors that will become fossilized and be extremely difficult to unlearn.

Michael Jordan once said, "You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong all you will become is very good at shooting wrong." I paraphrased this.  "You can practice speaking eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong all you will become is very good at speaking poorly."

German update

I'm doing a long translation in a short time frame, so I don't have much leisure to post, though there are several things that I want to talk about, like forced output and why there are so many similarities between learning to ride a horse and learning to speak a language.  But I did want y'all to know that I am still working on reactivating my ancient knowledge of German.

I have finished watching "The Green Mile" in German with German subtitles.  At first I watched the same scene over and over again, trying to understand as much as possible. I wrote down words that seemed important, but I resisted the temptation to look them up in the dictionary.  

Charlotte sent me three German films to watch next.  She kindly included a short letter in English with the same letter in German.  This was very helpful and has convinced me that bilingual editions are worthwhile.  I always scorned them because whenever I picked one up I automatically read either one language or the other.  However, I poured over Charlotte's letter in German and enjoyed understanding almost all of it, looking at the English only for the few words that I didn't understand.  Please bear in mind that, being a teacher, she knew how to express her ideas in simple phrases that I could understand.

After half a dozen viewings of the first scene of the film, up to the arrival of John, I decided to watch the rest of it in one go. I also decided to stop writing down words that I didn't understand.  Instead I wrote down entire phrases that came to me and which I understood.  Because as I watch and listen, I'm beginning to realize that I'm not understanding individual words as much as entire phrases.  Ich bin müde.  Red mit John. Er pisst mich an. Du bist ein böser Mann. I'm sure that I would not have understood any of these out of context.  But when I heard them and read them the meaning was quite clear.

I'm wondering if infants first become aware of words or phrases. I've noticed that my bilingual dog, Kribi, who understands both "On va se promener" and "Do you want to go for a walk?" definitely reacts to the complete phrase.  If I say "walk" or "promenade" in isolation she cocks her head and looks quizzical, while the complete phrase has her jumping up and down and skipping circles around me. As a teacher I'm more and more convinced that memorizing lists of isolated words is a great waste of time and effort.

I feel like an archeologist, digging up vestiges of the German I learned in class 50 years ago.  I'm amazed to find so many chards in fairly good condition.  And I doubt very much that I could do the same in Spanish, although I only took one full year of German and three years of Spanish.  My German teacher spoke to us only in German and tried to make it comprehensible.  We did a lot of guessing because she translated nothing. I suppose, in 1963, that she was using the Natural Approach as it was then understood. My Spanish teacher rarely spoke in Spanish.  We memorized vocabulary and grammar rules and translated.

My impression is that my subconscious stored the German which I acquired in a distant nook of my brain, so that I'm now able to excavate it, whereas the Spanish I learned, like dust and cobwebs, has long been blown away by the winds of time.  Another difference between acquired language and learned language is that I remember my German classes with pleasure, with sufficient pleasure that I've often thought I would study it more some day, whereas I've never been tempted to use Spanish, even though I live only a few hours away from Spain, I spent part of my honeymoon in the Canary Islands and I have several friends who teach Spanish.  When I hear spoken Spanish it's just noise. I have nothing to show for the three years I spent conjugating verbs. I had good marks in both classes, so it's not a question of being successful or not.  I did what the Spanish teacher asked and passed her tests with A's.  I did not acquire Spanish.

Framing students and sentence frames

Until recently most of my private students have been adults.  And almost all the young people I had for lessons were actually studying English for the pleasure, not because they were in difficulty.  One fourteen year old begged his mother for private lessons because "he was bored" at school. His English is already fluent, so doing grammar exercises and memorizing dialogs ......

In addition, I'm now giving lessons at a tutoring center. My new students are kids who are coming to me in hopes of improving their grades.  Several of them have been told by their teacher that their English is catstrophic, that they are two or three years behind.  I can't imagine talking to a student like that.  And after meeting the students, I can assure you that I've see far worse in my career.  Even if I thought a student was far below the expected level, I didn't tell him that.  After all, the purpose of grades is to tell students and parents and the school administration what the student's level is.  Why rub it in by making negative personal comments? I only made suggestions about what he could do to improve and I encouraged him whenever I saw progress.  

The problem with telling students that they are weak and not meeting your expectations is that they may believe you and become convinced that "they're not good at languages".  From then on, there's little you can do to help them progress because you have convinced them that they lack something essential and are beyond help. Of course, the teacher who denigrates her students has an easy out for their lack of improvement.  The students' total ignorance of the fundamentals are the problem and she can not be held responsible for their failure.  This is what I call "framing the students".  We paint a picture of them that is so gloomy that no one can expect us to teach them anything. When worried parents come to plead, you point them to grammar books and lists of irregular verbs, knowing full well that even heroic efforts will make no difference.  Of course, there are private lessons for those who have the means. 

Today I met a girl who told me that although she had decent grades last year, this year, her fifth year of English, she is failing.  Her teacher told her that she's at least two years behind the rest of the class. After talking to her a little, my impression is that her English is about average and she's very shy. Also very willing, since she came to me with two brand new grammar books with exercises that she had just bought at the book store.  I suggested that she could try to return them and get her money back.

I explained that we would be talking more than writing and once she could understand without thinking about what I'm saying and answer without thinking as well, she would have no problem with grammar. She plays volleyball, so I compared it with seeing the ball coming in your direction.  Do you think about how you're going to hit it, or do you just do it? Speaking a language should be the same way. She seemed to grasp what I was trying to say. 

She said her teacher spoke in English almost all the time, but that she didn't understand much of what she said.  I told her that I would be speaking in English, that was my job, but I would try to make it comprehensible.  And her job, her only job, was to let me know when she didn't understand, so I could backtrack, repeat, speak more slowly, reword and translate if necessary.  I explained that we would be talking more than writing and once she could understand without thinking about what I'm saying and answer without thinking as well, she would have no problem with grammar. 

With my new students that I am meeting for the first time I have been using sentence frames, as developed by Robert Harrell on Ben Slavic's PLC. I gave them the sentence frames which are intended for use after the Christmas break.
        I went to....
        I saw ....
        I got* ......
        I ate ...
        I played .....

So I asked my students where they went during the holiday.  Who did they see?  What did they see?  What did they get for Christmas?  What did they eat?  What did they play?   (All the girls played JustDance4 on their Play Station 3. All the boys played Call of Duty. )  I also told them where I had gone, what I had seen, what I had got, etc. Then I asked them to complete the above sentences in writing.  We circled them once more then I asked them to add details, which we also circled.  

The final step was to ask them to answer the questions again, but to lie this time. You should have seen their eyes light up at the idea that they could invent a holiday and use their imagination. I don't think I'm going to have any trouble getting them to buy into TPRS.  

Sentence frames seem a good way to ease students who are used to traditional language teaching into PQA with the questions about their holiday and then into a story as we start to invent things for the fun of it.  I wish I could have taken timed pictures of their faces as we gradually went from "stiff and prepared to suffer" to "puzzled" to "intrigued" to "really?" to "you must be joking!" to a wide grin and shining eyes. And we were speaking in English for more than 95% of the time. Is there any better formula for improvement than speaking in English and having fun?

*Robert used "I received" in German.  For my French students this is a no brainer because "receive" and recevoir are transparent.  I prefer to use "I got" because it's higher frequency in English, and an irregular verb and sounds more natural. 

A High Honor

I know Michael Miller as a hearty fellow who handles a lot of the technical problems at National TPRS Conferences and is a jovial Master of Ceremonies during the Talent Night show.  He's also a very talented teacher who wrote his own books to teach German using TPRS. Yesterday he published this on the moretprs forum.  I think it shows that TPRS is not a cop out, just a way to keep the kids amused.  It's a method which allows students and teachers to attain excellence.

Liebe Listler,
Today my school received a high honor: We are designated as an AATG German Center of Excellence. This honor is given to 4 high schools but only one K-8 school per year. As a Jr. High School, one could conclude we have the best pre-high school German program in the country. As I look at the comments from the judges, what really stood out for them is the curriculum. They were very interested in cutting edge methodology and TPRS is it. Sabine und Michael was created for the needs of our school, but many other schools find this curriculum to meet their needs as well.
Bottom line: TPRS works. My 8th graders score at the 61st percentile on national exams for sophomores in German 2 (we are technically in German 1). Stick with TPRS. It gets better all the time. I'll copy the panel's comments below.

Michael Miller

Dear Mr. Miller,

It is my great pleasure to inform you that Cheyenne Mountain Junior High
School's German program has been designated a German Center of Excellence
by the American Association of Teachers of German. After carefully
reviewing the applications of numerous K-12 German programs, the jurors
found Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School's programming excellent in
every category. Your program is the only junior high school programs to
receive this high distinction this year. 

The jury was impressed in particular that the German program is so very
well established and growing. There is clear evidence that the program has
strong support from the administration, professional colleagues, alumni,
and students, and has strong ties to the wider campus and community.
Extracurricular activities and special events are clearly integral
elements of the program. 

Furthermore, the selection panel noted the highly qualified staff with
credentials appropriate to the teaching assignment and an appropriate
faculty-student ratio. The application provided clear evidence of
continuing faculty development at local, state, and national levels. The
opportunity to collaborate and evidence of self-evaluation and shared
program goals are to be commended.

Most impressive is the program's curriculum. There is a clear, articulated
sequence of instructional programming that is standards-based and reflects
current methodologies. Outcomes at each instructional level are clearly
articulated and diverse learning styles are respected through varied
instructional and assessment techniques. The materials used in the program
are culturally authentic and interdisciplinary connections have been
established. 

The German Program at Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School certainly
values its students. The jury noted that the teacher clearly values
student feedback and the application provided abundant evidence of the
good rapport you have with your students. This is truly a program that is
designed to meet the needs of students.
__________________________

Michael Miller
Sabine und Michael German TPRS materials
2418 Hagerman Street
Colorado Springs, CO 80904
Tel: 719-635-0017 FAX 719-785-5755
michael@sabineundmichael.com
http://www.sabineundmichael.com

TPRS Time

In the traditional textbooks there is always a chapter on telling time.  An explanation followed by examples and very often clock faces even though today's children are more likely to have digital watches.  How do we teach time with TPRS?

To begin, there is no chapter on telling time, just as there is no chapter on the weather, or clothes, or body parts or colors or sports or animals, etc.   Putting all the vocabulary concerning a specific theme in one chapter insures that it will be forgotten as soon as the chapter test is over. Those who use TPRS introduce the vocabulary as it is needed for stories, just as children learn the words for hands, feet, dog, cats, raining, mittens, etc. as the need appears.  A TPRS teacher will spread the vocabulary from one thematic chapter out over the entire year, teaching the more frequent words first and adding on the others as the opportunity comes.

It is very easy to teach time, even to young pupils.  We simply ask when something happens.  There is a boy.  Where does he live?  In Missouri, the students say.  The boy who lives in Missouri sees a girl with green hair.  When does he see the girl?  In the morning or in the afternoon?  In the morning.

Once the students have acquired morning and afternoon, we can introduce day and night.  These are quickly and easily acquired as long as the teacher thinks to ask the question "When?" as often as possible.  Then she can start asking for the time in hours.  In her stories it is always one o'clock or six o'clock or eight o'clock.  For the moment, the clocks in her stories have no minute hands.

Once her students are saying that the boy went to school at eight o'clock and the class finished at five o'clock without any hesitations, she can introduce half hours.  When did the dog jump out of the window?  At half past ten.  At ten thirty.  The two expressions can be presented at the same time as being equivalent.  Students will immediately grasp ten thirty and recognize half past ten as meaning the same thing, if they hear the teacher saying both expressions, one after the other.

I've noticed that my traditionally taught French students often confuse "half past" and "a quarter past", simply because the expressions were taught in the same lesson at the same time, along with "a quarter to".  So I can hear things like "half to five".  And neither I nor the student know whether he means four thirty or five thirty. By being sure that "half past" is acquired, which means being used spontaneously, without thinking, before we introduce "a quarter past", we can avoid that confusion.

And I also hold off on "a quarter to", for the same reason.  Let the concept of a quarter past the hour be solidly acquired before we introduce the idea of  "a quarter to" the hour. Our patience and restraint will be generously rewarded, because once they have grasped the meaning of "a quarter to" we can easily introduce minutes and the rest is all downhill. 

By introducing the expressions of time gradually, over the course of a year, we will insure that our students are able to tell the time accurately and will understand when they are told the time. In other words, when teaching expressions of time, it's necessary to take your time.