This is a very different “The Best…” list from the ones I usually post. It’s a “quasi” “The Best…” list.
I’m still trying to figure out how TPRS (TPR Storytelling) actually would work in an ESL classroom, and I’m not being very successful at getting a real understanding of it.
I have indeed heard from many teachers who use TPRS. Please check out the lengthy comments they left in another post I wrote.
Here’s a guest post I published by Martina Bex on the topic.
Harnessing the Power of Stories with TPRS is a good article from Pro Lingua Learning.
The best way to find out how TPRS works, is to experience as a student a TPRS-demonstration in a language that you don’t know at all and feel what a beginner feels when acquiring a new language. And feel the difference with how you learned other languages, with ”traditional”methods, compared to TPRS.
Observing a teacher teaching a TPRS-lesson in the language you’re teaching yourself is also very instructive.
Of course you can read the TPRS-handbooks from Blaine Ray & Contee Seely (Fluency through TPR Storytelling) and from Ben Slavic (TPRS in a year! & PQA in a wink!), but it’s ”and/and”. Do all! But most important is to experience it at first as a learner in an unknown language!
Wow! I use TPRS in my adult Spanish class and in my adult English class. My students love it!! I’d be happy to send a sample story format and talk more; however, I think a demonstration is the best. I’m a beginner, but I study under Bryce Hedstrom. (See his website for free stuff). I would love to talk him into doing a tape for the web. A good story with 5 verb phrases can take up to one hour to deliver because it is broken with simple questions to the class that are easy for them to answer.
Hi Carolyn,
I would love to connect with you to ask you some questions about using TPRS with adults. I’m a newbie and am looking for a bit of guidance… I haven’t been able to find anyone in the county that teaches adults with storytelling!
Please let me know!
Colleen
I retired in Dec. 2011 from teaching regular high school Spanish I and 6th grade TPRS in a private school in San Antonio. I used Cuentame Mas stories by Carol Gaab. I’ve also use much of Blaine Ray’s material and watched several of his videos and one of his son as well. The Cuentame material is wonderful and the kids love it. I never found much use for TPR by itself without the speaking. I was never able to integrate the TPRS into effective grammar and vocaulary building; I tried to adopt TPRS technique into a chapter in my HS text book but was unsuccessful.