by Terry Waltz | Dec 31, 2008 | Uncategorized
While browsing the net recently, I came across a post by a very respected teacher of TPRS that advocated using characters instead of Pinyin when teaching reading in Chinese. (This was based on observations of teachers, not on the teacher’s personal experience)....
by Terry Waltz | Dec 30, 2008 | Uncategorized
I read and post regularly to various foreign language teaching interest lists, and recently on one of them there has been a rehash of the ancient argument “Does overt grammar teaching help?” While the discussion has been, um, lively at times, it has lately...
by Terry Waltz | Dec 19, 2008 | Uncategorized
Walking in the room and writing “Santa Claus” on the board in Chinese and English seems to be a sure winner. (Of course, throwing in “Hanukkah Harry” at times demonstrates a sense of balance if not sense.) I had a story ready to go this morning...
by Terry Waltz | Dec 18, 2008 | Uncategorized
I (obviously) swear by TPRS to produce the maximum oral proficiency in students in the minimum time, and there’s nothing that can compare for building listening skills. But the method was built with Spanish in mind, and then expanded to encompass other...
by Terry Waltz | Dec 17, 2008 | Uncategorized
We’re on a two-hour delay schedule for snow (the fact that this was a fairly wimpy snowfall notwithstanding). Putting this on top of a day and a half of missed classes last week for a bad ice storm, plus my being out yesterday for a release day, means that...
