Many teachers are being told to use more cooperative activities in their classrooms, but does this approach actually improve student acquisition? Below are some common ideas about cooperative learning in the foreign language classroom, and a Comprehensible Input-based response to each. Idea: The more time spent in pair and group work, the better. Time spent in pair and […]
Archive for November, 2014
Cooperative Learning: A Comprehensible-Input Perspective
Posted by Terry Waltz on November 26th, 2014
Posted in General, Methods 
Tags: Cooperative Learning, Criticisms of TPRS, Project-Based, Task-Based, TPRS 
Comments Off on Cooperative Learning: A Comprehensible-Input PerspectiveTPRS and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge
Posted by Terry Waltz on November 23rd, 2014
Okay — first of all, depth of knowledge has to do with knowledge, not acquisition…but assuming that many teachers do need to provide this sort of administrivia, let’s see how beautifully TPRS and common TPRS-related activities fit! Incorporating some of the action words into the descriptions of tasks, and breaking down each individual action or […]
Posted in General, Outside Forces Tags: Criticisms of TPRS, Evaluations, TPRS Comments Off on TPRS and Webb’s Depth of KnowledgeMethod? Strategy? Philosophy?
Posted by Terry Waltz on November 22nd, 2014
On a language teachers’ list, the comment recently appeared: Maybe we need to distinguish between input-based strategies and TPRS techniques, as well as “approaches” vs. “methodologies.” This is something I’ve been trying to do on some of the “other lists” when engaging non-CI-based folks in dialogue about what we do. This is how I cut […]
Posted in Methods Tags: Acquisition vs Learning, Legacy Methods, Philosophy, TPRS Comments Off on Method? Strategy? Philosophy?“Your class has a reputation for being ‘easy’…”
Posted by Terry Waltz on November 22nd, 2014
(You say that like it’s a bad thing…) More people (including other language teachers!) trying to stuff the acquisition of new languages into the same mold that fits fact-based disciplines, like — well, like everything else. I can understand clueless monolingual administrators who hated their own hours in high school Spanish doing that. Their experience […]
Posted in General, Methods Tags: Acquisition, Comprehensible Input, Theory, TPRS Comments Off on “Your class has a reputation for being ‘easy’…”TPRS™ and the Issue of Initial vs. Target Fluency
Posted by Terry Waltz on November 22nd, 2014
From a language teachers’ list: TPRS is used for teaching fluency. We use it whenever students don’t have “ease of expression”. Ease of expression means they speak with confidence, accuracy and without hesitation. It is been my exprience that “ease of expression” does not happen in just four years of Spanish. I agree that TPRS works […]
Posted in Chinese-specific, General Tags: Fluency, Micro-Fluency, Proficiency Comments Off on TPRS™ and the Issue of Initial vs. Target FluencyTPRS-friendly student pair work
Posted by Terry Waltz on November 21st, 2014
Question from an online list: What are some collaborative student-student activities that lend themselves to a language acquisition method based on dense, high-quality comprehensible input? You got me. Student to student input is not comprehensible input, it’s “interput”. That’s low-quality forced interaction between people who don’t know the language yet, like students. Students CAN provide […]
Posted in Methods, Outside Forces Tags: Comprehensible Input, Output, Pairwork Comments Off on TPRS-friendly student pair work