High School Spanish Instructor

An overview about TPR in the language classroom
Krashen in a recent article said: TPR is not a complete method. It cannot do the entire job of language teaching, nor was it designed to do this.(1991)
“We expect students to be able to deal with a particular set of topics in a given situation. We as teachers cannot organize the activities of the class about grammatical syllabus… “
Thus, of thetwo tools for communications, vocabulary and grammar, the former is clearly the most essential on be able to communicate. In embracing a “communication” philosophy, we are not rejecting the idea thatstudents need to acquire (and in some cases learn) a great deal of grammar.
Also, grammatical syllabi only work for those students who happen to be ready for the structure of the day. However alllearners vary in their rate of acquisition. (Krashen and Terrell p71 -1983)

Error Correction
How a teacher responds to students ‘errors is another factor affecting learning atmosphere. Teacherscannot expect all students produce perfect utterances at an earlier stage. Rather, ―If students are corrected on every last sentence they utter, they will put up an affective filter, which switcheslanguage acquisition to language learning. Not only that, but students tend to get frustrated when over-corrected‖ (Sabine & German, 2001).
Freeman (2006) recommends that teachers should be patient and onlycorrect major errors and that as students improve further, teachers can ―fine tune‖—corrects more minor errors. Excessive or constant corrections may have negative impact on students ‘self-confidenceand in turn, on the pace of acquiring a second language.

TPRS technique:
1. Teacher divides story into segments through which it can be told in 8-9 lines. Each segment is dealt withcompletely before moving on to the next.

2. Teacher uses TPR and sound effects to begin telling the story, thereby introducing new vocabulary in story context.

3. Teacher shows complete picture...