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As the parent of young children, I have been able to witness how children acquire language; and just like many parents, I marvel at how quickly my children learn things without the need for didactic grammar instruction.  What parent sits down with a toddler and gives him worksheets, chart, or diagrams on adjective agreement or subject-verb agreement, or even verb conjugation and tense changes??  I hope the answer is no parent would do that.  How then do children acquire language?  By listening to expert speakers, by being read to, by observing interactions between speakers—carefully taking in the orchestration of word choice, intonation, and body movements that is communication. 

Language teachers are charged with the task of leading adolescents to successfully communicate in another language.  But in order to teach a language, one must strive to present the instruction in such a way as to mimic the way the brain mastered its first language—that is to say, the learning must be natural to the learner.  I believe that TPRS is the closest method of foreign language instruction to that natural acquisition one experiences as a child.  Acquisition takes no effort, while learning requires tremendous effort on the part of the learner and on the part of the instructor.  TPRS allows my students to let their brains do what they do best, and in a relatively uncomplicated way. 

We know that the best way to learn a language is to be immersed in it, and TPRS allows me to spend my 50-minute period giving my students that immersion.  But anyone who has gone to a place where an unknown language was spoken can tell you of how awkward and helpless they felt.  Educational theory states that the amount of learning that takes place is inversely proportional to the level of anxiety felt by the learner.  That is to say, if a student is feeling lost, awkward, helpless, or anxious during the learning, then learning really doesn’t take place.  TPRS removes that anxiety from the learner, because all the teacher asks him to do is to listen to a story.

There are several websites and a few books about this method of language instruction.  If you would like to know more about his, I suggest visiting www.blaineraytprs.com or www.susangrosstprs.com, or reading Fluency Through TPRS by Blaine Ray and Contee Seely.  This method is well-supported by research, like that of James Asher, Contee Seely, Blaine Ray, and myriad others.  I leave you with a few thoughts on language acquisition from my favorite educational theorist:

"The child begins to perceive the world not only through its eyes but also through its speech.
And later it is not just seeing but acting that becomes informed by words. "

"Thought is not merely expressed in words; it comes into existence through them."

'A word devoid of thought is a dead thing, and a thought unembodied (sic) in words remains a shadow."

"A word is a microcosm of human consciousness.”

Lev Semenovich Vygotsky

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Last modified: 10/18/06