Pros and Cons of Starting with TPR or TPRS
TPRS
1. It is very difficult to teach a word like habia in
day one.
2. It gets easier after about a week or two.
3. After a while, both Diane and Von felt the TPRS
kids were a lot farther along in the language and in
reading. Their timed writings were written in the
past where the TPR kids had TPR structures in their
writing. (without exception.)
TPR
1. I would never advocate doing the imperative in
Spanish unless it is with an advanced class.
The TPR structures get ingrained.
Middle ground.
1. Do some TPR with some he form structures and past
tense stories.
The boy stood up, walked to the door, hit his head and
cried.
These are all TPRable words. Easy to do. You can do
the questioning in the past and read it in the
present.
If I had a class this year, I would start with a few
days of TPRable stories in the past.
Blaine
