Oct 28, 2009

TPRS vs standardized teaching

I am in a quandary. I am convinced that TPRS is the best way to help students truly acquire the language. I am so convinced, that this is the primary focus of my upcoming thesis. And yet.

And yet, I am not teaching with TPRS at the moment. Why not?

It just feels like such a fight. I have to give quarterly benchmark exams in which students are expected to have mastered banalities of the language. I lose my students at the semester and will have to retrain them all to TPRS. I am tired of defending myself to my colleagues. I am tired of fighting students who want the "easier" way of filling in blanks from the textbook rather than sitting back and doing the "hard work" of listening to a story.

I am in the process of giving the first benchmark exams, and it seems that even had I not stopped the stories, my students would have succeeded phenomenally. So, it's back into the trenches I go.

1 comment:

  1. I understand exactly how you feel! I think you should keep teaching with TPRS even though it is such a struggle. What textbook do you use? There are many resources available online for you and your students.

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