To achieve this, we need to include a few elements into our lessons: clear understanding of meaning (make it comprehensible), create confidence (lower the affective filter), tons of repetition in context, personalization, continuous assessment, reading and later on, writing and speaking.

The following explanation on the principles of the method comes from Carol Gaab, another great teacher, writer, and presenter on TPRS:

1. In order for language to be acquired, it must be comprehensible 2. We provide interesting, compelling content

3. Strive for active, appealing repetition in context

4. Overt grammar instruction and/or correction has little impact on language growth

5. Reading has a profound positive effect on language development. 6. We perform continuous informal assessment in different forms For one of the very best summaries and clear explanation of what TPRS is and the best practices to implement it, there are many outstanding resources on the Internet (see the bibliography at the end, as well as later in this section). One that I highly recommend is Susan Gross’ website, which is full of resources and guides for novice and seasoned teachers as well. Susie is one of the very finest presenters of TPRS and she also has a good understanding of Waldorf education. There are a few more recommendations for websites of master teachers, who provide all kinds of excellent resources.

Input-based teaching

By comprehensible input-based it is meant that the method focuses first on the input that the students receive from the teacher, rather than forcing their output in the early stages of learning.

We begin with the systematic teaching of vocabulary in logical, natural sets of words (what we call “structures”), rather than lists of isolated terms out of context. These structures are chosen because of the high frequency of their use.

These structures can be either single words or more often, short phrases which convey some meaning. These structures are usually expressions that make sense together, such as “goes to Spain,” rather than just “goes.” Their complexity depends on the level and the age of the learners. They should be taught in a carefully graded sequence that makes sense and builds upon the last lesson. In the beginning stages we might introduce “he or she is hungry,” while in more advanced grades we will use “he or she used to be hungry every

morning”. We usually try to introduce at least two but no more than three structures per lesson.

We teach the meaning of each one of the chosen structures (usually two to three per lesson) by making sure first that the meaning is clear, in order to then use it in many varied ways. The acquisition of meaning is achieved in a highly comprehensible, personalized, and contextualized manner. This framework and philosophy are based not only on classroom-proven strategies, but also backed by the most recent research in second language acquisition. Its resemblance to some of the basic principles of Waldorf teaching is remarkable, which include repetition, rhythm, and creative expression.

Comprehensible input: establishing meaning

The way we learn a foreign language is similar to how a baby starts learning its mother tongue: first by listening for a long period before producing any output. It might sound as if we could just make sure that we are surrounded by language to acquire it, but actually, there is a special condition to acquisition: that the input be comprehensible. The actual meaning of the language needs to make sense; messages need to be comprehensible, in order to be acquired. This is fundamental: that we provide comprehensible input.

We achieve this by establishing meaning right from the start. This can be done in several ways: with props, with drawings, through gestures, and in some cases, with direct translation. Gestures play a significant role in the acquisition of new structures. We come up with a specific gesture for each verb that lends itself to it. After having agreed upon it, we repeat the gesture with the class until they no longer need anything else but to see it in order for them to immediately know what we mean. We also use direct translation, especially when the gesture can be confusing or whenever there is no possibility for one, such as with “there is.” The secret here is that our students need not hear it spoken constantly, but we can say it once, write it on the blackboard and then point at it when we use it, to ensure comprehensibility. Having the words written up on the blackboard provides the students with a great support and relief, since they can go back to check meaning at any given moment, without having to actually say the work in L1 out loud.

This is also part of the important principle of creating a safe environment for the students to feel confidence in applying the new structures learned. Steiner said that if a student can love her teacher and the subject, she will show eagerness to learn. When we help our students feel “at ease,” we speak about lowering their affective filter, in other words, helping them to feel open and be willing to participate and contribute. When there is comprehension, the students will feel safe. When they don’t understand what the teacher is saying, what is happening, they feel lost and unsafe.

Repetition

Repetition is key to learning a skill. We do this in Waldorf education too, and we are experts at doing it in artistic ways. Most importantly, repetition of a new structure should not be isolated, but rather in context, in a complete thought; this follows the pedagogical principle “from the whole to the parts.” So instead of drilling vocabulary as a list of words or verbs in “vertical conjugation,” we use a short, complete sentence, such as “he eats bananas,” which would be considered a single structure. The more repetitions we can provide of the structure, the better it will be integrated by the students. According to the theory behind this technique, the teacher needs to repeat each structure about seventy times in a single lesson! But, how do we achieve this lofty goal without having them bored to death at their seats? This will require careful engineering from our part... and some magic.

Student Engagement

So now we know we want to teach structures, that is, more or less complete thoughts. We start by establishing clear meaning for them. And we know we want to provide tons of repetitions, making sure they are always comprehensible.

Teaching in this manner seems a bit daunting. How are we to maintain that high level of interest in our students?

TPRS instruction combines several different strategies aiming to provide an abundance of repetition that is highly engaging and comprehensible, without being predictable, boring or repetitious. The secret to this is to ask questions relative to the students’ lives, something called personalization in TPRS jargon.

One way to do this is “Personalized Questions and Answers,” or PQA. This allows the teacher to remain in the target language 95 to 98 percent of the time. The idea is to maintain a protected amount of vocabulary, always making sure it is comprehensible to the students, and we might eventually construct a whole story with it.

When students become the subjects of our stories, especially when they are the stars of some incredible adventure and when they are allowed to give input into the details of the story, their interest soars. Interest -- the element that attracts our ego and thus helps memory and retention through thinking/feeling. In this

way, the student acquires the language in a conscious-unconscious way, very much the way we acquired our mother tongue.

If we further invite them to participate and we make up funny stories, this will make the repetitions compelling, a term coined by Dr. Stephen Krashen, expert linguist and language researcher.19

About compelling input, Dr. Krashen says:

“Compelling means that the input is so interesting you forget that it is in another language. It means you are in a state of "flow" (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). In flow, the concerns of everyday life and even the sense of self disappear - our sense of time is altered and nothing but the activity itself seems to matter.”20

Once they have acquired a few structures in this way, we are ready to put them all together and create a short story. The best is to come up with a story that is simple and fun at the same time. Introducing a few outrageous details to it will

help them open up. As we create it together, the teacher will make sure that there is enough repetition and plenty of detail. The way we achieve this is by asking basic questions: who, where, what, when, and later on, why. To accomplish our goal of 75-80 repetitions of each structure we use these questions repeatedly, in a technique called “circling,” which we will show later in this text.

We as teachers have a basic idea of where we want the story to go, but by asking students to fill in the details it becomes their story, and they like to own it.

Instead of following a traditional grammatical syllabus, teachers are free to choose the most important and/or useful sets of phrases to teach. This means, one can choose right from the beginning, what one considers to be the most useful and frequent structures that can build into a story or chosen text, words that convey content and appropriate communication. We teach them since the beginning, without having to recur to grammatical explanations, although we will be doing “pop up grammar” parentheses as often as needed.

The teacher is able to thus create what is called a “Small Circle” of vocabulary which will be gradually introduced and recycled, so that in the end the student will feel at ease either listening, reading, speaking, or writing it.

According to Susan Gross, it is very important to stress an important aspect of our lesson planning:

“Shelter the vocabulary; do not shelter the grammar” –Susie Gross

19 Dr. Stephen Krashen, Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California, linguist, educational researcher and activist, has published more than 350 articles and books in the fields of second language acquisition, bilingual education, and reading. He was the originator of the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis around 1975. 20 http://www.sdkrashen.com/articles/The_Compelling_Input_Hypothesis.pdf

If the story uses too much new vocabulary it becomes too complex and the mind cannot manage too many variables. We try hard to always stay comprehensible, by always making sure we establishing the meaning of the words we are using, but we limit the new vocabulary as much as possible. In that sense, we shelter the vocabulary. However, if a different or a new grammar concept needs to be introduced during either the questioning or the story itself, (say, a subjunctive form) we go ahead and use it correctly. In other words, we don’t talk “baby talk” to our students, we don’t dilute down the language.

Also, lessons are expected to spiral, as we introduce new vocabulary structures and continue to recycle the old.

Through all this work of building a story together, and maintaining a high level of gesturing, repetition, movement, personalization, asking for the story, always making sure we are providing compelling, comprehensible input, we will have prepared them to later repeat and retell the story orally. Once we have heard the story spoken by one or several of them, we go on to writing it. We begin by writing it together, and later on, they will be able to write it themselves. Just as we teach reading and writing in the mother tongue by first introducing the writing and then the reading, once we have done the writing we will take them to the exciting phase of reading.

Reading is heavily used in TPRS techniques. The teacher goes home and types up the story they made up in class, and the next day the children can read it and go on with different activities according to age—they can illustrate it or even make their own ending to it, etc. The beauty of reading is that through it most of the gaps are filled, the students reinforce their acquisition and the teacher has a new opportunity to provide repetitions. Once we finish teaching all of the new structures we planned in the beginning, our students are ready to read the original piece we used to plan backwards.

But more than anything else, the sense of accomplishment on their faces is worth all the effort!