TTEd Istanbul Symposium 2012 Plenary 3 -Blaine Ray, TPRStorytelling

Blaine Ray who is the inventor of TPRStorytelling while teaching foreign languages started his talk by referring to the importance of comprehensible input in language acquisition.

Blaine Ray

While he was developing the method, he investigated how babies learned languages and how speech emerged. He noted that until a baby starts speaking in L1, he gets exposed to 20.000 hrs of language input. This is a number that foreign language teachers will never be able to reach to. As we cannot do what parents do, we= as language teachers- need to make use of every minute in the language classroom efficiently.

Ray pointed out that TPR story telling is focusing on fluency. Teacher tells the story, and the students get it unconsciously. The stories are highly interactive providing comprehensible input since Comprehension is the key. Blaine Ray stated that we need to use the words that students know, that are frequently used in L2 and speak slowly by acting out the  story. Blaine Ray claimed that translation is the most efficient use of class time.

While giving tips on the TPRS method in language acquisition, Blaine Ray repeated that comprehensible input is the key. So, the stories need to be comprehensible, and repetitive with lots of details. Recycling and dramatizing the story with student actors are some of the characteristics of the method.

Another key is the interest. Students compete with one another while trying to make guesses at different stages with the help and guidance of the
teacher. Surprising details, games, personalization and positive exaggerations are all some of the elements of successful implementation of the method.

Ray suggested that it is important to limit the use of vocabulary. Adults speak with 1000 words, teens, on the other hand, use about 250-300 words in their daily lives. Students need to practice common words, not the words the course books presents said Blaine Ray. According to him, students cannot cannot cope with the number of words given by the course books. For that reason, TPRStory telling users keep practicing with the most common verbs of the language.

Another important element of this method is asking questions to the learners, Ray suggested. He mentioned a study conducted on a TPRS teacher and a course book teacher about the number of questions they asked in class. The study revealed that the TPRS teachers ask questions but the CB teachers are too busy with covering the course book instead.

Ray said that TPRS teachers don’t pay attention to boring things because kids want to learn to talk so they must pay attention to learning. `How do they pay attention to learning?` asked Ray. And he answered his own question by saying that Emotions get our attention and the Stories use emotions.

Ray said that lots of language teachers spend time on teaching about the language. And he added that skills are not practiced that way: riding a bike, basketball, tennis, etc are practiced properly but language classes lack this aspect. TPRS Stories give us this opportunity.

Blaine Ray finished his talked by giving the link to his slides and mentioning the yahoo discussion group on TPRS.