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Our programs and workshops are based on
whole-brain learning: activities that foster natural,
stress-free language acquisition and long-term retention by
engaging both hemispheres of the brain.
We involve the right hemisphere—the silent, creative side of
the brain—through action, role-play and emotion. We begin with activities
such as TPR (Total Physical Response), a method developed by
Dr. James Asher. During these activities, participants learn
to respond to commands and narratives, both simple ("Stand
up!") and complex ("Class, John is going to stand up, walk to
the board and write his first name with the blue marker.").
The participants are initially silent; they "produce" the
language through physical actions, which is a natural form of
expression for the right brain. The activities allow for rapid
acquisition of a considerable base vocabulary, extensive
exposure to the sounds of the language, and development of a
natural feel for its structures and grammar. Participants are
quickly able to understand novel commands and narratives—ones
they have never heard before—by piecing together elements that
they learned earlier.
These physical actions then progress to questions, answers and
stories, following methods similar to those developed by
Blaine Ray, and soon participants are producing the language
themselves. The production is stress-free because participants
have already internalized a vast vocabulary and a natural
understanding of the language's structures, much like a child
learning his or her first language. As the focus shifts toward
speaking, reading and writing, we begin to engage the brain's
analytical left hemisphere. Participants are able to make
deductions about grammar and compose unique utterances and
compositions. The right brain is still active, however,
because our stories and other activities are fun, emotional
and personalized during every step of the process.
By constantly switching back and forth between hemispheres of
the brain, we keep every moment of the learning process
engaging, effective and fulfilling. Moreover, the combination
of left- and right-brain activities ensures that participants
fully retain the material and are able to apply it to
real-life situations, almost as naturally as with their native
language. Finally, the methods used in our programs allow
learners to understand everything they hear and read with
minimal reversion to English. Participants feel confident and
comfortable working in the language, both in and out of the
classroom, because of their success in this immersion-like
environment.
Teaching Fluency Through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS), created by Blaine Ray, is based on the input hypothesis proposed by Dr. Stephen Krashen, who notes that true fluency results from the unconscious acquisition of natural, interesting, repetitive input, not from the conscious memorization of grammar rules. Students co-create a story with the TPRS teacher, who asks the story into creation, scaffolding onto language that has been made 100% comprehensible to the students, resulting in more unconscious acquisition and thus more rapid fluency
To learn more about whole-brain learning, we invite you to
read
Dr. Shelley Thomas' summary of Eric
Jensen's Brain-Compatible Learning Workshop.
You may also want to read our
Overview of TPR and TPRS to
learn more about the development and steps of those methods, or visit TPRStorytelling.com for more information related to the TPRS method. |
