Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling , formerly known as Total Physical Response Storytelling, or TPRS for short, is a method for teaching world languages. Blaine Ray created this method to help students apply the words learned. Stories are complemented with reading from a variety of sources. Blaine Ray had been a Spanish teacher whose philosophy is that "Learning is a function of repetition." TPRS is a movement towards building language proficiency in the use of grammatical structures through reading stories in addition to the oral storytelling for which TPRS is well-known.
TPRS has three main steps to the process:
STEP 1: Establish Meaning. This is done primarily by the presentation of target language vocabulary structures (generally no more than 3 in one lesson) and their equivalents in the students' native language. Gestures can also be taught and practiced with the new vocabulary to help students remember vocabulary words. Gestures were once considered integral to step 1 but are now considered optional.
STEP 2: Ask (not tell) a story. Using a general outline of a story, the instructor asks students to provide specific details. This allows students to make it their own. At the same time a circling technique of asking questions, and repeating phrases results in multiple repetitions of the target structures. Advanced TPRS teachers are sometimes able to "wing it," creating stories by asking questions of the students based on the vocabulary structures of that day's lesson.
STEP 3: Read and discuss the story, or a different story which contains the grammar structures from STEP 2, but with different details. This reading is often done by having one or all of the students translate the reading out loud in order to ensure that students have complete comprehension of the reading material. Grammar points contained in the reading may be briefly discussed with very short explanations - often 5 seconds or less. The discussion of the reading is carried out in the target language, with the teacher asking questions both about the reading itself and also about the students and their lives.
TPRS is based on the theoretical importance of comprehensible input as a key factor in developing fluency in the target language. Another very important element of TPRS is personalization. Using the language as a means to get to know students and to get them interested in the message is an effective way of delivering input that is both comprehensible and interesting. Personalization can be accomplished by asking students simple questions about their lives in the target language and also by the inclusion of celebrities known to the students. It is very important in TPRS to make students look good in the stories and discussions (or at least not bad), but it is considered good form to make celebrities look bad in comparison to the students. Using humorous stories lowers the "affective filter," or the part of the brain that becomes self-conscious when trying to speak or learn a new language. The TPRS method is built on the attempt to teach language while students are enjoying themselves. Thus the method purportedly results in "language acquisition" as opposed to "language learning" which, in the traditional sense, involves a format that includes teaching grammar and drilling.
Storytelling can be an incredible teaching tool. In the classroom, the role of storytelling can go far beyond the acquisition of literature. This is due to the additional emotional content that can be delivered through a story. Information that is then even more thoroughly retained, because the input of facts is received on an emotional as well as an intellectual level, this allows for the new information to be stored in a much deeper part of the memory within the human brain. Because of this often overlooked fact, oral storytelling should be considered one of the better ways to educate and teach information. It can be used in all aspects of learning if applied properly.
Telling stories, reading and writing all work together to better communicate the lesson. By weaving storytelling into the curriculum, educators can tap into a deep need in the human spirit, to receive information through stories and emotion.
Due to this neurological emotional imprinting, storytelling can be a powerful classroom addition. It supports speaking and listening skills, motivates reading and writing, stimulates the imagination and develops and enhances students’ response to literature, history, social studies and many other components of the curriculum.
Storytelling in the educational setting is arguably one of the most effective teaching tool. Stories can teach, reinforce and introduce curriculum in the most logical and creative fashion imaginable. Almost any subject matter can be presented or introduced in story form.
Storytelling strengthens the imagination. To imagine is to envision and to see beyond what is readily apparent. The ability to imagine and envision is the proven basis of all creativity and creativity creates the power of problem solving in many different occupations, learning modalities and life situations.