Chinese in Focus

TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling)

 

TPRS is a method of teaching foreign languages based on TPR (Total Physical Response) methods.

 

TPRS lessons use a mixture of reading and storytelling to help students learn a foreign language in a classroom setting.

The method works in three steps:

 

• In step one the new vocabulary structures to be learned are taught using a combination of translation, gestures, and personalized questions;

 

• In step two those structures are used in a spoken class story; and finally,

 

• In step three, these same structures are used in a class reading. 

 

Throughout these three steps, the teacher will use a number of techniques to help make the target language comprehensible to the students, including careful limiting of vocabulary, constant asking of easy comprehension questions, frequent comprehension checks, and very short grammar explanations known as "pop-up grammar".

 

Chinese in Focus‘s stories are short and linked to Mark’s story, and each lesson’s new grammar and vocabulary.