Introduction

INTRODUCTION TO TPRS
TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling) is an innovative approach to language instruc-
tion that focuses on stories as the basis for promoting fluency. Developed by Blaine Ray after experimenting with
classical TPR and the Natural Approach and based on the notion of comprehensible language input instruction,
it has evolved into a method used by teachers around the world.
This Discovering French, Nouveau! Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytellingg text provides materials
based on the themes, grammar, and vocabulary of the Discovering French, Nouveau!! program, allowing teachers to
incorporate TPRS into their daily lessons. Each unit contains one Mini-contee per lesson of the student text, and
one Conte principall per unit. The Mini-contess are preceded by a list of active vocabulary from the lesson, accom-
panied by TPR gestures and descriptors. Each Mini-contee is a mini-situation based on the themes, grammar, and
vocabulary of the lesson, and contains interactive and personalized questions that teachers can ask students to
encourage their participation in the storytelling. The unit Conte principall incorporates the elements of the Mini-
contess into one longer reading. It does not include the interactive questions, leaving it to the teacher to develop
his or her own treatment. Each Conte principall is followed by a simple activity to test student comprehension.
An Answer Keyy to these comprehension activities can be found on page AK1.

The Three Steps of TPRS

1. Vocabulary
Each reading is preceded by vocabulary instruction. In the case of this Discovering French, Nouveau! TPRS
text, the vocabulary is taken from the lesson under study, and appears at the start of each Mini-conte.
e
• Teach the vocabulary, either by translating it into English or through classical TPR techniques (see page ix
for more information on TPR).
Copyright © McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin Company.

• Personalize the vocabulary through the use of Personalized Questions and Answers (PQA): Ask students
questions using the guidewords to personalize the vocabulary to your class and students. If the target
vocabulary is “chien,”” ask: Qui a un chien? Est-ce que vous avez un chien, Ann? De quelle couleur est votre
chien? Comment s’appelle votre chien?? Show interest in the answers and encourage student participation.
Ask follow-up questions, and compare answers. This is an informal chat with your students using the
new vocabulary; if there appears to be any confusion about the vocabulary, translate it.

2. Story
Tell a story by making an initial statement and then asking many follow-up questions in order to develop the
details of the story with your students. The story will often become quite different because it is personalized
to the students in a particular class. By asking many questions for each statement, you will maximize the
vocabulary repetitions; this repetitive circlingg is an essential element of the TPRS method. Use actors as you
tell the story. Maintain spacing, directing the actors to the locations in the story. Invite student participation
and reaction to the story.
Students respond well to stories that are bizarre, exaggerated, and personalized. These qualities allow for
more repetitions of the target vocabulary within a very flexible context. When stories are too predictable,
many students stop listening; although there may be plenty of comprehensible input, there is less intake of
the input.

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 The personalized Mini-contess in this book contain many bizarre and exaggerated elements, as well as opportu-
nities for student personalization. Modify the details of the Mini-contess by inviting student suggestions; while
details have been scripted into the stories, TPRS will be more successful if you personalize it with the sugges-
tions of your students whenever possible. Have fun exaggerating the stories with student ideas. Demonstrate
to students that you encourage creative responses to questions. Be patient to allow time for all students to
respond and, always try to hold out for the funniest response before incorporating that detail into the story.
This will encourage students to compete with one another to contribute fun details to the story. When the
story is personalized, interesting, and comprehensible, students will volunteer more responses. Use student
names as the heroes of your story, use student-suggested ideas (such as celebrity names, places, and brand
names) to create the details of the story, and incorporate school celebrities (principal, teachers) and timely
events (prom, sports events) into the story.
Explain and demonstrate good audience participation. Every time a statement is made or a question asked,
you should expect a class response: Ah, c’est intéressant!, Oh, là!, Comme c’est triste!, Quel dommage!, C’est pas
possible!! etc. This is an indication of comprehension and acquisition. Constantly assess comprehension of the
input by watching students and listening for responses.
Generally, students that volunteer to act out a story are good choices to do so. A reluctant actor is rarely a
good one. However, the teacher must always coach the students: set the scene, guide the movement of the
characters and encourage melodramatic acting. The role of the actor is to reinforce the meaning of the words
in the story visually as well as to entertain the rest of the class, allowing the teacher to provide comprehen-
sible input and assess the class. Explain and demonstrate your expectations of good acting and appropriate
behavior while having fun with the language from the beginning of the year.
The teacher and actors establish the location of places, events, and objects in the story. In order to aid com-
prehension, locations should remain fixed each time the story is told. Aid student retells by walking through
the story physically as you or the students retell the story. Occasionally, provide gestures to aid with a retell.
Reading is an essential source of comprehensible input in a TPRS foreign language program, allowing the
continuation of the acquisition process at an accelerated pace. Through the comprehensible input by means

Copyright © McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin Company.

of TPRS, students acquire enough vocabulary and grammar to read successfully in the target language. The
written stories in this book are highly comprehensible. They can be assigned for homework or they may be
read in class, translating them orally in groups or pairs. Reading a story based on the vocabulary from the
Mini-contess provides an important opportunity for students to process the input and acquire more detail
(grammar, spelling, and additional vocabulary). Take advantage of unfamiliar grammar by asking quick “pop-
up” questions. For example, if the story says “Elle lui a donné un livre,”” ask students to translate “lui.”
Retell the story, recycling vocabulary in as many ways as possible.
a. Teacher Retells: Retell the story at least twice.
Retell the story, maximizing repetitions by making mistakes and asking more questions. During this retell,
you are stretching the story to its outermost limits and exploring the details while maintaining the basic
storyline. Explore the how and why questions to make the story very specific. Follow student suggestions,
and even add a subplot to the story.
Summarize the basics by retelling the story a second time, briefly giving a quick sketch or summary of
the basic storyline.
b. Student Retells: Have students retell the story.
Student retells will show the extent to which students have acquired the new vocabulary. Either ask one
student to retell the basic story or assess multiple students with a short multiple-student retell.

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TPRS
 c. Teach From Perspective: Revisit the basic storyline from various points of view.
Je:: Tell the students, “You are now the main character, X. Tell the story from your perspective.”
Ils:: Add another character to the story to make it plural.
Tu:: The main character is your partner. Look at him or her and retell the story from him or her perspective.
Vous:: Pass out plush toys. Same as above but now plural (Vouss = l’animal et toi).
i
Nous:: Pass out plush toys. Same as for Jee but now plural (Nouss = l’animal et moi).
i
On the overhead or board, write the basic outline of the story. Then explore with your students how these
phrases change in the new point of view. Many TPRS teachers begin with first-person singular point of
view. Some prefer to begin with second-person plural point of view. Work with stories in one point of
view over the course of at least a couple of weeks. Then change to another point of view for the next
month or so. Eventually students will have worked with all points of view.
Ask students how they would make the point of view changes in the story you just created in class one
line at a time.

3. Literacy
The extended reading, or Conte principal,l incorporates all of the vocabulary learned in the Mini-contess into
a longer story. Ensure that students understand the entire story fully by translating unfamiliar grammar and
vocabulary. Discuss the reading, encouraging students to react and personalize the story by relating it to their
own lives. Go back and forth between storytelling and reading. You might also provide funny or interesting
stories written by other students for in-class activities or homework. Students enjoy reading stories written by
their peers. Read a highly comprehensible storybook to your students each week. Follow up with discussion
of the text and reading time during which students select a children’s book from the classroom library and
read on their own.
Copyright © McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin Company.

TPRS Assessment Ideas

In TPRS, we use constant informal assessments to check student comprehension, and use more formal output
assessments sparingly. This allows more class time for input activities and results in more language acquisition,
which is our ultimate goal.
Entire class simultaneously acts out the story: Put students into groups and and have them play the roles of
characters A and B as you tell a slightly altered version of a story. The students act out the story, at their desks
or standing. Change the ending or reverse the order of events. Make it wacky! You’re assessing whether or not
students have internalized the vocabulary while continuing to provide comprehensible input.
Write the story as a class: Write the story as the product of a cooperative class discussion. Guide the students in
their retell with questions or by making intentional mistakes in the story. Explain to the students that everyone
should contribute to the discussion, but if overall participation drops, each person will be required to write the
story on their own. Once concluded, you may choose to ask the students to copy from the overhead or board. A
possible extension of this activity would be to have them take the written story and draw it out on a storyboard
for homework.
Write the story: Have students write the story individually. This can be an in-class, timed writing activity or
assigned as homework. Give them a minimum number of words for the assignment. With your first stories, you
might ask for fifty words, and later increase this to seventy-five words. Eventually, have students write from a
particular perspective. Students should internalize enough vocabulary to easily write one hundred words in ten
minutes (unsupported: no lists, books, or dictionaries).

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Unannounced vocabulary quiz: Read a short list of vocabulary words. Have students write the meaning of each
word in English. Remember that novice learners will not spell all words correctly all the time. The important thing
is that students have internalized and understand the meaning of the vocabulary and can express that in writing.
Answer questions about the story: You may be most successful asking questions that can be easily answered
with a short answer (Who? When? Where? What?). Remember, even most native speakers do not write complete
sentences to answer simple questions.
Write or tell a story from a student illustration: Select particularly good student drawings of class stories and
distribute them to the class for a class activity. You may choose to make a transparency of a drawing instead and
project it for the entire class. Give a timed writing (ten minutes) with a word minimum (one hundred words)
based on the student drawing. For an oral assessment, ask students to tell the story in a limited amount of time.
You may choose to randomly pick a frame and give the student thirty seconds to narrate that portion only.
Write the story in groups: Encourage students to write the story, changing the details or giving it a different
ending using the vocabulary that they know. They could also draw their version of the ending. You could have a
couple of groups share their new endings with the class. This emphasizes the importance of student input in the
TPRS classroom and encourages greater participation overall.
Read, listen, and draw the story: Students read a story and draw the main events of the story out chronologi-
cally on a storyboard. Have students quickly draw the story as you retell it, changing some details to make it
interesting, yet keeping it very comprehensible. Students may draw the story on blank paper in a single-frame or
in a multi-frame format. To grade, select the basic elements of the story and give students points for including
each element in their drawings.
Write or tell a new story using five vocabulary words: Choose French words or phrases that you have already
worked with in class for a written assessment. Write these French words on the board or on the overhead, and
ask your students to write an original story incorporating all five vocabulary words. Make it an oral assessment by
asking them for a short, original story of one to two minutes incorporating the target vocabulary correctly.

Copyright © McDougal Littell/Houghton Mifflin Company.

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