One of the newer terms in Second Language Instruction circles is “Teaching with Comprehensible Input”. Its use came about as teachers saw a need to have an “umbrella term” that covered a variety of strategies, approaches, practices, etc. Along with the new term came, of course, increased possibilities for confusion. The following is an attempt to clear up at least some of the confusion, particularly in terms of the alphabet soup we keep serving up in education.
- What do TCI, TPRS, TPR, etc. stand for?
TCI stands for Teaching with Comprehensible Input and means just that: the teacher uses messages in the target language that learners find compelling and understandable to help them acquire the language unconsciously. Comprehensible Input is not a method, strategy, approach, or practice. It is language that is understandable. Teaching with Comprehensible Input means using oral and written texts that students can understand, irrespective of how I make those texts understandable to students. TPRS® stands for Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling. It is one excellent way of providing comprehensible input. TPR® is Total Physical Response and is another way of providing comprehensible input. Don’t confuse TPR and TPRS. The rest of the alphabet soup is best learned in context. - Isn’t TCI just another name for TPRS?
No. While TPRS is a prime example of TCI, Teaching with Comprehensible Input is more than that and includes anything the teacher uses to make certain that the messages in the target language are both compelling and understandable to students. (The “comprehensible” part of the name means comprehensible to the students, not just to the teacher.) “Teaching with Comprehensible Input” does not describe any particular approach, method, strategy, or practice; it simply means that I provide students with the one thing that their minds/brains need in order to acquire language, and that is language students can understand and interpret. - Speaking of “compelling”, isn’t this all about flying blue elephants?
While many classes enjoy the creative freedom that TCI offers and do come up with bizarre stories, “compelling” simply means that students get so involved in the content of the message that they forget they are speaking a foreign language. This may result in flying blue elephants, but it can equally easily result in a discussion of bullying in school, the upcoming football game or school dance; in other words, “compelling” means it’s something the students truly want to talk about. - So what is Teaching with Comprehensible Input?
To help answer that, let’s first see what it is not: it is not a grammar-driven curriculum; it is not a textbook-driven curriculum; it is not long lists of vocabulary words; it is not the teacher talking at students; it is not learning about a language; it is not immersion.Teaching with Comprehensible Input is speaking with students in a way that every student understands what the teacher is saying all the time; it incorporates relevance by exploring topics to which students have a connection and that are connected to real life; it is student driven and student centered because students give input and direction to the flow of conversation; it is going “deep and narrow” with the language rather than “shallow and broad”; it is relational; it is aimed at acquisition of the language rather than learning about the language; it is contextualized. It is, above all, communication, i.e. the expression, interpretation, and negotiation of meaning with a purpose in a given context. (See Bill VanPatten, While we’re on the Topic, p. 3.) - But what about rigor? I hear many students and teachers say that TCI or TPRS is “easy”.
Teaching with Comprehensible Input, including TPRS, definitely seems easy to students and is certainly different from most of their classes. But we need to distinguish between rigorous and onerous or burdensome. Doing more work does not mean more rigor, it just means more work. Are 40 math problems that practice the same concept twice as rigorous as 20, or just more work?