I began exploring what seemed like a radical approach to language teaching in 2006. Called Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS), it is a methodology that uses very limited target phrases to co-create stories with students. What I immediately noticed was that my students seemed to enjoy the approach and retain what they learned, in spite of my fledgling skills. One of the primary reasons that I wanted to tackle the MSU MAFLT program was to be able to understand and explain why TPRS and its umbrella group of Comprehensible Input Approaches are so effective.

In the clip below, I apply the "Circling" technique of TPRS to generate a bit of conversation with students while I model the task that I want them to do. While not an example of the cycle of TPRS, it shows how aspects of the methodology can be applied in many ways.