It was the 2006 California Language Teachers Association annual conference in Ontario, California, and I signed up for the two-day pre-conference workshop with Susie Gross because the description said something fun like “teach language with stories.” As the workshop proceeded, I was overcome with confusion. I loved what Susie Gross said and how she taught. At the same time, I thought: “Is she for real? Or, is she some kind of quack?” I remember driving home with a sense of elation because I had finally heard something that made sense about language teaching. At the same time, I felt fear because I sensed that I might be alone on this new path.
Long story short: I began to experiment with TPRS and my students responded positively. However, it was not nearly as easy as Susie Gross made it seem, so I attended more workshops whenever I could. I realized that it would take time to develop my skills. I also had this nagging questions: Maybe TPRS in Japanese might not work due to the different writing system? Why were few Japanese teachers in California using TPRS?* Was I crazy to even try? Nevertheless, I continued with TPRS, sometimes more, sometimes less, because it seemed that the students remembered more of what I taught with TPRS and because it made teaching a lot more meaningful.
Fast forward ten years to Fall 2016. I hear Bill Van Patten speak highly of TPRS on his Tea with BVP podcast series from MSU. I am thrilled! Finally, TPRS is acknowledged for being a powerful type of communicative language teaching. I feel like I can come out of the closet. Not only that, I am starting this blog to share with other Japanese teachers who are interested in TPRS and CI approaches. I really want to be able to consult other Japanese teachers and share!
*I applaud Sandra Garcia in the Pacific Northwest and Betsy Paskvan and her colleagues in Alaska for being early adopters of TPRS for Japanese! I understand that the Pacific Northwest has more Japanese teachers using TPRS, am I right?