Blaine Ray & Contee Seely, state in their book, Fluency through TPR Storytelling, Achieving Real Language Acquisition in School” Fourth edition, Command Performance Language Institute, ©2005, (TPR stands for, “Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling”) state on the back cover of their book: “Even now, early in the 21st century, foreign and second language programs in schools in North American and most of the world produce very few students who can fluently speak and comprehend spoken language or read and write competently. Nearly all high school, middle school and elementary school TPR Storytelling students can actually do these things.”
Questions:Is what they say about our foreign language teaching in the United States reflected in our students’ ability to acquire a second language? Do Spanish language students learn language facts such as vocabulary words, grammar, etc., but do not know how to converse? How do you feel about the above statement by the authors?
