Finding a TPRS Teacher, and/or Finding a Media Alternative to a Live Teacher

You may already know of a teacher who is ready to jump in and teach your students a foreign language using the TPRS storytelling/Comprehensible Input method.  Maybe the teacher is you!  However, if you haven't found a teacher for your students yet, here are some ideas to explore.

Q: “Where Can I Find a TPRS Teacher?”

A: Finding a TPRS teacher for your homeschool students is not easy.  If you are lucky, the teacher you have already knows about TPRS, or is willing to try it. You can direct him or her to this blog for guidance.  Also try these sources:

Terry Waltz advertises that she will teach Mandarin via Skype.

Some commercial programs offer classes, and some of those classes accommodate young people.  These are fluencyfast.com (Spanish) in the Denver area, and expressfluency.com (Spanish, French, Latin, Mandarin) in the New England - NY area.  

Also, Martina Bex has a database of TPRS/CI teachers at her website.  You can try contacting a teacher in your area, who might know more about possibilities near you.

Q: “I've checked, and there is no TPRS teacher nearby.  I don’t speak a foreign language or I can’t become a TPRS teacher at this time. How can I provide a TPRS-style language class for my child?”

A: There are a few TPRS-style media programs.  They aren’t exactly TPRS, because there is no student input into the stories or personalized questioning, etc.  However, these are attempts to offer something like the TPRS experience online, with CD or with DVD, and they do provide compelling, comprehensible, repetitive input. Here is what I have found so far:

For Pre-schoolers and Elementary:

Calico Spanish - calicospanish.com This sounds and looks like TPRS cartoons for preschoolers.  It says designed for 4+, but I think it could go lower.  There is a Free Trial, so you can’t lose!   Online, $15/month.  By the creator of musicuentos.com, Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell.

For Elementary, Middle, High Schoolers and Adults:

Excelerate Spanish - exceleratespanish.com  This is a DVD program for Level 1 and Level 2.  The teacher on the DVD teaches a TPR/TPRS/CI class to a live group of students of varied ages.  She is Caryn Hommel, an experienced public and homeschool language teacher. This program is Caryn’s answer to the homeschool problem of meeting only once a week.  By relying more heavily on gestures (TPR), she is able to pack more phrases into each lesson (Hence, “Excelerate”.) In each lesson, students practice about 20 phrases with gestures (separately, in combination, and in a story), dramatize a second related story, read a third story and answer comprehension questions. In each level, 4 DVDs provide a total of twenty-four 45-minute lessons. Hommel prefers dedicating 2 weeks per lesson, so there is plenty of material in each level for a year of classes. This program can be used by a teacher with a class, or by individual families at home. Includes 3 accompanying books. $140.

Bucky va a México and Bucky vá a Paris - benslavic.com  Ben Slavic created these programs which provide seven hours of teaching travel structures on 6 CD’s. “Each structure is repeated in the form of a barrage of multiple, non-stop, similar questions”. Audio CD and reading. French and Spanish. $80.

For High Schoolers and Adults:

fluencyfast.com This website has a Spanish independent study program with 13 hours of DVD, a reader, study guide and audio guide, $145. There are also one-year subscriptions to approximately 10 - 12 hours of online streaming video classes in French, Russian, German, Arabic, and Mandarin for $20 - $40. The streaming video classes appear to be videos of previously taught TPRS live classes.  Karen Rowan is one of the teachers. Live classes are available in Denver, CO. 

One more idea:

Find a foreign language speaker, even on Skype, teach them TPRS and have them teach you the language.  That is how Terry Waltz learned Cantonese!

If anybody has experience with any of the programs listed above, or knows of other TPRS-style media curriculum, please tell us more in the Comments section!