Blaine Ray is inventor and leader of TPRS.. storyasking comes from Blaine Ray's work.. here's some things Blaine says:

[edit] on translation

I have done everything known to man in teaching languages. This has been a focus of my life since 1980 when I started using TPR. I read all the books. Asher said that no translation was ever necessary. Krashen in 1983 said much the same thing. They were all coming from the same place -- first language acquisition.

I tried it all. I used to teach without students seeing the words. I went from TPR to teaching with gestures. TPRS developed over years. The only thing that mattered was "does it work."

I have found that teaching without translation simply doesn't work. It leads to confusion. Confusion leads to students tuning out.

What does work is repetitive comprehensible input.

I have had quite a bit of French and a little German. I have had enough language to know what happens when a teacher tries to gesture something without translation. It is usually a joke (unless of course it is one of the few words that can be gestured without translation and one interpretation -- in other words a TPRable word.)

This is simple to test. Just go into class a pick new words. Pick words from the top 100 most common words. Here are some words from that list.

• Vida life
• Quedar stay or remain
• Siempre always
• Creer to beieve
• Llevar take or wear
• Dejar let or leave

Teach these words in a story without translation.

Then pick some words and do the same thing with the TPRS steps of translation. Circle with slow processors until they are beyond the translation stage. See what your students know after an equal amount of time doing both activities.

This idea of using translation is not some little guess of mine. I have tried more than you can ever imagine to teach without translation. I did it that way because that is the way the gurus of the day said to do it.

TPRS exists today because of experimentation and doing what works.

I am totally open to any idea that would predict better learning. Unfortunately not using translation would be redoing what was already done in the 80's.

Blaine
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