Storyetlling in Curtain and Dahlberg, Ch 3, p. 57-73

Curtain and Dahlberg. Languages and Children. Ch 3, p. 57-73.

    The Natural Approach to language development emphasizes that there are predictable stages of language production that can be expected of the language learner. The first stage is pre-production. TPR demonstrations are done and student are not expected to speak. The second stage is Early Speech Production, where students can respond to yes or no questions, either-or, single or two-word answers, and open-ended sentences. The third stage of the Natural Approach emphasizes activities, games, and problem-solving activities.

     Within the second stage there is an order of questioning that teachers should use that proceeds from the easiest level that requires no oral response to the most difficult level of open-ended questioning (57).
1) Who has the cheese? Student point to the cheese.
2) Does Helena have the cheese?
3) Does Helena have the cheese or the bread?
4) What does Helena have?
5) What did Duane do this time? Or... Tell us about the cheese.
       The text mentions that some teachers have this order posted in their classroom. I definitely want to keep the order of questioning in mind during my instruction. It is easy to want to make students "repeat after me" at first when you should really not be forcing them to respond orally before they are ready.

      The Gouin Series is similar to Total Physical Response. It differs in that there are six to eight "short statements describing a logical sequence of actions that take place in a specific context, such as getting up in the morning, cooking a meal, or making a phone call" (67).  During the Gouin series the teacher repeats the series of actions and pantomimes them. Then the students pantomime while the teacher repeats the series of actions orally. Lastly each student volunteers to pantomime "solo" while the teacher repeats it. I would like to try out the Gouin Series to see how effective it is and how it feels to teach using this more structured approach as opposed to circling questions during TPR.