TPRS with Chinese Characteristics: Making Students Fluent and Literate through Comprehended Input

Have you read or heard about TPRS, but don't quite know where to begin? A little hesitant about teaching a "hard" language like Chinese using Comprehensible Input? Or would you like some inspiration from a different angle to spark your teaching in a "common" language like Spanish or French?

TPRS with Chinese Characteristics summarizes fifteen years of teaching Chinese using TPRS/CI. Focused on classroom practice, the book presents tested, effective strategies and skills that will allow you to leave the myth of Chinese as a "difficult" language -- or indeed any language being difficult to master -- far behind your students.

The book provides clear, basic descrptions and hints for using TPRS to provide comprehended oral input. This basic phrase is applicable to all languages, though the examples center on Chinese and its specific challenges such as tones. The reading section offer a variety of reading activities and modalities to help teachers stuck on keeping reading from becoming routine and boring.

From tones, Pinyin, and reading instruction to writing prompts and output, TPRS with Chinese Characteristics fills in the gap between "traditional" Spanish- and French-focused TPRS training and the special challenges faced by students of Chinese as well. Chinese teachers, and those teaching other non-WYSIWYG scripts such as Japanese, will find many hints on making students joyful, fluent readers of these "difficult" writing systems.

The right book at the right time. --Stephen Krashen, Ph.D.

I teach Russian, not Chinese, and this is still the best book ever. If you want to learn to teach comprehensibly, Terry Waltz is your woman. (She also does presentations and webinars.) I love knowing that Terry is a researcher who is extremely data-driven, because that's important in our current educational climate. But she's also a fabulous teacher who can teach a stone to speak Chinese. (I'm that stone.) And she knows how to explain the steps so that teachers can follow them. --Michaela Robertovna

This is a concise and complete explanation of TPRS for teachers of ANY language. Waltz writes with a clear style using everyday language making the complex concepts easy to understand. Chinese teachers and professionals who train Chinese teachers will appreciate the numerous examples of the unique aspects of learning the Chinese language. --Janice Holter Kittock

Terry Waltz has taught Mandarin using comprehensible input for fifteen years. A PhD, international presenter, linguist, teacher, and professional translator, Waltz knows as much about comprehensible input as anyone alive. If you teach Chinese, you want to up your pedagogical game, and you want your students to learn with ease, this is where you start. -- Chris Stolz