I have just realised that this conference was my 3rd TCI conference in 12 months; Laurie is right; it IS very easy getting hooked on TCI conferences!! So as I reflect on this conference, I am also super excited about my trip to Cincinnati for iFLT 2018 in less than 6 months!

The presenters, Anny Ewing, Laurie Clarcq and Terry Waltz were brilliant. Anny contributed her knowledge & experience of TPRS in the primary sector, Terry contributed her prodigious passion for pure TPRS as well as her techniques for teaching a non-roman alphabetic language while Laurie’s upbeat thoughtfulness, joy and compassion together with her trademark embedded reading rounded off the team perfectly.

If I had only time to write about just one thing I loved about this conference (thankfully there is no limit), it would be the constant repetition of the following:
1. Make it comprehensible – establish meaning, support meaning, comprehension checks etc
2. Provide repeated exposure – ask questions, confirm answers etc
3. Keep it interesting – adding details, eliciting student answers, personalisation etc
4. Teach for success – go slowly, differentiate questions, pause and point etc
This was woven into each day, each session, each workshop. If participants take nothing else home with them from the 3 days but this, it will not matter at all because it underpins successful TCI practise.

Overall, this conference helped to clarify and consolidate my understanding to date of TPRS/TCI both from a student’s perspective as well as from the teachers perspective. The very first thing I discovered was that I could not listen to Terry’s Hawaiian story and count structures! It interfered with my processing! What a light bulb moment that was! No wonder students have strong opinions about the jobs they want or don’t want to do!

Laurie Clarq shared with us the following mantra which resonated with all participants:

This is really important to keep in mind during your TPRS/TCI journey. Every teacher is working on a different milestone and each one is vital to that person. We acquire TPRS/TCI at different rates – just as our students acquire language at different rates. Wherever you are on your journey, it is where you should be. Comparing yourself with others is pointless. They are not in your shoes and visa versa. TPRS/TCI is not about the destination, it is entirely about the journey! However take note; the TCI road is rarely smooth and usually begins with an enormously steep learning curve.
Terry and Laurie also added the following gems over the three days:
– (TPRS) won’t get easier but it will get better.
– Build up your skills gradually. Start small. Choose one TPRS skill, try it and then keep doing it. Don’t give up!
– Don’t let details derail your TPRS.
–  Progress not perfection.
– Anything worth doing well is best done poorly at first.
– Students will only remember how you made them feel and quickly forget all else.

I can’t believe how many notes I took over the three days. I took the notebook I bought in Agen and followed straight on from my Agen notes to keep all my TPRS conference notes together. Unfortunately my notes from the Port Elliot conference are not in one place! Convening & attending a conference simultaneously is challenging!  Hopefully I remember to take it with me to Cincinnati in July.

Terry began her Hawaiian demo by reviewing the RULES which although I remember from last year, I had forgotten the explanation that goes along with each! I love them!
1. Naked desks – student learning habits need to be adjusted for language classes. They are used to taking notes but with TPRS, they just have to listen!
2. Listen – because that is how language comes into your mind.
3. Answer Questions – Everyone responds to questions. If your mouth is not moving, the teacher will assume that you don’t understand and therefore you will receive special attention to fix that! Also, do not answer on behalf of others. Answer in the TL unless I am looking for an idea.
4. Stop – If you don’t understand, stop the teacher. (Establish gesture: Terry used the windscreen wiper action) If you see someone gesturing that they don’t understand, join in to support the team. Think of an iceberg with only a fraction visible above the surface of the water. For each person who stops the teacher, there will be another 10 sitting silently/ motionlessly. Stop the teacher immediately you stop understanding. Don’t let the teacher continue because the teacher won’t know at which point you were lost. (Terry then demoed this with us to illustrate how disruptive this is)
5. 2 Words – Magic fairy dust means we don’t know the answer yet. Answers must be no more than 2 words of English!
6. Ohh/Ahh –  Class stories and answers are fascinating. Encourage students to respond to demonstrate appropriate responses which reinforce that all story details are fact! (Ohh/Ahh exclamations could eventually be swapped for culturally appropriate words. e.g. Astaga {OMG})
7. Grandma – Grandma is joining us in our room. She loves interesting stories, she will fall asleep if the stories are boring however she will get very cross if she hears anything inappropriate. So keep Grandma happy!

Terry then began her Hawaiian story which followed the typical beginners story formula. Character has a problem, character visits 3 locations to solve problem & the problem is solved at the 3rd location. While I used this formula often in my first year of TPRS, I haven’t lately because I found it too repetitive (sounds like an oxymoron – how can repetition in TPRS be a negative??) but while listening to Terry’s story I learned how to keep this formulaic story compelling. The secret is to use the i+1 principle. For example, if the character wants a large computer, (I’ve tweaked Terry’s story to avoid spoilers!) there are no computers at the first location, while at the second location there are only small computers. However at the 3rd location, there are large computers. The other technique Terry used to keep the story compelling was to invent quirky locations based on well known popular culture. e.g. Computers ‘R Us.
After the story, Terry recommended encouraging students to celebrate and acknowledge the amount of language they’d covered in the story. Due to the many repetitions through circling, fishing and the use of an actor, we (the class) found it easy to translate sentences from the story into Hawaiian! It was a blast! Terry did remind us that students are not expected to retell the story yet because they haven’t read it yet!
Terry next opened a PowerPoint which contained a parallel story. (A parallel story is an almost identical story incorporating exactly the same vocabulary (structures) but the who and the what are different. It is vital that the who and the what are words that are identical or almost identical in both L1 & L2. For example, if you want your character to be at the beach, use the name of a familiar beach rather than the L2 word for beach! Ensure 100% comprehensibility. Less is more.) The class read the story together with many comprehension checks & humorous brain breaks along the way.
What totally blew me away was how much Terry covered in a short amount of time, yet at no time did I feel lost or rushed. There is no way I could have achieved that pace with either my primary classes or my adult class! It was so impressive. Terry explained afterwards that the pace was too fast however as the demo is so powerful (experiencing TPRS as a student is the only way to fully understand how a student thinks during our classes) and sooo important that it just had to be done that way. I noticed there were many more interruptions (comments/questions) this year compared with last year and no doubt they ate into her allotted time. We referred back to aspects of this demo over and over throughout the conference.

After the demo, the group was divided into 2 groups – those who have attended a TCI conference previously (Tier 2) and those who haven’t (Tier 1). It was heartening to see not only the numbers of people returning for their 2nd Australian TCI conference but also so exciting to see the large group of teachers who were at their first ever TCI conference. Fingers crossed we see them all again in 2019.

On Day 2,  Laurie invited those of us seeking experience coaching Tier 1 colleagues to remain with Tier 1. Terry began this workshop reviewing  the basic TPRS skills and then explaining the difference between circling questions and fishing questions.
The basic TPRS skills are:
– circling
– 3 for
– comprehension check
– SLOW
– short/tall (restating student answers as complete answers)
– machine gun No’s – Parking on the No
– Point & Pause
Fishing – Adding interest, detail to create a new sentence.

This session provided participants with the opportunity to trial circling and fishing. Annie & I sat with a couple of Chinese teachers and were totally amazed with how well Joseph circled his structure (buys a coffee) and then how he fished for a detail (9 o’clock in the morning). 

In the afternoon, the participants were divided into teachers of primary and teachers of non-primary. I followed Heidi into the non-primary group looking for tips to help me with my proposed 2018 adults class. We were paired off to create a parallel story based on a fairytale. I worked with Luci on our Indonesian ‘Cinderella’ story. Boy – was this a challenging and thought provoking exercise. We had to assume our students only knew the super 7, a few joining words (because, if, with, therefore etc), numbers 1 – 10, yes/no, pronouns & good/not good. In our stories, we had to limit our new vocabulary to 5; no more than 5 unknown words in the entire story! I got bogged down with this exercise and in hindsight realised we should have simplified the story hugely.  Other pairs rewrote this story using only 8 – 10 lines, whereas I filled in a page and a half! As I said before; an excellent writing exercise.

Day three focused on reading; the 3rd step of TPRS. We began by understanding the importance of 100% comprehensible reading texts to enable students to see the story unfolding in their heads. See here for the slideshow.
While authentic texts are rarely 100% comprehensible, they still have value. However always remember to ensure that the task based on the text is of benefit to the student. It could be as simple has locating familiar words, translating using context cues or simply checking student’s proficiency level (although this focuses on what students can’t do; not what they can do).
A good CI text has connected ideas, is highly comprehensible, demonstrates a solid understanding of second language acquisition theory and is written by a highly fluent speaker. These texts enable students to enhance reading skills,
including:
– developing reading comprehension strategies
– tracking/skimming text
– visualisation
– stamina and concentration
– prediction/ infer to check meaning
– summarise i.e. draw own conclusions
Texts also provide opportunities to extend student understandings by applying vocabulary in new contexts. For example, with the structure Kevin’s ‘house’, in an Indonesian text, classes could be encourage to infer how to say 1) my house 2) Mr Jones’ house or 3) hospital (assuming students have already acquired the word ‘sakit’!
During text readings, incorporate TCI skills e.g. SLOW, pop up grammar, comprehension checks, English summaries.

Reading activities I want to try with my students:
1. Jumbled sentences
Take 5 main sentences from a paragraph in the text and write them up on the board, in jumbled order, one underneath the other and each line beginning with a letter of the alphabet, starting with A. Together the class choral read the sentences with the teacher. The class then echo reads the sentences; the teacher reading in the TL and the class echoing in English. Students then gestured the meaning (keeping their voices in their head) for each sentence while the teacher read in the TL.  Students then turn to a partner and together decide on the order of the 5 sentences so that it makes sense. After a given amount of time, ask for a pair to read out their order of the sentences (accept lettering if given) and then as a class choral read the sentence order as given. Ask  for opinions from the class (does this makes sense?), ask if anyone had anything similar/different. Repeat and compare! I loved that Anny gestured while we were choral reading as this really supported my comprehension. I thoroughly enjoyed this reading activity.
We talked about the huge difference between partner work (as above) & partner practise (dialogues). Anny also encouraged us to ask questions such as What was tough but you worked it out? What did you notice in this text that was different?
2. Popcorn Reading/ Volleyball Reading/ Train Reading
Students in pairs take it in turns to say a sentence in either TL or L1. We began side by side working with a partner and then turned our chairs sidewards so that we were sitting side by side with a different person in 2 long rows of chairs to form train carriages. I’ve always expected my students to read the text sentences in both Indonesian  & English however I loved how we could either read the sentences in English or Hawaiian. Such a cool idea to give students the choice!
3. Listen & Draw
Students folds a page into quarters and then numbers the quarters 1 – 4. They then illustrate the sentences read out by the teacher. I loved how Anny read us 3 sentences together and we drew one illustration to represent all of the information. So cool. Usually I read one sentence per quarter which is great for junior primary, but for older students, this encourages closer listening! Afterwards, the teacher can show the class a students work and discuss it OR the teacher could reread 1-3 of the sentences from one of the quarters randomly and students hold up the number of fingers to represent which quarter the sentence or sentences were from.
4. Movie Strips
Hand students a strip of paper. Fold three times (makes 8) and then unfold. Students illustrate one sentence from the story in each segment and then roll up when finished. The paper then becomes a film strip which could be narrated either by the teacher or by the student should the latter have had enough input beforehand.
5. Express Acting
Have props representing each sentence of the story; either a location prop or an actor prop. With each sentence, students take it in turns to stand up, grab the appropriate prop and act out the next line as it is read out by the teacher. Should the actor need to speak, the teacher can help if the actor is not confident to do so. The teacher merely stands behind the actor giving the actor a voice. Beforehand though, explain quietly to the actor that “When I touch your shoulder, that means you have to pretend to speak.” This allows the teacher to use many students from the class, which for junior primary classes is sooo important. Something Anny did which I truly loved was that she circled the action in the story by talking to the actors. She asked the house, “Do you have…..”, She asked the actor, “What do you want?”, “Was there ….. at the house?”, “Do you want a big or small ……?”

To finish up this overlong post, I am going to write random take homes I picked up over the 3 days that I’m looking forward to trialling with my students ….
* Menurut Saya (in my opinion) – Student states an opinion and all those who agree stand up. Here is Señor Wooly explaining a fun activity to introduce this language.
* Beginner language learners must focus on the super 7 (Top 10 + sudah/ belum for Indonesian)
*Ipad vs Paper is a great clip to movie talk.
*weighing the pig doesn’t make it fatter – if an assessment activity does not help the student learn, it is a waste of time.
*classroom management idea – raise your hand when you can’t hear the sound anymore.
*picture talk for an end of lesson filler should it be needed.
*Senor Wooly Tres Acciones – a great target structure activity for verbs
*Have 2 different gestures for words that have 2 different meanings. e.g. pakai – have a gesture representing ‘to use’ & another gesture to represent ‘wear’.
*Teachers must use strategies to restrict language (stay in bounds) & keep instructions short and simple.
*While fishing or circling, incorporate basic everyday language that supports conversation and communication into questions. Its also an awesome way of incorporating required curriculum vocabulary that doesn’t seem to fit in elsewhere naturally.
* If fishing and no one is biting, pair students off to come up with some suggestions. They keep a hand each in the air until they have a suggestion!
*When circling, incorporate the suggestions (whitebait) that were discarded during the fishing. This demonstrates that all responses are values and appreciated.
*Look at the teacher and smile if you could have answered the questions too!
*Wait time honours thinking time and encourages students to check their answer.
* tieing knot = ‘sudah’ gesture
* Student job suggestion – the parrot who repeats what the teacher has just said but only when appropriate!
*No point correcting student output in the first 3 years of their language learning – they are not ready for it.
* Develop a few strategies for rejecting fishing suggestions that didn’t make the grade e.g. impossible because he is in Bali today, I looked on Facebook and he is sick, Not  Bronwyn at Victor Harbor Primary? etc