TPRS methods for CHISTES PARA APRENDER ESPAÑOL by Contee Seely

Structures/Phrases

You can write the lists beforehand and cover them up and then uncover them little by little as you present the joke sentence by sentence. Or you can write each phrase and each word as you present the joke little by little.

It’s best for Spanish and English to be in different colors on the list. If you write the phrases and words as you present the joke, this will help you to go slowly, allowing time for the students to process the new material.

The lists that you make can be different from these, since you know what your class is very familiar with and what they need to be able to have easily accessible to them. These lists should stay up all the time the class is working on this joke. This is one of several important ways to keep the class fully comprehensible.

In addition to these phrases and words, it is important to permanently display a complete list of question words with their English translations so that students can see them any time they need to. They help to make sure that students understand the questions you ask them about the jokes. You ask them lots of questions so that they hear the vocabulary and the structures with understanding many, many times and thereby acquire them. In this joke, these question words are particularly useful: ¿Quién? Who?; ¿Dónde? Where?; y ¿Por qué? Why (keep in mind that questions with ¿Por qué? are usually harder to answer than others).

You will need to prepare the students, telling them that they are responsible for doing the following (you will probably have to train them):

1. Not to speak English unless you ask them to trans- late something to English. If they must speak English, they must ask permission, saying, “¿Puedo hablar inglés?”

2. In a joke, when you present a new sentence, to exclaim loudly, “¡Oh!”

3. When you ask them a question, to answer it loud and strong.

The Presentation of a Joke Sentence by Sentence

Before saying a sentence, if it contains something the class is not very familiar with, point to this on the board and say it. If necessary, explain it briefly in English or Spanish. If you notice that a student has not understood something that is not on the board, add this to the list along with its translation. If something new appears, write this too with its translation on a new list. For example, if someone wants to talk about the make of the car in this joke, you would write “marca make, brand”. It is important for all the students to understand everything and for you to check their comprehension frequently (see “Ways to Check Comprehension” below).

When you notice that a student does not understand a particular word or grammatical usage, instead of correcting him directly, you can point to the word or the grammatical element on the board to help him (we always want to help students understand Spanish; some need more help and need to hear more aural repetitions than others). Then, perhaps later on, you should provide orally more examples of this same word on grammatical usage in context.

Examples of questions (make sure you use different types of questions, some with question words, some with o, others very simple; use questions answered with sí, ones answered with no, and ones answered with a name, a noun or an adjective; questions with o are longer but are generally easier to understand and to answer, because they offer alternatives to choose from):

It is possible to ask many questions about this sentence: Paco  maneja mal. These questions may seem very easy to you. However, depending of the level of understanding of the class, they may not be so easy for them.

(Almost) every time they answer, it is very important that you repeat the answer as a full sentence. This will enable the students to understand better and better and they will little by little gain greater familiarity with the material and acquire it. For example, after the students answer the question: ¿Quién maneja?, you say, “Sí, Paco maneja”, although some students have said correctly only “Paco.” This way, everyone hears the complete sentence.

More examples:

These repetitions help you to not go to fast. In general, the hardest thing for teachers for whom this is a new process is to go slowly enough. You have to ask more questions than it seems are necessary and proceed at a slower pace than seems necessary. What seems slow to the teacher who usually can speak Spanish fluently does not seem slow for students who are learning Spanish.

Regarding the pace, it is not necessary to get to the end of a joke in a single class session. If it continues in the following session, you should repeat what you did in the previous class before moving forward. The repeated part usually goes more quickly than the first time and contains some different questions.

Continue in this way, sentence by sentence, through the whole joke. While moving forward, ask questions at times about earlier sentences. And frequently check the understanding of the whole class (see below “Ways to Check Comprehension”). Keep everything comprehensible, avoiding use of vocabulary and structures that the students don’t understand and always speaking a speed that allows full comprehension.

Also ask questions about details that have not been mentioned in the joke. Examples for Paco maneja mal:

Tell the students to answer out loud. They will all answer more or less simultaneously. Accept the answer that seems funniest or most appropriate for your class and include this answer as part of the joke. Remember that you are the one who decides, who controls the content of the joke.

Once the oral/aural work is done, give them a written version of the joke. It could be the version that is on p. 61. Some details should be different from those in the joke they have been learning. This is a way to make certain that they pay attention to the details. For example in Paco maneja mal you could replace muy enojado with furioso, premio with regalo, obtener with conseguir, ¿En qué va a gastar el premio? with ¿Qué va a hacer con el regalo? and some facts could be changed.

Have them translate this new joke out loud to English sentence by sentence. You could have one student translate a sentence or a paragraph and then move to another student. Or you can ask the whole class to translate orally. Another option is for you to read aloud phrase by phrase for the class or individual students to translate to English out loud.

Another productive thing you should do while teaching a joke and/or after you finish teaching it is to ask personal questions to individual students, using the same terms that are used in the joke. This way they receive in a personal way more examples of the words and forms that are in the joke. Related questions can be added. For example:

Ways to Check Comprehension

• Ask a student or the whole class the meaning of a word or phrase in English. For example, ¿Qué quiere decir maneja? ¿Qué significa premio?

• Tell them to show 0 to 10 fingers with their eyes closed to indicate the percentage they understand of what they are hearing

• Notice the eyes and facial expressions of the students to see if they are understanding

• Pause so that those students who process slowly can understand. As they go along internalizing new words and forms, their processing speed increases.

• Ask questions to the whole class about the joke. If the class doesn’t answer, find out why. Four possi- bilities:

1. They don’t understand the question. Point on the board to what they didn’t understand or, if necessary, write it. Ask several questions about this.

2. You were speaking too fast. Repeat the question more slowly.

3. The students couldn’t think of an answer. Give them options. For example:¿Habla la rana o el cocodrilo?

4. The students haven’t acquired the language needed to answer. Tell them the answer. Avoid such questions.

• Carefully avoid using words and expressions that the class is not familiar with.

• If it is impossible to avoid using an unknown word, translate it and write it where everyone can read it. It should be given cursory attention unless it is a word you think everyone should acquire.

Dramatizing the Joke

Dramatizing the joke gives it life and context. It provides aural comprehension once more and is amusing and engaging. It is very effective when the actors are good. You can choose them and/or there can be volunteers. You tell the joke and the actors act. You direct them, placing them where they should be, imitating emotional expression and making sure the action happens immediately after you say each sentence. Sometimes you need to show them how to move their body and what emotion to express with their voice. If the joke contains dialog, the actors speak, saying the words just after you read them to them.

The Students Tell the Joke

After having listened to and understood every detail of the joke many times, if desired, the students can now tell it. You can expect that they will be able to express what happens in the joke. It isn’t necessary for every student to tell it or, if they tell it, for them to tell it perfectly. Nor is it necessary for them to tell it with the same words and structures. Every joke is a step towards greater fluency.