TPR Storytelling Research

In addition to the research backing up the general theoretical foundations of TPR Storytelling, there exists a growing number of studies dealing with TPRS specifically. The results of these studies indicate that TPR Storytelling is much more efficient than traditional methods. For example, Asher compared a class of 30 students taught with TPR Storytelling with another class of 30 students taught with the audio-lingual method (ALM). When they listened to a story they had never heard before, but that had familiar vocabulary, the TPRS students "had significantly higher comprehension" than the ALM students.

Garczynski followed two groups of students over a six-week period, one of which was taught with TPR Storytelling, and the other of which was taught with the audio-lingual method. Both groups of students learned the same vocabulary from the same textbook. The students who learned with TPR Storytelling scored slightly higher than the students who learned with the audio-lingual method, and the TPR Storytelling students showed a much greater rate of improvement than their ALM peers.