Signing/gesturing

I'm just rambling here...trying to synthesize the "steps" to TPRS that Ben has written so fully and well about in his book TPRS in a Year (www.benslavic.com). He suggests that the first step to good TPRS is to sign and gesture the new vocabulary. I don't do this nearly as much as I should...with stories at least. It seems like some things just naturally lend themselves to gesturing. And then I get stuck with that. For example, my students in one class can't even say fachee (mad) without using a deep voice and doing the gesture that I have used. I know that it's stuck in their head for good, but is it harming them in any way? I'd like to think that it's really helping them because they will certainly never forget the meaning of fachee, but it doesn't sound very natural when we're talking in class. This is also my class that is obsessed with Muzzy (without even seeing it!) and uses a deep voice to say many things that they imagine Muzzy would say. That class is my main reason for teaching using TPRS. They really get it and are using what we are doing in class to have fun with the language. The affective filter that Krashen talks about is so low in that class that I had a student break-dance in front of the class while watching a Pigloo video. They (I really hope) are in love with French class. I hope that I can keep them excited for the rest of the year. And I also hope that they will adjust next year when I am no longer their teacher. Oh yikes...isn't that what we're all afraid of if we send our kids to other teachers?? What to do about it??

Back to gesturing. I really need to work with myself to do a better job at this. During our "TPR phase" at the beginning of the year, we gestured and played "Madame dit" all the time. I've seen what it can do for vocabulary retention...so why am I not doing it with all new vocab?? Laziness? Perhaps. I think it's probably plain old forgetfulness...