Total Physical Response

Dr. Tuçe ÖZTÜRK KARATAŞ

Total Physical Response (TPR)
• is a language teaching method built around the
coordination of speech and action;
• attempts to teach language through physical
(motor) activity.
• was developed by James Asher, who was a
professor of psychology at San Jose State
University, California,
• draws on several traditions, including
developmental psychology, learning theory, and
humanistic pedagogy, as well as on language
teaching.
• The more often or more intensively a
memory connection is traced, the stronger
the memory association will be and the
more likely it will be recalled.
• Retracing can be done verbally (e.g., by
rote repetition) and/or in association with
motor activity.
• Combined tracing activities, such as verbal
rehearsal accompanied by motor activity,
hence increase the probability of
successful recall.
• Asher claims that speech directed to young
children consists primarily of commands
which children respond to physically
before they begin to produce verbal
responses.

• He feels adults should recapitulate the

processes by which children acquire their
mother tongue.
• Asher shares with the school of humanistic
psychology a concern for the role of affective
(emotional) factors in language learning.
• A method that is undemanding in terms of linguistic
production and that involves gamelike movements
reduces learner stress, he believes, and creates a
positive mood in the learner, which facilitates
learning.
• The emphasis on comprehension and the use of
physical actions to teach a foreign language at an
introductory level has a long tradition in language
teaching.
• Asher’s emphasis on developing comprehension skills before
the learner is taught to speak links him to a movement in
foreign language teaching sometimes referred to as the
Comprehension Approach (Winitz 1981).
• This refers to several different comprehension-based
language teaching proposals which share the belief that
• (a) comprehension abilities precede productive skills in
learning a language;
• (b) the teaching of speaking should be delayed until
comprehension skills are established;
• (c) skills acquired through listening transfer to other skills;
• (d) teaching should emphasize meaning rather than form;
and
• (e) teaching should minimize learner stress.
Approach
1. Theory of language
• Asher does not directly discuss the nature of
language or how languages are organized.
• However, the labeling and ordering of TPR
classroom drills seem to be built on assumptions
that owe much to structuralist or grammar-based
views of languages.
• Asher states that “most of the grammatical
structure of the target language and hundreds of
vocabulary items can be learned from the skilful
use of the imperative by the instructor” (1977: 4).
• He views the verb in the imperative as the
central linguistic motif around which language
use and learning are organized.

• TPR lessons imperatives are used to initiate

different speech acts, such as requests.

• Language can be internalized as wholes or

chunks, as defined in the Lexical Approach
(Chapter 11), rather than as single lexical items,
2. Theory of learning
• Asher still sees a stimulus-response view as providing the
learning theory underlying language teaching pedagogy.
• Asher has an elaborate account of what he feels facilitates or
inhibits foreign language learning.
• For this dimension of his learning theory, he draws on three
rather influential learning hypotheses:
• 1. There exists a specific innate bio-program for language
learning, which defines an optimal path for first and second
language development.
• 2. Brain lateralization defines different learning functions in
the left- and right-brain hemispheres.
• 3. Stress (an affective filter) intervenes between the act of
learning and what is to be learned; the lower the stress, the
greater the learning.
The bio program
• Asher’s TPR is a “Natural Method” - first and second language
learning as parallel processes.
• Second language teaching and learning should reflect the
naturalistic processes of first language learning.
• Asher sees three processes as central.
• (a) Children develop listening competence before they develop the
ability to speak. At the early stages of first language acquisition, they can
understand complex utterances that they cannot spontaneously
produce or imitate. Asher speculates that during this period of listening,
the learner may be making a mental “blueprint” of the language that
will make it possible to produce spoken language later.
• (b) Children’s ability in listening comprehension is acquired because
children are required to respond physically to spoken language in the
form of parental commands.
• (c) Once a foundation in listening comprehension has been
established, speech evolves naturally and effortlessly out of it. As we
noted earlier, these principles are held by proponents of a number of
other method proposals and are referred to collectively as a
Comprehension Approach.
• Parallel to the processes of first language learning, the
foreign language learner should first internalize a
“cognitive map” of the target language through
listening exercises.
• Listening should be accompanied by physical
movement.
• Speech and other productive skills should come later.
• The speech-production mechanisms will begin to
function spontaneously when the basic foundations of
language are established through listening training.
Brain lateralization
• Asher sees TPR as directed to right-brain learning, whereas
most second learning teaching methods are directed to left-
brain learning.
• Asher refers to neurological studies of the brains of cats and
studies of a boy
• The brain is divided into hemispheres according to function,
with language activities centralized in the right hemispheres.
• Drawing on work by Jean Piaget, Asher holds that the child
language learner acquires language through motor
movement - a right-hemisphere activity.
• Right-hemisphere activities must occur before the left
hemisphere can process language for production.
• Reduction of stress
• An important condition for successful language learning is the
absence of stress.
• First language acquisition takes place in a stress-free
environment whereas the adult language learning
environment often causes considerable stress and anxiety.
• The key to stress-free learning is to tap into the natural bio-
program for language development and thus to recapture the
relaxed and pleasurable experiences that accompany first
language learning.
• focusing on meaning interpreted through movement, rather
than on language forms studied in the abstract,

• the learner is said to be liberated from self-conscious and

stressful situations and is able to devote full energy to
learning.
Design
 Objectives
• The general objectives of TPR are to teach oral
proficiency at a beginning level.
• Comprehension is a means to an end, and the
ultimate aim is to teach basic speaking skills.
• A TPR course aims to produce learners who are
capable of an uninhibited communication that
is intelligible to a native speaker.
The syllabus
• The type of syllabus Asher uses can be inferred from an
analysis of the exercise types employed in TPR classes.
• This analysis reveals the use of a sentence-based syllabus, with
grammatical and lexical criteria being primary in selecting
teaching items.
• Unlike methods that operate from a grammar-based or
structural view of the core elements of language, TPR requires
initial attention to meaning rather than to the form of items.
• Grammar is thus taught inductively.
• Grammatical features and vocabulary items are selected not
according to their frequency of need or use in target-language
situations, but according to the situations in which they can be
used in the classroom
 Types of learning and teaching
activities
• Imperative drills are the major classroom activity in TPR.
• They are typically used to elicit physical actions and activity on the
part of the learners.
• Asher’s rationale for this is that “everyday conversations are highly
abstract and disconnected; therefore to understand them requires a
rather advanced internalization of the target language” (1977: 95).
• Other class activities include role plays and slide presentations.
• Role plays center on everyday situations, such as at the restaurant,
supermarket, or gas station.
• Slide presentations are used to provide a visual center for teacher
narration, which is followed by commands, and for questions to
students, such as “Which person in the picture is the salesperson?”
• Reading and writing activities may also be employed to further
consolidate structures and vocabulary, and as follow-ups to oral
Learner roles
• Learners in TPR have the primary roles of listener and
performer.
• They listen attentively and respond physically to commands
given by the teacher.
• Learners are required to respond both individually and
collectively.
• Learners monitor and evaluate their own progress.
• They are encouraged to speak when they feel ready to speak
— that is, when a sufficient basis in the language has been
internalized.
Teacher roles
• The teacher plays an active and direct role in
TPR:
• “The instructor is the director of a stage play
in which the students are the actors” (Asher
1977: 43).
• It is the teacher who decides what to teach,
who models and presents the new
materials, and who selects supporting
materials for classroom use.
• The teacher is encouraged to be well
prepared and well organized.
The role of instructional
materials
• There is generally no basic text in a TPR course.
• Materials and realia play an increasing role
• For absolute beginners, lessons may not require the use of
materials, since the teacher's voice, actions, and gestures may
be a sufficient basis for classroom activities.
• Later the teacher may use common classroom objects, such
as books, pens, cups, furniture.
• As the course develops, the teacher will need to make or
collect supporting materials to support teaching points.
• These may include pictures, realia, slides, and word charts.
Procedure
1. Meaning in the target language can often be conveyed through
actions.
2. Memory is activated through learner response.
3. Beginning language instruction should address the right
hemisphere of the brain, the part which controls nonverbal
behavior. The target language should be presented in chunks, not
just word by word.
4. The students’ understanding of the target language should be
developed before speaking.
5. Students can initially learn one part of the language rapidly by
moving their bodies.
6. The imperative is a powerful linguistic device through which the
teacher can direct student behavior.
7. Students can learn through observing actions as well as by
performing the actions themselves.
• It is very important that students feel successful. Feelings of
success and low anxiety facilitate learning.
• Students should not be made to memorize fixed routines.
• Students must develop flexibility in understanding novel
combinations of target language chunks.
• They need to understand more than the exact sentences used in
training. Novelty is also motivating.
• Language learning is more effective when it is fun.
• Spoken language should be emphasized over written language.
• Students will begin to speak when they are ready
• Students are expected to make errors when they first begin
speaking. Teachers should be tolerant of them.
• Work on the fine details of the language should be postponed
until students have become somewhat proficient.
Questions and Answers
1 What are the goals of teachers
who use TPR?
• Teachers who use TPR believe in the importance of having
their students enjoy their experience of learning to
communicate in another language.
• In fact, TPR was developed in order to reduce the stress
people feel when they are studying other languages and
thereby encourage students to persist in their study beyond a
beginning level of proficiency.
• The way to do this, Asher believes, is to base foreign language
learning upon the way children learn their native language.
2. What is the role of the teacher?
What is the role of the students?
• Initially, the teacher is the director of all student
behavior.
• The students are imitators of her nonverbal model.
• At some point (usually after 10–20 hours of
instruction), some students will be ‘ready to
speak.’
• At that point, there will be a role reversal with
individual students directing the teacher and the
other students.
3 What are some characteristics of
the teaching/learning process?
• The first phase of a lesson is one of modeling.
• The teacher issues commands to a few students, then performs the
actions with them.
• In the second phase, these same students demonstrate that they can
understand the commands by performing them alone.
• The observers also have an opportunity to demonstrate their
understanding.
• The teacher next recombines elements of the commands to have
students develop flexibility in understanding unfamiliar utterances.
• These commands, which students perform, are often humorous.
• After learning to respond to some oral commands, the students learn to
read and write them.
• When students are ready to speak, they become the ones who issue the
commands.
• After students begin speaking, activities expand to include skits and
games.
4 What is the nature of student–teacher
interaction? What is the nature of student–
student interaction?
• The teacher interacts with the whole group of students and with
individual students.
• Initially, the interaction is characterized by the teacher speaking
and the students responding nonverbally.
• Later on, the students become more verbal and the teacher
responds nonverbally.
• Students perform the actions together.
• Students can learn by watching each other.
• As students begin to speak, they issue commands to one another
as well as to the teacher.
5 How are the feelings of the
students dealt with?
• One of the main reasons TPR was developed was to reduce
the stress people feel when studying other languages.
• One of the primary ways this is accomplished is to allow
learners to speak when they are ready.
• Forcing them to speak before then will only create anxiety.
• Also, when students do begin to speak, perfection should not
be expected.
• Another way to relieve anxiety is to make language learning as
enjoyable as possible.
• Feelings of success and low anxiety facilitate learning.
6 How is the language viewed?
How is culture viewed?
• Just as with the acquisition of the native
language, the oral modality is primary.

• Culture is the lifestyle of people who speak the

language natively.
7 What areas of language are
emphasized? What language skills
are emphasized?
• Vocabulary and grammatical structures are emphasized over
other language areas.
• These are embedded within imperatives.
• The imperatives are single words and multi-word chunks.
• One reason for the use of imperatives is their frequency of
occurrence in the speech directed at young children learning
their native language.
• Understanding the spoken word should precede its
production.
• The spoken language is emphasized over written language.
8 What is the role of the
students’ native language?
• TPR is usually introduced in the students’ native language.
• After the introduction, rarely would the native language be
used.
• Meaning is made clear through body movements.
9 How is evaluation
accomplished?
• Teachers will know immediately whether or not students
understand by observing their students’ actions.
• Formal evaluations can be conducted simply by commanding
individual students to perform a series of actions.
• As students become more advanced, their performance of
skits they have created can become the basis for evaluation.
10 How does the teacher
respond to student errors?
• It is expected that students will make errors when they first
begin speaking.
• Teachers should be tolerant of them and only correct major
errors.
• Even these should be corrected unobtrusively.
• As students get more advanced, teachers can ‘fine tune’—
correct more minor errors
Reviewing the Techniques
• Using Commands to Direct Behavior
• Role Reversal
• Action Sequence