Total physical response (TPR)

University of Languages and International Studies Faculty of English Language Teaching Education INTRODUCTION IN TO ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY A REPORT ON TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPO

University of Languages and International Studies Faculty of English Language Teaching Education

INTRODUCTION IN TO ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODOLOGY

A REPORT ON

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPOND (TPR)

METHOD

by GROUP 1 – 17E5

1 Nguyễn Kỳ Anh Method’s Description (ADP)

2 Ngô Thị Phương Method’s Description (ADP)

3 Lê Linh Chi Method’s Evaluation

Application Report finalization

4 Lại Phương Thảo Method’s Evaluation

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5 Kiều Thùy Trang Method’s Description and Evaluation

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Developed by psychologist James Asher in the 1970s, the total physical response (TPR) teaching methodology has been applied in foreign language

teaching all over the world This essay will look at the 3 keys concept of TPR, as well as evaluate its effectiveness based on 5 main principles

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method specifying the coordination of speech and physical movement Asher’s method views language as a tool containing structural features to influence the behavior of others One fundamental foundation of TPR associates with theory of mother tongue acquisition, which indicates that either a child or an adult has an aptitude for acquiring a language through comprehensible input and motor activities This

is evident in how infants acquire their first language by the unique “language-body conversation” with their parents Asher believes that L2 learners “learn” better when body movement are involved

Although applicable to learners at any level, TPR’s primary target is to teach spoken language to L2 beginners The ultimate goal of this method is for learners to achieve oral proficiency, fundamentally listening comprehension Learners progress through a "silent stage" in which they are not forced to speak until they are ready or spontaneously do so In TPR, the teacher has complete control over the choice of content and language items However, the selection of items should utilize the imperative form, which are expressive and situational, as well as trigger the learners to enact By repeating the commands and modelling the actions, the teacher introduces the lexical and grammatical items, while the learners follow as receivers and responders As a supplementary role, materials such as word charts, slides, pictures and realia can be used to illustrate the vocabulary

The selected items can progress from concrete to abstract As learners progress to a higher level, teachers and students’ roles are reversible Teachers can give a sequence of actions, add more complex lexical items to the command and students may give commands to the others TPR also aims at a stress-free

learning environment; therefore, learners are allowed to make errors with little correction or correction in a non-threatening way from the teacher Classes are taught primarily in the target language in order for learners to practice listening comprehension, especially the repetition of imperative drills The activities focus

on learners performing the actions and later on giving commands

Upon reflecting TPR on the 10 principles of instructed language learning by Rod Ellis, we briefly consider the advantages and disadvantages of this method Initially, the emphasis in TPR is on meaning comprehension, specifically semantic meaning Particularly, learners show their comprehension of the lexical items or grammatical structures by being able to respond nonverbally to the teacher’s commands, and at a more advanced level, may give commands to other students However, the selected items are concrete and situational, which predominantly are nouns and action verbs, with few variations of more abstract

or highly contextualized words and phrases (e.g slowly vs carefully, look down,

…) Therefore, learners may encounter difficulty in identifying the abstract vocabulary and its pragmatic meaning Secondly, TPR provides learners with extensive input of the target language In other words, in a TPR-adopted classroom, students are frequently exposed to the target language thanks to maximum use of L2 in instructions, as well as the repetitive use of imperative drills By being a performer and a commander, learners can develop their oral proficiency Moreover, learners may receive advantages for developing a rich source of formulaic chunks (e.g brush one’s teeth, sweep the floor) On the other hand, TPR pays little focus on grammatical rules explanation, resulting in learners internalize the fixed sequences but may not consciously produce grammatically-correct sentences Finally, by employing TPR, teachers can create a more active and exciting classroom atmosphere compared to the other methods Motor activities generate such positive energy that keeps the learners focus and engaged in the lesson Furthermore, students are likely to benefit from

the stress-free studying environment For instance, learners can self-correct by looking at their peers or having teacher re-modeling the actions, which make them less anxious Nevertheless, TPR is more suitable for classes of learners at

a young age or at beginning level or preproduction stage with the selection of simple patterns It facilitates the natural emergence and development of oral communication, while the output of writing and contextualized communication is not ascertained

To summarize, it seems like TPR as a teaching method holds both merits and demerits in terms of objectives, content, learners’ features and classroom environment Therefore, it is important that the teachers have a thorough knowledge of this method in order to adopt and adapt it effectively

REFERENCE LIST

1 Jack C Richards, Ted Rogers (1982) TESOL Quarterly, Vol.16, No.2, 153-168

2 METHOD OF LANGUAGE TEACHING (n.d.) Retrieved from

https://hlr.byu.edu/methods/content/total-physical.html?

fbclid=IwAR0XZOeercJCrMxmC4g39ZEXiyJZH474vkQDx2E-yh0qyOt8ggdPbacWcsM

3 Ellis, R (2005) Principles of instructed language learning System, 33 (2), 209-224

4 Savic, Vera (2014) TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR) ACTIVITIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS Retrieved from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307583559_TOTAL_PHYSICAL_ RESPONSE_TPR_ACTIVITIES_IN_TEACHING_ENGLISH_TO_YOUNG_ LEARNERS

5 TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (n.d.) Retrieved from

http://www2.vobs.at/ludescher/Ludescher/LAcquisition/total_physical_resp

onse.htm?fbclid=IwAR2SxSFbQ6kubt1Lcj7z5T-_-cYQN5jWNLqXOyCngMldp-W4FCKSWQB_esM#TOTAL%20PHYSICAL

%20RESPONSE%20%E2%80%93%20TPR

6 Zainuddin et al (2011) Fundamentals of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in K-12 classroom (3rd edi.) Kendal Hunt Publishing Company