Languages & Linguistics
Total Physical Response
Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method that involves the use of physical movement to reinforce language learning. It is based on the idea that language learning is most effective when it is accompanied by physical actions. TPR is often used with beginners and young learners.
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4 Key excerpts on "Total Physical Response"
eBook - PDF- Deborah Norland Ph.D., Theresa Pruett-Said(Authors)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Libraries Unlimited(Publisher)
Marsh, V. (2000). Total Physical Response storytelling: A communicative approach to language learning. Retrieved April 26, 2006, from http://www.tprstorytelling.com/story.htm This site includes information, lessons, and materials on TPR storytelling, a strategy that combines the use of stories with TPR actions. Nelson, G., & Winters, T. (1993). Operations in English: 55 natural and logical sequences for lan- guage acquisition. Brattleboro, VT: Pro Lingua Associates. Exercises in this book can be used in the classroom to facilitate learning of English for students who speak it as a second language. Tasks in which students give instructions on how to do various operations such as using a calculator, mailing a letter, or making a paper airplane are presented. Richard-Amato, P. A. (1996). The Total Physical Response and the audio-motor unit. In Making it happen: Interaction in the second language classroom (pp. 115–126). White Plains NY: Longman. Richard-Amato’s chapter examines Total Physical Response with examples of commands; the role of the audio-motor unit of commands inclusive of the natural language approach; the application of jazz chants, music, and poetry; storytelling, drama, and games; and affective activities. Seely, C., & Romijn, E. K. (1995). TPR is more than commands—at all levels. Los Gatos, CA: Sky Oaks Productions. Seely and Romijn’s resource explains how teachers can use TPR to move students from zero English language proficiency to fluency in English. The TPR commands are complex and include dialogues, role-playing, and storytelling. Total Physical Response (TPR) 29 From A Kaleidoscope of Models and Strategies for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages by Deborah L. Norland, Ph.D. and Terry Pruett-Said. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited/Teacher Ideas Press. Copyright © 2006.
eBook - ePubTeaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS)
An Input-Based Approach to Second Language Instruction
- Karen Lichtman(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
yes/no or other one-word answers without ever being pushed to create full sentences. Student errors are not corrected, and students never participate in language practice typical of many language classes. The Natural Approach posited that activities should be intrinsically motivating to the students. For instance, the teacher might tell a story about a cultural misunderstanding or lead the class to play a simple game such as “Go, Fish” using the target language.The Natural Approach focused on comprehensible input and not forcing students to speak. These same principles were also key to an approach called Total Physical Response (TPR) , which was developed by James Asher starting in the mid-1960s. The inspiration for TPR came from watching the process of first language acquisition in young children. Asher observed that early communication with babies and toddlers often took the form of a verbal utterance by the parent followed by a physical response from the child. In a TPR lesson, the teacher gives many verbal commands to the whole class, individual students, and groups of students. The meaning of the commands is made clear through physical actions. For instance, a beginning TPR command is “stand up.” The teacher will say, “stand up” in the target language, stand up himself, and perhaps gesture for the students to stand up (and expect them to do so!). Since the meaning is clear, no translation or use of the first language is needed. Hearing the language before being asked to produce it aligns with natural acquisition, and provides the data necessary for learners to begin building an unconscious mental representation of language. TPR is still used today, particularly with younger students and absolute beginners.Reflection None of the methods or approaches just reviewed are widespread in the United States. Why do you think this is so? Why isn’t “everyone” doing some kind of input-based approach in the classroom?Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS)
TPR as developed by James Asher is very effective for learning concrete vocabulary, such as physical actions and items in a classroom. However, it would be difficult to express the meaning of more abstract vocabulary, such as “democracy,” “idea,” or “misses someone,” through a physical action. This problem was the inspiration for Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling, or TPRS. Blaine Ray, who developed TPRS, wanted to be able to teach more abstract vocabulary while retaining the benefits of TPR. Ray was a high school Spanish teacher in California. In the late 1980s, he started using TPR and elements of the Natural Approach in his classes. He found that students were very successful at the beginning of the school year, but that at some point, they would get bored with doing TPR, and he would have to resort to more traditional materials. So Ray developed what he originally called TPR Storytelling (Total Physical Response Storytelling). In 1990, he published a level 1 Spanish curriculum using his new method, titled Look, I Can Talk . In 1997, the first book explaining TPRS, Fluency through TPR Storytelling: Achieving real language acquisition in school
eBook - PDF- R. Holme(Author)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
48 Cognitive Linguistics and Language Teaching 9 The narrator assigns each group a number according to where the group’s mime occurs in the story sequence. They can ask a group to repeat their scene as often as needed. 10 The narrator moves among the class pointing to each group to ask them to mime their part of the story. The narrator then says what has been shown and the class corrects. In the above, ‘the narrator’ reconstitutes discourse as a sequence of movements in space. Language teaching and embodiment: rethinking TPR The above technique begins with an imagistic use of memory then makes a physical and linear instantiation of this, building a bridge between movement, imagination and recollection. More straightfor- ward E&M routines were found in the language teaching technique of TPR (Total Physical Response; see Asher 1979). This was originally associated with the principle of input-based second language acquisi- tion (Krashen and Terrell 1983) but merits revival in an age that is focused on an embodied cognition. TPR was based on Krashen’s assump- tion of a ‘Silent Period’ and an input-based model of second language acquisition (1981). In the Silent Period, learners supposedly processed the language input they received with what Chomsky (1965), when describing first language acquisition, had then termed an LAD (language acquisition device). The objective of TPR was therefore to get students to physically respond to language without any obligation to actually say anything. They would therefore be given instructions in the tar- get language that they would have to move physically to carry out. After a phase of this type of exposure and response to input, the idea was that the Silent Period would bring itself to a conclusion when the learners started an unprompted use of the second language with each other. If founded on this theoretical base, TPR runs counter to the view of an enactive cognition put forward here.
No longer available |Learn more- (Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- University Publications(Publisher)
History TPR Storytelling was developed by Blaine Ray, a high school Spanish teacher in California, during the 1990s. Ray had found great initial success teaching using Total Physical Response (TPR), but was disappointed when his students stopped finding this technique to be interesting. Ray was familiar with Stephen Krashen's theories, and he was confident that his students would acquire Spanish naturally if he gave them enough comprehensible input. He set about finding a way to combine TPR with stories, with input from Krashen and from other foreign language teachers, and the result was Total Physical Response Storytelling. This new method kept on evolving with the input of teachers, and by the year 2000 there was a much larger emphasis on reading and the spoken class story, and the time spent doing traditional TPR was greatly reduced. To reflect these changes, the TPRS acronym was changed to stand for Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling. TPR Storytelling is now used in classrooms across America, and some school districts use it exclusively in their foreign language programs. It is also starting to gain recognition internationally. Method TPR Storytelling is broadly divided into three steps, with each being regarded as essential for a successful program. Step one: establish meaning In this step the students are introduced to the new vocabulary phrases for the lesson. Generally only three new phrases are introduced. This is considered the maximum number that can be effectively taught in a lesson. Limiting the phrases like this allows the teacher to focus on them and provide lots of repetitions for the students. TPRS teachers have found that by limiting the new vocabulary to three phrases they are much more likely to be stored in the long-term memory of the students. This emphasis on thoroughly learning new material also gives the students a feeling of confidence, and helps lower their affective filter.
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