University of Kragujevac

The Faculty of Philology and Arts

An Overview of Approaches and Methods in English Language Teaching

The Silent Way and Total Physical Response

Student: Jovana Aksentijevi Index no.: 090168

Kragujevac,2012

Contents

1. Introduction .3 2. Background and general characteristics...3 3. Principles..4 3.1. Goals of teachers...4 3.2. Teacher role/Student role..4 3.3. Characteristics of the teaching/learning process...5 3.4. The nature of student-teacher/student-student interaction5 3.5. Students feelings..6 3.6. Language/Culture..6 3.7. Areas of language and skills emphasized.6 3.8. Role of the native language...7 3.9. Evaluation.7 3.10. Student errors...7 4. Techniques and materials.8 5. Summary10 References11

1. Introduction This seminar paper is intended to give an overview of two different methods of foreign language teaching Caleb Gattegnos Silent Way and James Ashers Total Physical Response (TPR). Following pages of the seminar paper will provide detailed descriptions, examplifications and comparisons of the general characteristics, principles and techniques practiced by the users of these two methods.

2. Background and general characteristics The Silent Way is a language teaching method created by Caleb Gattegno that extensively uses silence as a teaching technique. It was introduced in Gattegno's book Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools: The Silent Way in 1963.Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method developed by Dr. James J. Asher that relies on the role of long period of listening comprehension commands associated with certain physical movements, prior to the actual speaking of the target language. While the Silent Way belongs to a series of methods that indirectly emerged from the Cognitive Approach to language teaching and that center on the cognitive abilities of learners, moving away from the principles of acquisition that focused on habit formation marking it insufficient for the communicative use of language, Total Physical Response (TPR) is one of the methods that practices the principles of the Comprehension Approach and gives advantage to listening comprehension rather than speaking, which was mainly the case with the previous language teaching methods. During his research, Asher concluded that, just like children acquiring their first language do a lot of listening followed by physical responses before they start speaking, the easiest way for foreign language learners to acquire the target language is through listening instructions and commands, using a great deal of the imperative mood (Brown, 2007). Both of the methods use some specialized activities and techniques in their teaching processes ( the Silent Way teachers even use specialized teaching materials), and although they attracted
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attention with their innovativeness, neither of the two methods received generalized support from mainstream educators (Richards and Rodgers, 2001). 3. Principles

3.1. Goals of teachers While the main role of teachers using TPR as their teaching method is to make their students feel as comfortable as possible during the learning process and reduce the anxiety and pressure by not forcing them to produce the target language until they feel that they are ready to, the Silent Way teachers concentrate on enabling their students for self-expression, subordinating the teaching processes to those of learning, in order to stimulate the learners own thinking processes, focus their attention and to get them actively involved in grasping and acquiring the rules and the language itself. The teacher provides them with bare necessities, and they build up from them along the way - the reason why the Silent Way is also known as the building-block approach (Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

3.2. Teacher role/Student role Teachers of Silent Way are seen as technicians, providing the students with some basic notions of the language, relying on their cognitive ability to individually grasp in the subject, and encouraging their self-correction and peer-correction. As Gattegno said, The teacher works with the student, the student works on the language. (Larsen-Freeman, 2000 : 65). In contrast to this technical role, the TPR teachers serve as role models to their students, who at first point attentively follow their teachers verbal and non-verbal instructions, until they become ready to produce the target language themselves. What ensues is a role reversal, with students becoming the ones issuing the commands, and other peers and the teacher the ones obeying them (LarsenFreeman, 2000).

3.3. Characteristics of the teaching/learning process One of the main characteristics of the teaching process in the Silent Way method is the predominant silence of the teacher throughout the lesson. What he utters to the students are the basic instructions about what their attention should be focused on, and the students themselves explore the language and grasp in the rules. The process of building up their knowledge relies on the similarities between the students native language and the target language they are to acquire, which serve as a starting point for the teachers spoken clues, whether for working on students pronunciation or the structures of the language with the help of sound-color charts(each block of color represents a different target language sound), color-coded word charts, and other specialized materials. TPR lessons are characterized by modeling sessions, in which the teachers provide the students with spoken instructions and corresponding physical movements that the students are then expected to grasp in and repeat, at first alongside the teacher, and later on by themselves. In order to ensure that the students have properly understood, and not just mechanically remembered the order of the commands issued to them, the teachers tend to recombine the commands for the students to perform individually. After the students have gained enough knowledge and confidence to start producing the target language themselves, they switch roles with their teachers (Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

3.4. The nature of student-teacher/student-student interaction As already mentioned, the teacher of the Silent Way is silent for most of the lesson and his interaction with the students rests upon a range of non-verbal hints and gestures, serving as a tool to guide them in the right direction, and encourage the interaction among the students themselves. What characterizes the interaction between students and teachers in TPR is the role reversal that occurs after the first phase of modeling, when the teacher addresses the whole group of students which remain silent and respond non-verbally, after which the roles are reversed,

giving the students the opportunity to be the ones directing and instructing their peers, as well as the teacher (Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

3.5. Students feelings Both of the methods give a great amount of care concerning the feelings of students, having as a goal to provide an enjoyable atmosphere during the lesson and minimize the anxiety the students tend to have when dealing with a foreign language. The way that the teachers who use the Silent Way method overcome the psychological barriers of the students is through constant observation of their progress, encouragement and through feedback sessions at the end of the class when the students are asked to share their feelings about the lesson which are taken into consideration by the teacher. TPR uses similar ways of stress reduction and providing a relaxed environment, mainly by not forcing the students to produce the language before they feel ready to. Of course, the initial phase of modeling should not last too long, but the students must be allowed to progress at their own pace and be encouraged along the way(Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

3.6. Language/Culture TPR principles regarding language give priority to the oral features of the language, and culture is represented by the lifestyle of its native people. The Silent Way principles point out the uniqueness of individual languages and cultures as their inseparable features(Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

3.7. Areas of language and skills emphasized While the Silent Way gives advantage to the pronunciation and structures of the target language, TPR focuses mainly on vocabulary and grammar, taught most commonly through the use of the imperative mood. The Silent Way lesson is not structurally organized, but depends on the already acquired knowledge of the students. Silent Way teachers work on all four skills, and,

on the other hand, TPR emphasizes the importance of listening comprehension and spoken language over the other language skills (Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

3.8. Role of the native language The students native language plays a more significant role in the Silent Way than it does in TPR. Namely, in TPR it is used only in the beginning of the course, for the sake of introduction, and is rarely used later on in the course, while teachers of the Silent Way rely largely on the native language of their students, using the similarities between the native and the target language as a starting point for their instructions on the given subject. They also use the native language during the feedback sessions (Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

3.9. Evaluation There may be no formal testing of students by teachers using one of these two methods, since they may immediately draw conclusions about their students progress through observation during the lessons. In TPR, evaluation is based upon students performance of commands issued by the teacher or other students. The Silent Way teachers also observe their students behavior throughout the lessons and develops criteria for evaluation according to the ability of students to transfer their knowledge to new contexts. Both of the methods do not require perfection from the students, but progress (Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

3.10.

Student errors

Both of the methods view students errors as a natural, inevitable part of their progress and are tolerant of them. TPR teachers may begin correcting minor errors with the advancement od the students, while the main principle of the Silent Way regarding students errors deals with the

encouragement of self-correction and peer-correction among the students themselves. Only as a last resort will the teacher step in and do the correction instead of them(Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

4. Techniques and materials Various techniques and activities are used by teachers of both methods. The Silent Way method is characterized by the usage of specialized materials during the lessons, such as rods and different types of charts. The charts include sound-color charts which consist of blocks of different colors, each one representing a different sound in the target language. The students use combinations of sounds that the teacher points to and form syllables, words, and even sentences. Teachers also use word charts consisting of lists of words presented in such a way that the letters are colored using the colors from the sound-color charts, which helps the students pronunciation. Teachers point to word sequences, enabling the students to form sentences in the target language. Finally, there are the Fidel charts that improve the students spelling by listing all possible ways of spelling of a particular sound in the target language (Larsen-Freeman, 2000). The colored Cuisenaire rods are used in the classroom by teachers of the Silent Way for a variety of situations, ranging from the beginning phases when they can be used for the simple introduction of colors and numbers, to the more complex grammatical rules with more experienced learners. For example, to teach prepositions the teacher could use the statement "The blue rod is between the green one and the yellow one" (Larsen-Freeman, 2000: 69). What is mostly characteristic of the TPR techniques is the usage of imperatives for issuing commands and instructions to direct the behavior of students, connected to certain physical movements that clarify the meaning of the commands. What differentiates teachers of the Silent Way and those of TPR is the fact that the former enter the classroom unprepared, what they will work on during the class depends exclusively on the students, while the latter must stick to a
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previously arranged plan in order for the students to progress at an expected pace. To be more precise, a teacher of TPR must have in mind which commands he or she will introduce in class and it shouldnt be more than 3 commands at a time in order for the students to feel successful, and not be overwhelmed by too many new instructions too fast. After the students have grasped in what the teacher was instructing them and became ready to produce the target language, which usually happens after ten to twenty hours, they switch roles with the teacher. Another characteristic technique of TPR is the sequence of actions that the teacher instructs the students to do he or she gives them usually three connected commands, for example to walk to the desk, sit on the chair and put their hands on the desk. As the students progress, the number of connected commands can get higher to form a complete procedure (Larsen-Freeman, 2000). Besides the silence that teachers of the Silent Way use to encourage the students individuality and self-expression, they also encourage self-correction and peer correction among the students. They also pay attention that the students cooperate, and not compete among themselves. What they use to stimulate the students to self correct are certain non verbal hints and gestures that merely point out the problematic part of the students utterance. For example, the teacher may indicate that each of his fingers represents a word in a sentence and use that to locate the trouble spot for the student (Larsen-Freeman, 2000). Finally, an extremely important part of a lesson in the Silent Way method is the structured feedback during which the students are asked to express their own impressions and feelings about the previous lesson. The teacher takes these comments into consideration and they actually serve to help him gain a perspective of where to continue in the next lesson. It also helps in raising the students awareness and responsibility for their own learning, since they learn to control the usage of certain learning strategies in class (Larsen-Freeman, 2000).

5. Summary Although Caleb Gattegno preferred for the Silent Way not to be referred to as a method, the implications and effects it had on language teaching are unquestionable. Its techniques and activities may be unconventional and unusual, but they have proved successful in many cases ranging from the beginner levels of second language teaching to the more advanced ones. The not so common ways of teaching characterize TPR as well, including a lot of physical movement that may make the learning process all the more fun and enjoyable for all types of learners. Both of the methods have as one of the goals precisely this - to make the classroom experience less stressful and frightening and put the affective filter of the students down, so that the acquisition of the target language would occur more easily and under much less pressure. Bearing all these facts in mind, a teacher who decides one day to implore some of the principles and techniques of these two methods into his or her own language teaching lesson should be able to see how it all actually looks like in practice and whether or not it meets the criteria for the learning process to be as successful as promised in theory.

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References

Brown, Douglas H. (2007). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. 3rd edition. Pearson ESL Larsen-Freeman, Diane (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching.2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press Richards, Jack C. and Rodgers, Theodore S. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

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