*Total Physical Response Method

1.Teachers’ goals:
- The general objectives of Total Physical Response are to teach oral proficiency at a beginning
level
- Using comprehension as a means to speak
- 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.
2.Roles of teachers:
-The teacher plays an active and direct role in Total Physical Response: the director of a stage
play in which the learners are the actors. 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's role is not so much to teach as to provide opportunities for learning. The teacher
has the responsibility of providing the best kind of exposure to language so that the learner can
internalize the basic rules of the target language.
-In giving feedback to learners, the teacher should follow the example of parents giving feedback
to their children. Teachers should refrain from too much correction in the early stages and should
not interrupt to correct errors, since this will inhibit learners.
-The teacher shouldn’t underestimates the difficulties involved in learning a foreign language
and should also avoid having too narrow a tolerance for errors in speaking.
3.Roles of students:
-Learners in Total Physical Response 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 are also required to produce
novel combinations of their own.
-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.
4.Teacher’s response to students errors.
-Error are expected when students begin to speak Teachers should be tolerant and correct only
the major ones With advanced students, teachers should correct the minor ones
5.Language Focus.
- Language is learned primarily through listening .
- Language learning must engage the right hemisphere of the brain since this part controls the
nonverbal behaviour .
- Language learning should not involve any comman.
-Native language is used only in introducing TPR After the introduction, it should not be used.
Meaning is made clear through body movements
6.Teaching-Learning Process.

First Phase : Modeling

Second Phase : The teacher recombines commands to help students understand unfamiliar
commands.

Third Phase : Students read and write the commands. When they are ready to speak, they
perform role reversal. Speaking activities may include skits ( dramatization ) and games.

7.Some typical techniques:

-Vocabulary connected with actions (smile, chop, headache, wriggle);
-Grammatival items, including tenses past/present/future and continuous aspects (Every
morning I clean my teeth, I make my bed, I eat breakfast.
-Classroom language (Open your books);
-Imperatives/Instructions (Stand up, close you eyes)

-Story-telling