Total Physical Response (TPR): A Complete Guide
Total physical response (TPR) is a technique that stands out quite a lot from other language learning methods.
First of all, it involves physical activities.
Secondly, although the method is centered around speaking and listening, its primary focus is grammar.
With its innovative and interactive activities, TPR has proven that language learning doesn’t have to be tedious and monotone to be effective.
This is how you make learning a new language fun!
What is total physical response (TPR)
Total physical response (TPR) is a language teaching technique created in the 1960s by the psychology professor James J. Asher.
The method is based on the idea that language learning should be a natural process that involves physical movement, gestures, and actions.
Dr. Asher suggests that combining language and physical activity enhances our ability to learn and retain new information. Therefore, integrating physical actions is essential to TPR, making it both dynamic and interactive.
TPR mainly focuses on three components or stages:
- Listening
- Understanding
- Taking action
For example, the teacher gives commands in the target language, such as “stand up”, “stand on one leg”, or “pick up a pen.” Students listen, internalize the information, and then respond to the commands by following the instructions.
This approach not only helps the students understand the meaning of words and phrases but also supports them in developing listening comprehension and memory retention.
As with many other methods, TPR is said to mimic the way children learn their native language. The idea is that kids pick up language through both physical- and verbal communication.
For example, the parent might say “give me the pillow” or “look at that car”, while making gestures with their hands. Words and phrases are only one part of how we communicate; body language is just as important as our verbal cues, according to TPR.
Practical approach
Total physical response is a pretty straightforward technique that focuses on combining verbal language with physical actions. The teacher can do this in numerous fun and engaging ways.
Simple commands
What’s great about TPR is that it can be used for any language level, from beginners to advanced students.
In the beginning, the teacher can use single-word commands, such as “sit”, “stand”, “point”, and “jump”. As the student progresses, the commands can gradually become more advanced. For instance, “sit” becomes “sit on the floor” and “point” can progress to “point at the window”.
Demonstrate and gesture
The teacher can accompany each command with a clear gesture to demonstrate the meaning of the word or command. A complete beginner doesn’t know what “sit” means, but if the teacher says “sit” and then sits down himself, the meaning has been communicated.
This encourages students to memorize words and sentences through meaning and action rather than direct translations or words written on paper.
Use props and objects
Real objects and props are important in TPR and should be incorporated as much as possible into each lesson. When teaching vocabulary related to colors, the teacher could bring several objects in different colors, such as a yellow shirt, a brown bag, a green plant, and so on.
These objects can then be used for more than just learning the names of colors. For instance, the plant can be placed behind the shirt to demonstrate and describe positions and directions.
Student participation
As students become more confident in their target language, the teacher can allow them to give instructions to their classmates. They can also be given the assignment to pick an object in the room and describe it. One student might choose the clock and say “I am pointing at the clock. The clock hangs on the wall. The clock is white and the wall is green.”
While listening and understanding is the primary focus, TPR also encourages the students to take a more active role during lessons to improve their speaking abilities.
Adapting to advanced students
Younger students tend to love physical activities and visual aids, while older or more advanced students might respond better to roleplays.
For example, advanced students can participate in simulated scenarios requiring more complex language. One student can act as a bank manager, while the other student is there to request a loan. For intermediate students, the roleplay could be an interaction between a cashier and a customer at the supermarket.
It’s important that the teacher adapts the activities to the student’s skill level and age.
Benefits of total physical response
What’s great about TPR is that it can be incorporated into other methods. It’s not a stand-alone approach that excludes other types of learning techniques; rather, it is the opposite.
Total physical response can be used throughout the lesson or only at the beginning to help the students relax and get comfortable.
Here are the main advantages of TPR:
Engaging and fun: TPR exercises are interactive and inclusive. This hands-on approach keeps the students engaged and focused, reducing the likelihood of boredom and distraction.
See, hear, and do: By associating language with physical movements, TPR helps students understand the meaning behind words and phrases. It’s not just an isolated word without any context on a piece of paper. Combining verbal input and physical input and output, can lead to better comprehension and retention.
Pleasant environment: Language learning can be a stressful and anxious experience for many people. TPR allows the student to demonstrate their understanding through actions rather than words. Especially in the beginning stages, there is very little, if any, verbal output from the students.
Combined with the fun and engaging activities, this creates a low-stress environment that makes the students more comfortable and open to language learning.
Memory retention: The physical nature of TPR exercises helps create strong neural connections between language and action. By engaging multiple senses and learning modalities, TPR improves the student’s memory retention and ability to store and retrieve information.
Complementary method: Total physical response is a versatile tool that can be combined with any other teaching method. By incorporating TPR activities into the curriculum, teachers can provide students with a more engaging language learning experience than the standard approach normally offers.
Challenges of total physical response
TPR is great in many ways and offers numerous benefits for language learning, but it’s essential to be aware of the potential challenges.
We should always highlight the challenges of language learning methods, not to critique them but to understand their potential drawbacks and how we can avoid them.
It can be limited: The main focus in TPR is to develop listening comprehension to understand what is being said. Due to this, TPR may not adequately address other essential language skills, such as speaking, writing, and reading.
It is of utmost importance that the teacher implements exercises and activities that also focus on these other skills to avoid knowledge gaps.
Imperative forms: TPR heavily relies on the use of imperative forms (commands) to create a physical response from the students. While this is effective in learning basic vocabulary and sentence structures, it may not provide sufficient exposure to other forms and patterns in the language.
The teacher must be cautious about this and incorporate additional activities that address other language structures as well.
Demanding: It takes a lot of time, creativity, and careful planning for the TPR to be successful. The teacher must be willing to invest time and effort to create a valuable TPR-lesson. This sort of approach might not be fitting for all teachers – nor students.
Potential misinterpretations: Total physical response uses minimal direct translation. Instead, the teacher explains a word’s meaning using the target language, gestures, and other forms of communication.
If the teacher is not clear and consistent in their use of demonstrations and gestures, the students might misinterpret some words and sentences, which can cause confusion and misunderstanding.