ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING METHOD

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

I GEDE YOGA PERMANA

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

POST GRADUATE PROGRAM
GANESHA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
2017

1. THE NATURE OF THE METHOD

 Total physical response (TPR) is a language teaching method developed and introduced by
James Asher, a professor emeritus of psychology at San Jos State University during 1960s.
Asher (1968) states that this approach has some similarity to how children seem to learn their
first language. It is based on the belief that to learn a new language, human should understand
the concept of the language before being able to produce the target language (Winitz: 1981).
Asher's Total Physical Response is a "natural method" as stated by Widodo (2005), Asher
believes that second language teaching and learning should reflect the naturalistic processes of
first language learning. For this reason, there are such three central processes:

1. Before children develop the ability to speak, they develop listening competence. At the early
phases of first language acquisition, they are able to comprehend complex utterances, which they
hardly can spontaneously produce or imitate.

2. Childrens ability in listening comprehension is acquired because children need to respond

physically to spoken language in the form of parental commands

3. When a foundation in listening comprehension has been established, speech evolves naturally
and effortlessly out of it.

According to Richards & Rodgers (2001), TPR main concept is an English teaching and
learning method that combines speech and action with the goal to teach language through
physical (motor) activity or simply is the coordination of language and physical movement. In
TPR, instructors or teachers give commands to students in the target language, and students
respond with whole-body actions.

Philosophically, this method is in the belief of behaviorism science. Behaviorism is a

worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. The
learner starts off as a clean slate (i.e. tabula rasa) and behavior is shaped through positive
reinforcement or negative reinforcement. All behavior, no matter how complex, can be reduced
to a simple stimulus response association (McLeod: 2007). Thus in TPR, teachers command as
the stimulus and the motoric activity from the student is the response.

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Total physical response is an example of the comprehension approach to language teaching.
Methods in the comprehension approach emphasize the importance of listening on language
development, and do not require spoken output in the early stages of learning (Larsen-Freeman:
2000) She also elaborates some principles of TPR

1. Students will begin to speak when they are ready.

2. Understanding before producing
3. Students should not memorize fixed routines
4. Spoken language rather than written language
5. Expected error from students

2. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF TPR

Total physical response (TPR) helps students to understand the target language as a whole
rather than the rules of the language. For example, to explain particular word such book, the
teacher holds up a book and say this is a book and repeated by the students. This method is
closely related with Grammar Translation Method which uses translation method to explain a
language to students but instead of telling the meaning, the teacher gives a clue (picture, gesture)
and let the students to figure by themselves. The traditional approach relied heavily on grammar
and the study of the language however, not the practice of the actual language. Grammar was the
most important part of learning foreign or second language and students were forced to
memorize hundreds of vocabulary words and word tenses before they practiced the actual
language (Kariuki & Bush: 2008).

In a TPR classroom, the students are more active since they are involved in the learning
activity as listener and performer. They listen to their teachers commands, mostly imperative
commands then followed by actions. The commands are given several times (drills) to make the
students clearly understand the concept of the target language.

TPR also can be combined with songs or storytelling. So it will make the learning activity
more fun. As stated by Boyle and Peregoy (1990), integrating learning activities with music and
song in the early childhood classroom supports English Learners literary development.
Researcher strongly convinced that when something is not interesting for students, it does not
matter what you teach or the best way you teach it; in the long run, it will be a waste of time.
Many scholars have proved that integrating TPR with song, games or story-telling can make

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significant development of students language proficiency. Besides that, the use of TPR have
shown positive effects on students learning performance, learning attitudes, condence and
motivation (Kuo et al : 2014)

TPR also forces teacher and students to a new role. Teacher's role has changed and continued
to cope with new requirements of the dynamic atmosphere of foreign language teaching in
educational establishments. Formerly, as mentioned by Kariuki and Bush (2008), the role of the
teacher in a traditional teaching method is to share the information with the students. The
teacher must share the vocabulary and grammar with the students; however, it is up to the student
whether they grasp the information. In short, the classroom is book-oriented and put class into
teachers oriented. In TPR, the teacher acts as commander, director, feedback provider and a
teacher must tolerate any mistakes done by students. Meanwhile, the roles of the students as they
are involved in learning are listener, performer and participator.

3. HOW TO TEACH?

The teacher talks almost the entire period in the target language in order for the students to
hear the pronunciation of various words. Also, the teacher may have the students listen to another
person on a tape or CD in order for students to hear someone else speaking the language with an
accent. This section actually doing a suggestion by the founder of TPR, that beginners should be
allowed a silent period in which they learn to recognize a large number of words without being
expected to say them.

After doing the listening section, the speaking section will be following.

a. Preparation

Write some command words in a piece of paper such: sit down, stand up, hands up

b. Application
- Put two chairs in front of the class
- Ask 2 students to be volunteers and ask them to sit facing the rest of the students.
- Ask the student to listen and observe anything that the teacher does.
- The teacher says 'stand up' and immediately followed by standing up. Then say 'sit
down' and followed by sit down action.
- Ask the students to do the commands uttered by the teacher.
- Repeat this drill technique until no students make mistakes.

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 - When the students do all the commands correctly, dont forget to give appreciation to
motivate and encourage them.
- Ask the volunteers to be the commander, and ask them to choose who is going to be
the performer among the other students. When the chosen student does the command
correctly, he/she will be the next commander and so on.

c. Using Song
- Prepare particular song related to the topic of the lesson i.e parts of body
- Show the lyric to the students
Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes
Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes
And eyes and ears and mouth and nose
Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes
- While singing the song, the teacher should touch the body part according to the lyric
mentioned
- After that, ask the students to do the same.
d. Using game
- Prepare some commands: touch your nose, touch your lips, touch your eyes etc.
- The teacher showed the students part of the body by mentioning and touching.
- Give the commands to touch part of their body according to what the teacher says.
- To know students understanding, the teacher can do miss-direction technique for
example when saying touch your nose the teacher touches his/her lips.
- Repeat this techniques several times.
e. Using storytelling
Storytelling is also a way to emphasize the uniqueness of each persons imagination, and
imagination can generate language. Furthermore, because teachers will contextualize the
acquired vocabulary and act it out, their students will be able to hear, see, act out, retell,
revise and rewrite it (Marsh, 2000). TPRS begins by first establishing the meaning of a
word in the target language. This is done by giving the word a translation, picture and
teaching a gesture with a word. This is followed by storytelling process (Holleny: 2012).

When students make some errors, Asher advises teachers to treat learners mistakes the same
way a parent would treat their childrens. Errors made by beginning-level students are usually
overlooked, but as students become more advanced teachers may correct more of their errors.
This is similar to parents raising their children; as children get older parents tend to correct their
grammatical mistakes more often (Richards & Rodgers: 2001).

4. STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS

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STRENGTH

- Allow students to get up and move while learning and encourages a more relaxed
learning environment that can easily incorporate humor.
- Accompanied with song, games and story-telling, the learning is more fun and enjoy.
- Active learning, automatic and not text book oriented. (Cantoni : 1999)

WEAKNESSES

- Imperative and responses used in TPR doesnt really support students real life
environment. It leaves out the form of narrative, description and conversation.
(Tomscha,1986).
- Limited for beginner level of students. Since at the beginner level, student cant learn
individually. The more advance level of students, discovery and individual learning is
more appropriate.
- Drill takes time.
5. CONCLUSION

TPR reflects the way the baby learn their first language in which first they are observing
all utterances they hear and they will speak when they are ready to do so. TPR is a teaching
strategy which involves the students to the learning process. This strategy requires the
teacher to be a commander to students. The activities on the Total Physical Response
Storytelling stimulate students ability in thinking and imagining. All ideas given by the
students are appreciated so the students will not afraid in making mistake and students will
be motivated to learn more and more. As a famous phrase by Benjamin Franklin:

Tell me I forget
Teach me I remember
Involve me I learn

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REFERENCES

Asher, J. (1968). Total Physical Response Method for Second Language Learning. San Jose: San Jose
State College.
Boyle, O & Peregoy,S. (1990).Literacy Scaffolds: Strategies for first and second language readers and
writers. Reading Teacher, 44(3), 194-200.
Cantoni, G. (1999). Using TPR storytelling to develop fluency and literacy in Native American Language.
Revitalizing indigenous language, 53-58.
Holleny, E. L. (2012). The Effectiveness of Total Physical Response Storytelling forLanguage Learning
with Special Education Students. Rowan University.
Kariuki, P. & Bush, E. (2008). The effects of Total Physical Response by Storytelling and the Traditional
Teaching Styles of a Foreign Language in a selected High School. In Mid. South Educational
Research Association (pp. 1-22). Tennessee: Milligan College.
Kuo, F., Hsu, C., Fang, W., & Chen, N. (2014). The effects of Embodiment-based TPR approach on
student English vocabulary learning achievement, retention and acceptance. Journal Of King
Saud University - Computer And Information Sciences, 26(1), 63-70.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jksuci.2013.10.003
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and principles in language teaching (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Marsh, V. (2000). Total Physical Response Story Telling: A Communicative Approach to Language
Learning. Available at: http://192.107.108.56/portfolios/s/stringham_1/thesis/38story.htm.

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McLeod, S. (2016). Behaviorism | Simply Psychology. Simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 18 December
2016, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html
Richards, J. & Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching (1st ed.). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Tomscha, T. (1986). Using TPR communicatively. In The Annual Conference of the International
Association of Teachers of English for Foreign Language. Brighton, England
Widodo, H. (2005). Teaching Children Using a Total Physical Response (TPR) Method: Rethinking.
BAHASA DAN SENI, 33(2), 235-248.
Winitz, H. (1981).The Comprehension Approach to Foreign Language Instruction. MA: Newbury House.