Total Physical Response (TPR)

TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR) 

Definition 

Total Physical Response is a method of teaching language that was introduced by James Asher. This method encourage the use of  physical movement to react to verbal input, as this helps reduces student inhibitors and lower their affective filter. This also enables students to react to language without thinking too much, facilitates long term retention, and lowers students anxiety levels. In order for teachers to use TPR effectively, it is important for them to plan regular sessions that progress in a logical order, and keep several principles in mind. 

Asher's Total Physical Response is a "natural response" since Asher believes first and second language learning as parallel processes. He argues that second language teaching and learning should reflect the naturalistic processes of first language learning. There are three main processes: 

a) Before a child develop a ability to speak, they develop a listening competence. At the early stages of first language acquisition, they are able to understand complex utterances, which is difficult for them to imitate or produce spontaneously. Asher takes into account that a student may be making a 'mental blueprint'  of the language that will make it possible to produce spoken language later during the period of listening.

b) Children ability in listening comprehension is gained because children needs to respond physically to spoken language in the form of parental command 

c) when a foundation in listening comprehension has been established, speech envolves naturally and effortlessly out of it. 

Asher believes that it is vital to base foreign language learning upon how children learn their native language, especially TPR is designed based upon how children learn their mother tongue. This method also considers an individual to learn best when he is actively involved and grasp what he hears ( Haynes, 2004;Larsen Freeman, 1986;Linse, 2005). 

Here's a YouTube link that shows a kindergarten teacher Herbert Puchta engages young learners using Total Physical Response (TPR). 

http://youtu.be/1Mk6RRf4kKs

My view on this video, is that Total Physical Response is a wonderful way to teach language because it is learning by doing, which children would do. In this video, these young learners are German who are learning English , and it seems that TPR is helpful for them in understanding and acquiring the target language. 

Characteristics of the Method 

• Imperative drills are useful classroom activity in TPR
• Learners plays main roles. One is a listener, while the other is a performer. They listen attentively and respond physically to the teachers command 
• Learners need to respond individually as well as collectively, as they have minor influence on the content of learning. This content will be decided mainly by the teacher
• At the beginning of learning, students are expected to recognise and respond to novel combinations of previously taught items. These novel utterances are recombinations of constituents the teacher used for direct training 

For example, in the classroom, students will follow the teacher. The teacher directs students with "Walk to the table!"  and "Sit on the chair!". These are familiar with students since they have practiced responding to them. Moreover, students are also to produce novel combinations of their own. 

With this method, the teacher plays an active and direct role. The director of the stage play in which the students are the actors. 

Theories of TPR

• Krashen language acquisition theory

        Children who are exposed to a huge number of language input before speaking. Language Learners can also be benefited from following this 'natural progression' from comprehension and production, instead of a more normal situation where these learners are asked to produce instantly. 

• Krashen's affective filter theory (lower stress, anxiety, thus lower affective filter)

Students learn more when they are relaxed. This is due to their affective filter, which acts as a mental barrier between the students and information is raised, that makes these students nervous and easily (painless) corrected by the teacher. Language is remember easily and can be store in the long term. 

                                                                                               (Shearon, n.d)

Advantages of TPR

• The TPR instruction is easy to implement and no translation. It helps both students and teacher make the transition to an English Language Environment 
• No disadvantage for academically weak students: TPR does not depend on the "left or right brained", as it gives all students a chance to shine in a new environment 
• Lowers students affective filter and stress level: TPR does not require a spoken response from students. Also, if this was carried out effectively, students always understand what is happening during the Total Physical Response method, which results in increasing their confidence level and lowering their affective filter. 
• The repetition acts as a disguise, where there will be more effective input. A skillful use of Total Physical Response allows us to drill language targets repeatedly without losing students interests 

Disadvantages of TPR

• Students who did not use these things may find it embarrassing. This may be the case, where the teacher prepared students to do some actions, the students feel happier about copying 
• This method is suitable for beginner learners, where it is clear that TPR is suitable for children at the lower level because of the target language lends itself in the activities. It is also used for the intermediate and advanced learners. For example, when teaching "how to walk" (stumble, tiptoe, and stagger), and teach cooking verbs to the Intermediate students. (stir, grate, and etc) 
• When teacher uses TPR, they will have trouble teaching abstract vocabulary or expressions 

 The Application of TPR in the classroom

  TPR can be used to teach and practice many things as : 

•   vocabulary connected with actions ( smile, crop, headache, and wriggle)
•   teaching grammatical items ( 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)
•   instructions (Stand up and touch your nose)                       (Widodo, 2005)

Basic Total Techniques ( More Applications) 

The teacher introduces the language through the use of commands ( imperative sentences) and has students demonstrate their understanding through action responses. A sequence of events that happens in the classroom: 

1. The teacher says the command ( sit down, turn the page of your textbook, and etc) as they perform the action 

2. The teacher says the command as both teacher and students will perform the action 

3. The teacher says the command but only students will perform the action 

4. The teacher will tell one student in the classroom at time to perform the action 

5. The roles of both teacher and student are reversed. Students will give commands to the teacher and other students 

Examples 

The teacher  and student allow for command expansion of new sentences 

While the initial instructions are simple within a few minutes directions can be expanded in complexity such as:

• Sit down 
• Take your exercise book out 
• Open the book on page 22
• Lily, please sit next to Jordan 
• Jordan share the book with Lily, please 

                                                                                                                             (ICAL, 1998-2014)

My Personal View of Total Physical Response 

Overall, I think Total Physical Response is a great method to teach students, especially children at the lower levels. As a future educator teaching in a primary classroom, I will consider myself of using this method to let my students feel relaxed and comfortable in their learning and learn the target language at the same time. Also, teach them some classroom instructions which requires them to move around and do the actions. 

Interesting YouTube Clip that explains Total Physical Response (TPR) 

1. http://youtu.be/N00coyNZYVk
2. http://youtu.be/YuS3ku-PSL8

The second YouTube link shows that a teacher uses the Total Physical Response (TPR) method to teach adult learners. But in my opinion, I feel like this method may not be suited to teach adults to a certain extend, because some of them might feel embarrassed in learning and repeating simple vocabulary, but at the same time it is good for adult learners who want to learn to speak English, where this method will provide easy techniques for them to use English in their daily communication. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, it is an effective method for teachers to teach children on how to follow instructions. With using this method, short TPR activities, used judiciously and integrated with other activities that can be seen as highly motivating and linguistically purposeful. Teachers should also remember to make careful decisions when using communicative language at the beginner level that can make Total Physical Response related activities valid and useful. In TPR, classroom warmers and games are based either consciously or unconsciously. Then again, it is up to the teachers to decide which method they would like to use in their classrooms.

References

ICAL.(1998-2014). Total Physical Response in TEFL[Electronic Version]. Retrieved November 29, 2014, from 

http://www.icaltefl.com/index.php/teaching-techniques/total-physical-response.html

Shearon, B. (n.d). James Asher's Total Physical Response: A Short Introduction[Electronic Version]. Retrieved November 29, 2014, from 

http://www.c-english.com/files/tpr.pdf

Widodo, H.P. (2005). Teaching children using a Total Physical Response ( TPR) method: Rethinking. Bahasa dan Seni, 33(2), 235-238. 

Community Language Learning (CLL)

Community Language Learning is one of the so-called 'designer' methods which arose in the flurry of methodological experimentation in the 1970s, together with other methods The Silent Way, Suggestopedia, and TPR, that form part of the Humanistic Approach to language learning. This method is developed by Charles A. Curran and his associates. Curran was a counselor and a professor of psychology at Loyola University, Chicago. His application of psychological counseling techniques to learning such as Counseling-Learning. The Community Language Learning Method takes its principles from the more general Counselling Learning Approach.

This method is a classic example of an affectively based method . It is a method that seen learners as a "group"instead of "class". Learning will take place when group members first needed to interact in an interpersonal relationship in which both students and teachers joined together to facilitate learning in a context of valuing each learner in the group. 

Theoretical Assumptions 

• language is seen as a social process is different from language as communication 
• Communication is more than spreading the message that is being transmitted from a speaker to a listener 
• Speaker is both subject and object of his own message 
• Communication is very constitution of the speaking subject in relation to the other 
• Communication is also seen as an exchange that is incomplete without a feedback reaction from the density of the message 

Principles 

• create interpersonal relationships between teachers and learners to facilitate learning 
• ease the anxiety of EFL learners in the educational context and encouraged group dynamics when carrying out classroom activities. 
• The main aim of "Community Language Learning" is to involve the learner's whole personality. The teacher understands the learners fears and vulnerabilities as they struggle to master another language. 
• Learning tends not to take place when the material is too new or even too familiar. 
• Students reflect on what they have experienced
• At the early stage of this method, the 'syllabus' is generated by the students 

CLL was primarily designed for monolingual conversation classes where the teacher- counselor would be able to speak the learners L1. The intention was that it would integrate translation so that students would disassociate language learning with risk taking. 

Communication and Learner Focused 

• How it works in the classroom
  
  • Stage 1- Reflection
  • Stage 2 - Recorded conversation
  • Stage 3 - Discussion
  • Stage 4 - Transcription
  • Stage 5 - Language analysis
  • Length of stages
  
  
  
  
  
  
  How it works in the classroom

In a Community Language Learning lesson have five stages: 

Stage 1: Reflection

Teacher will start the lesson by making students to sit in a circle around a tape recorder to construct a community atmosphere. 

• The students think in silence about what they'd like to talk about, while I remain outside the circle.  
• To avoid a lack of ideas students can brainstorm their ideas on the board before recording. 

Stage 2 : Recorded conversation 

Once they have chosen a subject, the students tell me in their L1 what they'd like to say and 
the teacher discreetly come up behind them and translate the language chunks into English.

• With higher levels if the students feel comfortable enough they can say some of it directly in English and the teacher give the full English sentence. When  students feel ready to speak, they will take the microphone and record their sentence. 
• It's best if you can use a microphone as the sound quality is better 
• Here they're working on pace and fluency. Students instantly stop recording and then wait until another student wants to respond. This continues until a whole conversation has been recorded.   

Stage 3: Discussion

Next, the students will discuss how they think the conversation went. They can also discuss how they felt about talking to a microphone and whether students felt more comfortable speaking aloud than they might do normally. 

This part is not recorded 

Stage 4: Transcription 

Students will listen to the tape and transcribe their conversation. I will only involve when they ask for help. When teachers tried this with the class as students may have try and rely on the teacher a lot but teachers need to aim to distance from the whole process such as pushing students to do it themselves. 


Stage 5: Language analysis 

Teacher sometimes get students to analyse the language the same lesson or sometimes in the next following lesson. This involves looking at the tenses form and vocabulary used and why certain ones were chosen, but it will depend on the language produced by the students.

With this, students are totally involved in the analysis process in the higher levels. The language is completely personalised and with students then can make decisions on what parts of conversations they would like to analyse, whether it is tenses, lexis or discourse.

As for the lower levels, teacher can guide the analysis by choosing the most common 

problems that teacher noted in the recording stages or the final transcription. 

Length of stages 

The timing is based on the class, such as how fast do students respond to CLL, how long do they need to spend on the language analysis stage and how long the recorded conversations will be. But teachers need to bear in mind for not making the conversation too long as this makes the transcription very long. 

The goals of the teachers who uses the Community Language Learning Method

1. Teachers want their students to learn how to use the target language communicatively 
2. They want their students to learn about their own learning 
3. Teachers would also want their students to take increasing responsibility for their own learning 
4. They want their students to learn from each other and seek peer help

Role of the Teacher : The teacher main role is a counselor. This means that the teacher recognizes how threatening a new learning situation would be for adult learners, so the teacher will be skillful in terms of providing understanding and supports his students in their struggle to master the target language. 

Role of the students:  Initially, the learners are very dependent by the teacher. As the students continue to study, they become increasingly independent



  

Strengths 

1. Learners will appreciate the autonomy that offers by Community Language Learning and helps to improve analysing their conversations 

2. The affective advantage are evident 

3. Teachers allows learners to determine the type of conversation and to analyse the foreign language inductively 

4. Student Centred nature method can provide extrinsic motivation
5. To learn how to use the target language communicatively  

Weaknesses

1. Teacher or Counselor 5 becomes non- directive 

2. It relies heavily on the inductive strategy of learning 

3. The success of the CLL depends largely on the translation expertise of the teacher
4. Time control 
5. Teachers can find it strange to give students so much freedom and tend to intervene students learning. 

My Personal Views on using this method 

If teachers were to use the method, teachers will need some knowledge of counselling. While there is need some knowledge of counselling. While there is nothing in the conversation stage of the lesson that precludes it being used as a technique in a far more teacher- guided class, bear in mind that if the teacher intervene in more 'authoritative' way without being asked for help. For example, by deciding who will speak and what they'll talk about in stage one, or by giving spontaneous explanations and deciding what to practice in stage two, where teachers would not use CLL. 


I will end this blog entry with an interesting video on how "Community Language Learning (CLL) is used in adult learning classroom. 

http://youtu.be/tx_we_P3Pic

References 
Larsen-Freeman,D.(2011). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching 3rd edition. New York:Oxford University Press  

Desuggestopedia

Before I move on to the next method, I would like to remind that teachers should incorporate creativity in using the different kinds of teaching methods. They have to be carefully in choosing the appropriate method as the means of transferring the knowledge, because they may find different situation and different students in the classroom. 

Introduction to Desuggestopedia 

History & Theory 

• This method was founded by Bulgarian Psychiatrist- Educator Georgi Lozanov in the 1978. 
• It is also known as the affective-humanistic approach, an approach which has there is a respect for students feelings (Social Psychology)
• Learning deficiency comes from the 3 psychological barriers to learning 
• fear of failure limits our success in learning 

Meaning 

Suggest => desuggest 

"Desuggestopedia" is to eliminate the negative feeling(we do not use full mental powers) &  "Suggestopedia" is to reinforce positive learning. 

Classroom set-up 

The main principles of Desuggestopedia 

In the atmosphere of 'play', the conscious attention of the learner does not focus on linguistic forms, but using the language. Teacher should be present and explain the grammar and vocabulary. The meaning is made clear with native language translation. The dialog used for students to learn contains the language they use immediately. 

Communication takes place on 'two planes', where one is based on the linguistic message being encoded, while the other are factors that influence the linguistic message. Another way to put in, the learner attends to the language on the conscious plane, while music proposed that learning is easy and pleasant 

Students can learn from what is present in the environment, even if their attention is not directed to 'Peripheral learning'. This learning is that people perceive much more in our environment than which people consciously attend. 

Dramatization is a meaningful way for students to playfully activating the material

Fine arts which incorporates music, art and drama gives suggestions which allow students to enable suggestions to reach the subconscious. One of the ways the students mental reserves are stimulated in through the integration of the fine arts music, drama or paintings 

Students can learn from what is present in the environment, even if their attention is not directed to it (‘Peripheral learning’).  Peripheral learning is that people perceive much more in our environment than that to which people consciously attend.  Dramatization is a valuable way of playfully activating the material. 

Fine arts(music, art, and drama) provides positive suggestions for students and enable suggestions to reach the subconscious.  One of the ways the students’ mental reserves are stimulated is through integration of the fine arts-music, drama, or paintings.

Errors are corrected gently and indirectly.  The teacher gives the students the impression that learning is easy and enjoyable in order to make students enjoying in their learning.  Therefore, the teacher should help the students ‘activate’ the material to which they have been exposed and integrate indirect positive suggestions into the learning situation.

 Characteristics of the Teaching Process 

Classroom atmosphere- decorations and posters 

                                                                

• A new name and occupation- to dispel the anxiety 
• Handout for advanced students 
• No test, no assignment 
• Conversation with translation in music- to activate the 'whole brain' of the students 
• Games, Songs, and Role Plays helps in strengthening the classroom materials 

 

   Goals of the Teacher 

• To accelerate the process of learning a foreign language for daily communication 
• To desuggest learners psychological barriers 

Teachers and Students Role 

                            

Two main roles for a teacher who uses this method

• Authority : Teacher is seen as being confident and trustworthy 
• Security : Teacher provides a cheerful classroom environment 

Two main roles for a students 

• Students may relax and tends to follows the teacher's instruction easily 
• Students tend to enjoy doing role plays, and able to enjoy their new identity freely 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Desuggestopedia 

Desuggestopedia is like  other methods that has its own advantages and disadvantages 

• Advantages

          Authority Concept. Students will remember best and are most influenced by information coming from an authoritative source, teachers. 

          Double- planedness theory is based to learning from two aspects. They are the conscious aspect and the subconscious one. Students can gain the aim of the teaching instruction from both direct instruction and environment in which the teaching take place

          Peripheral learning can also help to encourage students to be more experimental, and look to the sources other than the teacher for language input. For instance, students can make some  sentences using the grammatical structure placed in the walls of the classroom. For example, students describe a particular place in an English Speaking Country by looking at the poster wall. When there is more of these self activities cater for these students, hence their confidence level will arise. 

• Disadvantages 

Environment limitation. Most schools in developing countries have large classes. Each classes consist of 30 to 40 students. One of the problems faced in using this method is the number of students who do not like to be treated as they matured. 

In the Desuggestopedia, vocabulary is focused heavily, grammar has been taught explicitly and Ozlemguner, 2013 stated that communication is emphasized. 

Suggestions for English Teachers in using this method

Teaching speaking for young language learners using suggestopedia is not easy especially in the countries, which the education level is low. It needs a professional and experienced teacher, very few working teachers are in a position where they can use this system. The teachers should take more training in using this 'suggestopedia' in the classroom. 

Here are some suggestions by the author Suryo(2009)

1. Teacher show absolute confidence in the method 

2. Teacher show a solemn attitude towards the session

3. Teacher provide tests and respond tactfully to poor papers 

Here is a You Tube Link on Diane Larsen- Freeman on Desuggestopedia 

http://youtu.be/3rkrvRlty5M

This video shows hat materials need to be varied, activated and should be use for repetition. Teacher use dramatization, follow by music to tell a story. Students will remember their vocabulary through actions. As what Diane Larsen- Freeman says " With desuggestopedia , Fantasy do reduce barriers in learning and dictation used as a playful atnosphere. Learning can be fun! :) :)

Conclusion

Summarising the interesting method we can say that it is very useful in the effective approach of gaining English because it improves the speaking skill of students eliminating those barriers that do not allow them to communicate effectively. From my point of view, this method can be used to teach many schools but it would be difficult to many teachers to accept this teaching method . When students go for their music classes, I think it will be acceptable if music teachers replaced music with natural and soothing sounds like Mozart or Beethoven symphony to make the students relax. The benefit for teachers in using this method is that it suits all ages with choosing the proper subjects and natural sounds to apply it in a good way. Teachers should know this method very well and the usefulness of this method is that it pay more attention to students feelings and learn its principles before using. As a teacher, I think I will consider in using "Desuggestopedia" as one of my teaching methods to carry out fun, meaningful and exciting activities with the children. 

          References 

Ozlemguner.(2013. Marzo 28). slideshare. Retrieved November 26, 2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/ozlemguner/desuggestopedia-17826734

Suryo,A.(2009, April 15). suggestopedia as a method for teaching speaking for young learners in a second language classroom. Retrieved November 26, 2014, from suggestopedia as a method for teaching speaking for young learners in a second language classroom.