TRỊNH NHƯ THE INTRODUCTION OF TPR Total physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method developed by James Asher, a professor of psychology at San José State University It is based on the coordination of speech and physical movement In TPR, instructors give commands to students in the target language, and students respond with wholebody actions TPR linked to the “trace theory” of memory psychology (Katona 1940) which holds that the more often or the intensively a memory connection is traced, the stronger the memory will be recalled Combining tracing activities such as rehearsal accompanied by motor activity, hence increase the probability of successful recall Asher developed TPR as a result of his experiences observing young children learning their first language Asher made three hypotheses based on his observations: first, that language is learned primarily by listening; second, that language learning must engage the right hemisphere of the brain; and third, that learning language should not involve any stress Asher saw that most of the interactions that young children experience with parents or other adults combine both verbal and physical aspects The child responds physically to the speech of the parent, and the parent reinforces the child’s responses through further speech Asher also observed that young children typically spend a long time listening to language before ever attempting to speak, and that they can understand and react to utterances that are much more complex than those they can produce themselves  Children respond physically before they begin to produce verbal responses The method is an example of the comprehension approach to language teaching: • • Comprehension abilities precede productive skills in learning language The teaching of speaking should be delayed until comprehension skills are • • • established Skills acquired through listening transfer to other skills Teaching should emphasize meaning rather than form Teaching should minimize leaners’ stress In the book English through actions: “ No method of teaching foreign speech is likely to be economical or successful which does not include in the first period a very considerable proportion of that type of classroom work which consists of the carrying out by the pupil of orders issued by teacher” (Palmer) HOÀNG ANH & QUỐC DŨNG EXPERIENCE FROM A REAL TPR CLASS Today, I will describe the lesson based on the one in Asher (1996) The teacher comes into class and asks Ss to sit at the back of the class After that the teacher will present and explain the approach they will use to learn English in L1, in particular, Swedish: ‘the way to learn English is the same to the way to learn Swedish There is no word spoken from you (It means Ss) And he will ask four volunteer Ss to come here and along what he requires in L2 with him.’ After choosing volunteer Ss, the teacher as well as Ss takes a seat in line and face to the rest of the class And the teacher will ask the other students to watch and listen The teacher gives the command “Stand up” to the four students and does it, at that time they will follow The teacher continues to say and another command in English “Sit down”, the four volunteers will carry out like he does The teacher and the Ss the two orders several times through his command And he stops at the order “Stand up” 5 Next, in English the teacher says a new order “Turn around” and act out The four Ss will follow him and face with the chair The teacher continues to use this command one more time in order that the volunteer Ss face to the class as before “Sit down Stand up Turn around Sit down” the teacher says in turns slowly The teacher continues with the new command “Walk”, and they start to walking towards to the class together Next, to stop the volunteers, the teacher gives a series of command beginning with “Stop Jump Stop Turn around Walk Stop Jump Stop Turn around Sit down” And all of them act out together 10 The teacher performs these commands again and changes the positions of these commands with Ss: “Stand up Jump Sit down Stand up Turn around Jump Stop Turn around Walk Stop Turn around Walk Jump Turn around Jump Sit down” And this time these orders will be faster 11 Once again the teacher gives commands But this time, he will nothing, just sit and say The Ss carry out his commands “Stand up Sit down Walk Stop Jump Turn around Walk Turn around Sit down” 12 Then, the teacher motions to one of the four Ss to follow his commands alone 13 Continuously, the teacher turns to the rest of the class and give the order “Stand up”, and the class follow A series of commands is said “Sit down Stand up Jump Stop Sit down Stand up Turn around Turn around Jump Sit down” Although the students have never performed these actions before, they have the ability to carry out through the teacher’s commands After being pleased with the first six commands, the teacher will insert the new ones 14 The teacher commands to Ss to “Point to the door” and uses his right hand and his finger to point towards the door at the same time 15 Then, the teacher continues to perform the order “Point to the desk” and the volunteers follow 16 Next, the teacher says “Point to the chair” and points to the chair behind the desk 17 “Stand up” the teacher orders, the four Ss follow After that he says “Point to the door” Then “Walk to the door” the teacher and the volunteers walk together He continue to order “Touch the door” and with the students 18 The teacher says a variety of commands “Point to the desk Walk to the desk Touch the desk Point to the door Walk to the door Touch the door Point to the chair Walk to the chair Touch the chair” After that changing the orders of the commands, the teacher continues to carry out the action with the students The teacher and the volunteers practice the orders several times through the teacher’s command 19 The teacher gives commands one more time But this time, he will have no movement The four Ss carry out his commands The teacher just repeats the orders and act them out when the Ss get confused 20 The teacher turns to the other students sitting and observing him and the volunteers and gives a series of orders “Stand up Sit down Stand up Point to the desk Point to the door Walk to the door Walk to the chair Touch the chair Walk Stop Jump Walk Turn around Sit down” Ss won’t have any trouble to carry out these commands 21 Next, the teacher turns to the four Ss and orders “Stand up Jump to the desk” This is the first time the volunteers have heard this command, they may pause for a moment and then they manage to 22 The teacher continues to give the volunteers a command they haven’t practiced before “Touch the desk Sit on the desk” 23 After that the teacher makes a phrase in format compound sentence “Point to the door and walk to the door” and the Ss will perform the command 24 The last step of the lesson is that the teacher will demonstrate the new orders on the board and in each command he performs the action And the mission of the Ss is to take note to their notebooks 25 A few weeks later, we enter the class and hear different voices One of the Ss is commanding to the other Ss and the teacher “Raise your hands Show me your hands Close your eyes Put your hands behind you open your eyes Shake hands with your neighbor Raise your left foot” They act out without saying anything THANH TRÂM (1 -7) PHẠM NHƯ (8 – 13) THE INFERENCE FROM THE EXPERIENCE OBSERVATIONS PRINCIPLES First of all, teacher gives at most three simple commands to the volunteers One by one gradually is said and then teacher act each out The importance of this stage is to ask students to hear the commands and to perform them with teacher, not to speak anything After introducing the three more new commands, teacher combines the six commands by saying them quickly while acting them out with the volunteers This time teacher still gives the commands orally but stays still and only students perform the commands Students can memorize the meaning of the commands by observing teacher’s actions and try to imitate the actions with teacher Students are expected to understand the meanings related with their actions before they speak By copying teacher’s action, students can get basic understanding of the target language Students will not memorize language meaning by imitating but by listening to teacher’s commands which is called impartive Teacher gives his commands to the others The others can learn the target who have not performed yet language through observing actions and by acting the commands out by themselves The six new commands are, in turn, introduced only after student have The feeling of success and being less mastered the six previous ones confused will motivate students to learn more After a combination of several commands is given, the order of them will be This way helps student avoid changed memorizing the command due to a fixed order When students make an error, the teacher repeats the command while acting it out Correction should be carried out in an Teacher gives the students commands that unobtrusive manner they have not heard before They must develop the ability of understanding, novel combination of target language chunks Students need to understand more than the exact sentences used in training Novelty is a motivating 10 Teacher says ‘Jump to the desk’ Everyone laughs Sometimes funny situation helps Teacher writes the new command on the students comprehend the language more black board easily In language teaching, spoken languages 12 A few weeks later, a student who hasn’t should be emphasized over written ones spoken before gives commands That student has enough motivation to 13 A student says “shake hand with your begin to speak, students will speak when neighbor” they are ready Students can make mistakes when they first begin speaking So, teacher should take time and work on the fine details of the languages The errors should be postponed until students have become more proficient 11 REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES VŨ THÙY Objective of the teacher: - Having Ss enjoy their experience in learning to communicate in L2 (A TPR course aims to produce learners whose ability of communicate in target language is weak or uninhibited, could be enhanced to be more understandable to a native speaker.) - Reduce stress when studying L2 (by focusing on meaning interpreted through movement, rather than on language forms, the learner is said to be liberated from not only self – conscious but also stressful; moreover, they are able to reach the highest level of their learning – ability.) - Teacher’s and Learners’ roles: Teacher’s role Teacher plays an active and direct role in TPR (simply because teachers are typically used to elicit both physical actions and activity on the part of the learners) - Learners’ role Learner has the primary roles of listener an performer Learners are imitators of teacher’s nonverbal model (simply because learners listen attentively and respond physically to teacher’s commands.) - Learners have little influence over the content of learning (since the teacher has to base on the curriculum format for lessons.) Major characteristicS of TPR: (there are common steps in teaching by using TPR The first step is modelling.) (1) A few students are asked to follow teacher’s commands and actions (and the teacher performs the actions with them In the second step,) (2) These students perform the commands alone to prove that they understand the requirements (next,) (3) The commands will be recombined to have students develop flexibility in understanding unfamiliar utterances The commands are often humorous (after learning to respond to some oral commands, they are asked to read and write them) (4) (5) Students learn how to read and write the given oral commands When students are ready to speak, they become the ones who issue the commands (finally,) (6) After beginning speaking, students expand the activities including skits and games The nature of Student – teacher vs Student – student interaction: Phas e Teacher interacts and speaks with both the whole group of students and with individual students responds nonverbally Must demonstrate Ss’ understanding of the commands Learner respond nonverbally become more verbal perform actions together Begin to speak Had better issue commands to one another as well as to the teacher Ways to deal with learners’ feelings? (the main purpose of TPR is to relieve the anxiety of the learner But how does teacher can deal with learners’ stress? There are about suggestions The first one is: ) - Allow students to speak when they are ready (because forcing them to speak before then will create the anxiety Another way to reduce stress is) - Make language learning as enjoyable as possible Not provide too much modelling (since it make learners a bit of confusion Last but not least, Teacher) - Should not expect the perfection MỸ QUYÊN How is language viewed? How is culture viewed? - With the acquisition of the native language, the oral modality is primary - Culture is the lifestyle of people who speak the language natively - The way to speak play an important for leaner speak naturally as a native speaker Besides, culture as well as lifestyle are essential if a person want to speak as native speaker What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are emphasized? Vocabulary and grammatical structures are emphasized over their language areas They are attached to imperatives with single words or multi- word chunks The reason why using imperative in lesson is to direct at young children learn native language more easier The spoken language is emphasized over written language Students not learn to read the commands they have already learned to perform although they were instructed What is the role of the students’ native language? TPR is usually introduced in the student’s native language but After the introduction, the native language seldom would be used Meaning is just clear when using body language 9.How is evaluation accomplished? Teacher will know exactly and immediately whether or not student understand by observing actions We evaluation by commanding \each student perform their actions When student become more advanced, a series action they create is the basis of evaluation 10 How does the teacher respond to student errors? At the first time, Any students will make errors when speaking Teacher can be ignore and only correct major errors When student get more advanced, teacher can “fine tune” DƯƠNG NAM REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES A USING COMMANDS TO DIRECT BEHAVIOR: - A TPR lesson focuses on the use of commands which are turned into actions - by students These actions clarify the meaning of the commands One primary part of a successful TPR lesson is the careful preparation of a group of target commands planned previously by the teacher in order to captivate students Without any command preparation, teacher may take more time thinking of new commands and this will lowers students’ interest  and concentration Main steps in a TPR lesson: • Teacher says and performs several basic commands and student copy • •  them Next, only students carry out the commands said by the teacher Then several mixed sequences of the commands are introduce to better students’ memory of the language Notice: • The mastery of commands and the pleasure of succeeding are priority, • so any rush for new commands is not recommended Asher believes that teachers can base TPR method on teaching all grammatical points for a particular level of learners B DEMONSTRATION:  Introducing commands: First stage: “cook” - “eat” - “drink” Next stage: “wash my hands” - “clean the table” - “take a shower” Action sequence: “cook – eat – drink – wash my hands – clean the table  – take a shower” Teaching present continuous tense through TPR method: After getting familiar with the commands, the studens are asked WHQuestions and to give their answers using present continuous Teacher: “What am I doing?” – “I am eating” (modelling) Teacher: “What is she/he doing?” (point to someone) Students: “she/he is eating” Then the teacher and students the same with the remaining verb • • • phrases  Role reversal: after the teacher gives both spoken and written forms of the commands and students have grasped the relation between the commands and the relevant actions, it’s about time for them to speak through directing  their classmates and teacher to perform the commands Action sequence: after the students get the hang of the commands, a long series of commands which together form a procedure that are common in daily life The teacher gives a chain of the commands as a daily routine of someone “cook the fish – eat the fish – drink coke – wash my hands – clean the table – take a shower” ... young children experience with parents or other adults combine both verbal and physical aspects The child responds physically to the speech of the parent, and the parent reinforces the child’s... to utterances that are much more complex than those they can produce themselves  Children respond physically before they begin to produce verbal responses The method is an example of the comprehension... are imitators of teacher’s nonverbal model (simply because learners listen attentively and respond physically to teacher’s commands.) - Learners have little influence over the content of learning