A. TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR)

TPR is one of the English teaching approaches and methods developed by

Dr. James J Asher. It has been applied for almost thirty years. This method

attempts to center attention to encouraging learners to listen and respond to the

spoken target language commands of their teachers. In other words, TPR is a

language teaching method built around the coordination of speech and action; it

attempts to teach language through physical (motor) activity. Asher's Total

Physical Response is a "natural method" since Asher views 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.

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. Asher takes into accounts that a learner may be making a

mental blueprint of the language that will make it possible to produce spoken

language later during this period of listening;

2. children's ability in listening comprehension is acquired because children need

to respond physically to spoken language in the form of parental commands;

and

3. when a foundation in listening comprehension has been established, speech

evolves naturally and effortlessly out of it. Asher believes that it is crucial to

base foreign language learning upon how children learn their native language.

In other words, TPR is designed based upon the way that children learn their

mother tongue. In this respect, TPR considers that one learns best when he is

actively involved and grasp what he hears (Haynes, 2004; Larsen-Freeman,

1986; Linse, 2005).

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1.1. TPR Activities

Activities in the TPR method rely on action based drills in the imperative

form. In fact the imperative drills are introduced to elicit physical/motor activity

on the part of the learners. The use of dialogues is delayed. Typical classroom

activities include: Command drills, role plays on everyday situations (at the

resturant, at the movies …), slide presentations to provide a visual centre for

teacher’s narration, which is followed by commands or questions, reading and

writing can also be introduced to further consolidate grammar and vocabulary.

1.2. Role of teacher and student

The teacher’s role in TPR is to select the teaching material and plan the tasks

the students are going to do (Knight, 2001, p. 154). His main role in the classroom

is to give commands to the students. The teacher might for example tell the

students: “Stand up!”, “Sit down!”, “Take your pencil!” etc. The instructor also

serves as a model and gives feedback to the students. The feedback he/she gives is

likened to the feedback children receive from their parents. The teacher is to

gradually increase the amount of correction given to the learner as he progresses

in his knowledge of the target language just as parents will tolerate less mistakes

as a child gets older (Richards & Rodgers, 2001, p.76). The learner's part is to

listen and to respond physically to the commands. When the students have

sufficient listening fluency and feel ready for it, they can begin to speak as well.

In this later stage, TPR uses role plays and dialogues in which the students act out

real life situations (Richards & Rogers 2001, p. 76).

1.3. The Teaching Techniques

a) Using commands to direct behavior, that is, the commands are given to get

students to perform an action and the action makes the pace lively.

b) Role reversal, that is, students command their teacher and their classmates

to perform some actions. The students may speak longer, but should not be

encouraged to speak until they are ready.

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c) Action sequence, that is, the teacher gives three connected commands and

the students learn more and more of the target language, a longer series of

connected commands can be given, which together comprise a whole

procedure.

1.4. Advantages And Disadvantages Of TPR

TPR has some advantages and disadvantages. Its advantages include:

a) It is a lot of fun. Learners enjoy it, and this method can be a real stirrer

in the class. It lifts the pace and the mood;

b) It is very memorable. It does assist students to recognize phrases or

words;

c) It is good for kinaesthetic learners who are required to be active in the

class;

d) It can be used both in large or small classes. In this case, it is no matter

to have how many students you have as long as you are prepared to take

the lead, the learners will follow;

e) It works well with mixed-ability classes. The physical actions get across

the meaning effectively so that all the learners are able to comprehend

and apply the target language;

f) It is no need to have a lot of preparation or materials using the TPR. In

this regard, as long as you are competent of what you want to practise (a

rehearsal beforehand can help), it will not take a lot of time to get ready;

g) It is very effective with teenagers and young learners; and

h) It involves both left and right-brained learning;

In addition to such advantages, TPR has disadvantages. Among them

are:

Students who are not used to such things might find it embarrassing. This can be

the case initially that if the teacher is prepared to perform the actions, the students

feel happier about copying. In addition, the students are in a group and do not

have to perform for the whole class. This pleasure is reserved for the teacher; It is

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only really suitable for beginner levels. Whilst, it is clear that it is far more useful

at lower levels because the target language lends itself to such activities even

though it can successfully be applied at Intermediate and Advanced levels. In this

respect, it is essential to adapt the language, accordingly. For example, when

teaching 'ways of walking' (stumble, stagger, and tiptoe) to an advanced class and

cooking verbs to intermediate students (whisk, stir, and grate), TPR can be

employed; It is not flexibly used to teach everything, and if used a lot, it would

become repetitive. This method is a fun way of changing the dynamics and pace

of a lesson used in conjunction with other methods and techniques. To sum up,

TPR should best be combined with others since it needs much energy so that

learners do not feel tired of learning language; and Although the use of TPR in the

classroom has often been effective, it does have its flaws. One of this method

flaws is that when a teacher uses TPR in their lesson, they will have trouble

teaching abstract vocabulary or expressions. As a remedy, the teacher can write

the word on cards with a picture if applicable. Another flaw is that TPR can be

ineffective if the teacher uses it for a long period of time without switching it with

other activities that help teach the target language. Since TPR is made up of

mainly of commands, it tends to neglect narrative, descriptions, and conversation

forms of language.

1.5. The application of TPR In The Classroom

TPR can be used to teach and practise such many things as: 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); and Story-telling

There is generally no basic text in a Total Physical Response course. Materials

and realia have a demanding role, yet in forthcoming learning stages. In this case,

the teacher's voice, actions, gestures, and common classroom objects, such as

books, pens, cups, and so on are great importance in the learning-teaching process

using TPR. The teacher may be required to use pictures, realia, slides, and word

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charts to set an interactive activity. According to Muhren (2003), the basic

technique of TPR is simple. Learners act out commands given by the teacher or

their fellow pupils (at a later stage). These commands, or series of commands, are

simple at the beginning (stand up, sit down) but after some time they may become

more complex (I want the boys to stand in a circle please). A TPR sequence can

be a chain of actions relating to a compound task (take pen and paper, sit down,

begin at the top of your paper, write down: Dear ...) or even contain a story-line.

Most importantly, a teacher helps learners to be totally involved in TPR activities

so that they can act out what they have heard. There is no pressure on them to

speak the foreign language. Before any learner can commence to speak out a

foreign language spontaneously as well as creatively, she must feel the inner

readiness to do so. When learners are ready, they feel that the words of the

language-sound and meaning integrated and combined into larger utterances -

spring from within themselves. This inner readiness will develop gradually but

inevitably with prolonged exposure to the sound of understood language and an

active involvement in its meaning. Here are sample material used in TPR:

Sample Materials :

Context : Teaching Vocabulary 1

New words : blue, yellow, green, orange, brown, grey, purple, black, white, card,

to pick up

Preparation : A number of small coloured cards, one of more cards on every

pupil's desk, a set of cards on a central desk.

Procedures :

a) The teacher picks up cards one by one and says what colour they are (A blue

card, an orange card, a yellow card, a red card, abrown card,a grey card, a

purple card, a black card, a white card, a green card, red, blue and purple)

b) The teacher gives commands to the class.

Who's got a red card? Show it to me.

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Who's got a blue card? Show it to me.

Who's got a yellow card? Show it to me.

c) The teacher invites individual pupils to come out to the central desk.

Devi, pick up a purple card and show it to the class.

Show the class a black card.

Show the class a green card.

Show the class a grey card.

B. SUGGESTOPEDIA

Suggestopedia is a teaching method, which focuses on how to deal with

the relationship between mental potential and learning efficacy and it is very

appropriate to use in teaching speaking for young language learners (Xue, 2005).

This method was introduced by a Bulgarian psychologist and educator, George

Lazanov in 1975. Maleki (2005) believed that we are capable of learning much

more than we think, provided we use our brain power and inner capacities.

Suggestopedia is an effective comprehensible input based method with a

combination of desuggestion and suggestion to achieve superlearning. The most

important objective of Suggestopedia is to motivate more of students’ mental

potential to learn and which obtained by suggestion. Desuggestion means

unloading the memory banks, or reserves, of unwanted or blocking memories.

Suggestion then means loading the memory banks with desired and facilitating

memories.

1.1. The main features

a) The use of music to relax learners.

b) The furniture, decoration and the arrangement of the classroom.

c) Teacher’s authority. The teacher plays a central role and he/she is the

source of all information

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1.2. The Role Of The Teacher

The teacher is the motor of this machine called Suggestopedia, depending on

his behavior the suggestive effect in the students will be right or wrong. Verbal

and non verbal elements in the classroom, the voice intonation, corporal

movements, the guidance and the creation of dinamic games play an important

role in this learning process creating possitive encouragement between the

students.

1.3. The Teaching Techniques

a) Classroom set-up, that is, the teacher provides as relaxed and comfortable

an environment as possible. The classroom is provided with dim lights,

soft music, cushioned armchairs, and walls decorated with scenes from a

country where the target language is spoken.

b) Peripheral learning, that is, it is much more in the environment.

c) Positive suggestion, that is, the teacher has responsibility to orchestrate the

suggestive factors in a learning situation, thereby helping students to break

down the barriers in learning they bring with them.

d) Visualization, that is, students are asked to close their eyes and to

concentrate on their breathing and the teacher speaks in a quiet voice,

describing a scene or event. The description is detailed so students feel

they are really there.

e) Choose a new identity, that is, the students choose a target language name

and a new occupation.

f) Role-play, that is, students are asked to pretend temporally that they are

someone else and to perform in the target language as if they were that

person.

g) First concert, that is, the music is played while the teacher reads the

dialogue and the students are asked to find out some grammatical points.

h) Second concert, that is, the students simply close their eyes and listen as

the teacher 2reads the dialogue at a normal rate of speed with musical

accompaniment.

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i) Primary activation, that is, students playfully reread the target language

dialogue out loud as individuals or in groups. Each group reads the

dialogue in particular manner.

j) Secondary activation, that is, students are engaged in various activities

which include singing, dancing, dramatizations, and games.

1.4. Advantages and Disadvantages of Suggestopedia

a) Advantages. There are some benefits in utilizing suggestopedia:

Through Suggetopedia we learn to trust the power of the mind.

We also learn that delibrately induced states of relaxation can be valuable

at times in the classroom.

We can also benefit from the use of music to get students sit back and

relax.

Authority concept. Students remember best and are most influenced by

information coming from an authoritative source, teachers.

Peripheral learning. Suggestopedia encourages the students to apply

language more independently, take more personal responsibility for their

own learning and get more confidence. Peripheral information can also

help encourage students to be more experimental, and look to sources

other than the teacher for language input. For example, the students can

make some sentences using the grammatical structure placed on the

classroom’s wall, describe a particular place in an English speaking

country by looking at the poster on the wall, etc. When the students are

successful in doing such self-activities, they will be more confident.

b) Disadvantages. The main disadvantages of suggestopedia are as follow:

Environment limitation. Most schools in developing countries have large

classes. Each class consists of 30 to 40 students. One of the problems

faced in utilizing this method is the number of students in the class. There

should be 12 students in the class (Adamson, 1997).

It is not a practical method as teachers face the problem of the availability

of music and comfortable chairs.

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Lozanov refers in a number of occasions to the importance of

memorization, excluding any reference to comprehension and creative

problem solving. In fact language is not only about the power of the mind

to memeorize. It’s about understanding, interacting and producing novel

utterences in different unpredictable situations.

1.6. The application of Suggestopedia In The Classroom

a) Presentation

Presentation is the basis of conducting Suggestopedia in class successfully.

The main aim in this stage is to help students relaxed and move into a

positive frame of mind, with the feeling that the learning is going to be

easy and funny. Desuggestion and suggestion happen at this stage at the

same time.

b) Concert

First Concert.

This involves the active presentation of the material to be learnt. The

original form of Suggestopedia presented by Lozanov consisted of the use

of extended dialogues, often several pages in length, accompanied by

vocabulary lists and observations on grammatical points.

Second Concert

The students are now guided to relax and listen to some Baroque music.

The best choice of music according to Lozanov, with the text being

studied very quietly in the background. During both types of reading, the

learners will sit in comfortable seats, armchairs rather than classroom

chairs, in a comfortable environment. After the readings of these long

dialogues to the accompaniment of music, the teacher will then make use

of the dialogues for more conventional language work. The music brings

the students into the optimum mental state for the effortless acquisition of

the material. The students, then, make and practice dialogue after they

memorize the content of the materials.

c) Practice

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The use of a range of role-plays, games, puzzles, etc. to review and

consolidate the learning. Here is an example of teaching speaking using

role play:

The teacher greets the students with either English or their native

language and tells them that they will have a new and exciting

experience in language learning.

The teacher asks the students to close their eyes and tell them that

they will go to an English speaking country. For example, they are

in an airport. “Now, you are in an airport of America, listen to the

people around you. They are talking with immigration officials”,

said the teacher. The teacher asks them to open their eyes and bring

their awareness to the class. She says,”Welcome to English!”.

Then, the teacher tells them that they will have new names and

identities by showing a poster showing English names. The

students will pronounce the names by repeating the teacher. The

teacher helps them by doing pantomime to help them understand

about their new identities such as doctor, nurse, police, etc.

The teacher greets each student using his name and ask some

questions in English about his occupation. Through her action, the

students understand the meaning and they reply ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

The teacher teaches them a short dialogue about greeting in

English. After that, the students will practice. The teacher tells the

students that they are having a party and they have to introduce one

another by their new names and identities.

Next, the teacher announces that the class is over and they will

have another exciting activity tomorrow and they do not have

homework.

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