Assignment: Total Physical Response

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Total Physical Response

M.K Bhavnagar University

Department of English

Sem 3

Name- Hema Goswami

Roll no. 13

Enrollment no. 2069108420180020

Paper no. 12- English Language Teaching

Topic: Total Physical Response

Introduction

Language teaching methods have cast light on the language teaching theory and practice. Some methods are still in controversy regarding their usefulness. However it never devalued its effectiveness. Language teaching has a long fascinating but rather tortuous history. Many different methods are:-

i)                   The Direct Method

ii)                The Grammar Translation method

iii)              Audio Lingual Method

iv)              The structural method

v)                Suggestopedia method

vi)              Total physical response

vii)           Communicative language teaching method

Each of the different methods has contributed new elements and has attempted to deal with some issues of language learning all these method caries different social and educational needs. A teacher who is going to apply any of these methods, then he/she has to consider several questions in their mind that who the learners are?, to whom they are going to teach?, what is their level of language?, and many more (Dong-ling)

Total Physical Response

Total Physical response is one of the most simplest and active method of language teaching. It is developed by James Asher, a professor emeritus of psychology. There is coordination of language and Physical movement. Instructors used target language to give commands to students with body movements, similarly students respond with full body movements. In this method the learner responds to simple commands such as, “Sit down”, “Stand up”, “Head Down” etc. The method stresses the importance over hearing comprehension. It is very much useful in infants learning. Infants have not started to speak their mother tongue from birth. They first observe their surroundings, the way people used to communicate; they saw various movements from people. There is only hearing, watching and learning process. They speak with their caretakers silently with hand movements, various gestures, even their facial expressions shows various emotions.

There is total physical action in infant during learning new surroundings (Sperling). Like, smile for grandmother, pick up your toy and out it on your bed.  These all can be taken as language body conversation.

Students come to life

By Language body conversation, students come to life. It is not only about children, but adults, old aged everyone come to life. They get excited because they understanding everything. What the instructor is saying, everything, every command got clear in mind through physical movements. There is one sentence that:-

“If you can’t convince students in five minutes that they can learn any language, you will not convince them even if they stay in your class for a year”

That is very significant in context of language learning through Total Physical response method. Therefore it is most powerful tool in linguistic tool box.

Stress Free Tool

An important condition for successful language learning is the absence of stress. First language acquisition takes place in stress free environment. Total Physical Response prepared students for a successful transition to speaking, reading and writing. This is a stress free tool in which there is no need to remember any phrase or text. It known in worldwide as TPR and has stood over the time in thousands of language with success. The key to stress-free learning is to tap into the natural bio-program for language development and thus to recapture the relaxed and pleasurable experiences that accompany first language learning. By focusing on meaning interpreted through movement, rather than on language forms, the learner is said to be liberated from self-conscious and stressful situations and is able to devote full energy to learning.

Role of learner and Teacher

Learners have primary roles of listening and performing. They listen attentively and respond physically to commands given by the teacher. Learners are required to respond both individually and collectively. Learners have little influence over the content of learning, since content is determined by the teacher.

Teacher plays an active and direct role in Total Physical Response. He is the director of the stage and learners are the actor. Teacher decides

What to teach, who models and presents the new material for classroom use.

Internalizing Language

With total physical response students can internalize any language as easy, fast as they can. With this method students can get great success in short span of time without getting bore.

Comprehension Approach

This method is an example of the comprehension approach to language teaching. There are two purposes of listening and responding:-

i)                   Quickly recognizing meaning in the language.

ii)                Means of passively learning the structure of the language itself.

Vocabulary

Total Physical response method helps a lot in learning vocabulary especially idiomatic terms (wikipedia contributors). Asher saw the conversation between parents and children; he has noticed that form of speech delivered by parents followed by a physical response from the child.

Three Hypotheses based on this observation:-

i)                   Language is learned primarily by listening

ii)                Language learning must engage the right hemisphere of the brain

iii)              Learning language should not involve any stress

Total Physical response is most popular among the beginners who have just begins to learn new language. It was not restricted to any specific group or age.

James Asher

Asher hypothesizes that speech develops naturally and spontaneously after learners internalize the target language through input. And that it should not be forced.

“A reasonable hypothesis is that the brain and the nervous system are biologically programmed to acquire language, either the first or the second in a particular sequence and in a particular mode. The sequence is listening before speaking and the mode is to synchronize language with the individual’s body”.

-                                                                                                   -Asher

No force

In total physical response students are not forced to speak as it do not requires spoken output. Teacher will wait until the students will acquired enough language. The ultimate goal of this method is to develop oral fluency. It is the most efficient way of developing spoken language skills.

Primary focus on meaning

This very method differentiates with Grammar translation by putting its main aim to meaning rather than grammar, verb. In this method Grammar is not explicitly taught, but is learned by induction.

Codebreaking

Students in this method are subconsciously acquire the grammatical structure of the language through exposure to spoken language input, in addition to decoding the messages in input to find their meaning. Therefore this approach to listening is called “codebreaking”.

Philosophy of language teaching

It is a teaching technique in which teachers do not have to limit themselves because the students are only expected to listen and not to speak. Teacher can decide that what inputs a student can hear.

Asher suggests that students can learn between 12-36 words for every hour of instruction, depending on their language level and class size.

Trace theory

Total Physical Response linked to “Trace theory” of memory in psychology. It holds the more often or the more intensively a memory connection, the stronger the memory association will be and the more likely it will be recalled.

Skillful use of the imperative

Asher does not directly discuss the nature of language. However, the labeling and ordering of Total physical Response classroom drills seem to be built on assumption that owe much to structuralist or grammar-based views of language. Asher claims that “most of the grammatical structure of the target language and hundreds of vocabulary items can be learned from the skillful use of the imperative by the instructor” (vobs contributors).

Right Brain Learning

Asher sees Total Physical Response as directed to right-brain learning, whereas most second language teaching methods are directed to left-brain learning. Asher refers to neurological studies of the brains of cats and studies of an epileptic boy whose corpus callosum was surgically divided. Asher interprets these as demonstrating that the brain is divided into hemispheres according to function, with language activities centralized in the right hemisphere.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Total Physical Response

Advantages

     

     i) Mind refreshing activity

     ii)  Learning with fun

     iii) Can be used in both large and small classes

     iv) No need of lots of preparation

     v) Assist students to recognize phrases or words

 Disadvantages

     i)  Some students might find it embarrassing who are not used to it.

     ii)  Only suitable for beginner levels.

     iii) Not flexibly used to teach everything

     iv) It needs much energy so that learners not feel tired

     v) It can be effective if a teacher used it for long period of time (Widodo)

Conclusion

Therefore in total physical method, teachers are responsible for giving commands and monitoring actions taken by the learners. On the contrary, the learners are imitators of teacher’s verbal and non-verbal models. The interaction between a teacher and learners is signified by the teacher speaking and the learner responding nonverbally. Later on, the learners become more verbal and the teacher responds nonverbally.

Works Cited

Dong-ling, CHEN Jing and ZHANG. "An analysis of language teaching approaches and methods-effectiveness and weakness." january 2007. files.eic,ed,gov/fulltext. <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED497389.pdf>.

Sperling, Dr. John. The Total Physical Response by Dr.James J. Asher. Cambridge university, England, 1973.

vobs contributors. Total physical response. <http://www2.vobs.at/ludescher/total_physical_response.htm>.

Widodo, Handoyo Puji. "Teaching children using a total physical response method." 2 august 2005. <https://www.slideshare.net/asmarany3/total-response>.

wikipedia contributors. Total physical response. 12 august 2018. 3 november 2018 <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Total_physical_response&oldid=854632893>.