Total Physical Response

TPR (total physical response) is a method of teaching language using physical movement
to react to verbal input in order to reduce student inhibitions and lower their affective
filter. It allows students to react to language without thinking too much, facilitates long
term retention, and reduces student anxiety and stress. In order to implement TPR
effectively, it is necessary to plan regular sessions that progress in a logical order, and
to keep several principles in mind.

Some principles :
● Build on what has gone before
● Prepare a script
● Recycle language and review extensively
● Don't change the target language
● Be good-natured and positive
● Introduce limited number of new items and manipulate them extensively
● Incorporate some humor
● Students don't speak
● Students don't “help” each other

the objectives of Total Physical Response
* Teaching oral proficiency at a beginning level
* Using comprehension as a means to speaking
* Using action-based drills in the imperative form

To make this basic TPR more interesting, Teacher Joe uses some rather funny commands. For example, after telling students to put their left hand in the air, he has them put both hands in the air, then follows up by asking students to put both FEET in the air. The whole sequence is below:

- put your left hand in the air
- put it down
- put your right hand in the air
- put it down
- put both hands in the air
- put them down
- put your left foot in the air
- put it down
- put your right foot in the air
- put it down
- put both feet in the air!

In the classroom the teacher and students take on roles similar to that of the parent and child respectively. Students must respond physically to the words of the teacher. The activity may be a simple game such as Simon Says or may involve more complex grammar and more detailed scenarios.

TPR can be used to practice and teach various things. It is well suited to teaching classroom language and other vocabulary connected with actions. It can be used to teach imperatives and various tenses and aspects. It is also useful for story-telling.

Because of its participatory approach, TPR may also be a useful alternative teaching strategy for students with dyslexia or related learning disabilities, who typically experience difficulty learning foreign languages with traditional classroom instruction.

According to its proponents, it has a number of advantages: Students will enjoy getting up out of their chairs and moving around. Simple TPR activities do not require a great deal of preparation on the part of the teacher. TPR is aptitude-free, working well with a mixed ability class, and with students having various disabilities.[9] It is good for kinæsthetic learners who need to be active in the class. Class size need not be a problem, and it works effectively for children and adults.

However, it is recognized that TPR is most useful for beginners, though it can be used at higher levels where preparation becomes an issue for the teacher. It does not give students the opportunity to express their own thoughts in a creative way. Further, it is easy to overuse TPR-- "Any novelty, if carried on too long, will trigger adaptation."[7] It can be a challenge for shy students. Additionally, the nature of TPR places an unnaturally heavy emphasis on the use of the imperative mood, that is to say commands such as "sit down" and "stand up". These features are of limited utility to the learner, and can lead to a learner appearing rude when attempting to use his new language. Of course, as a TPR class progresses, group activities and descriptions can be used which continue the basic concepts of TPR into full communication situations.