Total Physical Response in early school education.

The earlier one begins to acquire a foreign language, the greater engagement of the right hemisphere in the process is. If it starts later, the left hemisphere is the more active factor. These facts considered, younger learners require a different treatment to the older ones. When organizing activities for younger children, the teacher must remember that the learners are able to perform well only if they feel safe, when the task is meaningful to them, when they feel their own effort is reflected in the effect. To achieve these, the teacher needs to select the right methods.
The value of the method lies in whether, and to what extent, it triggers cognitive, emotional and practical activities of the pupils, which is indispensible for studying the reality and influencing it.
In the didactics of language teaching one can find various methods. Foreign language teaching uses conventional methods (direct, grammar translation, audio-lingual, cognitive) as well as unconventional methods. The common feature of the latter group is focusing attention on the learner and taking into account his feeling of safety, learning style, preferences, expectations, and interests. It is the learner’s own activity that is emphasized in the modern theory of education. The pupil is not a passive listener, but participates in his own education. These methods imply that in communication process it is not only the brain that learns, but also the body and even emotions.
One of these unconventional methods is Total Physical Response (TPR). The method was developed by Asher in the 1970s in the United States. Asher assumes that learning and remembering new material is facilitated by two kinds of a learner’s activities:
- silent use of the language
- physical response connected with the content of communication.
J. Asher sees learning of both the first and the second language as similar processes. The central propositions are:
- children develop listening competence before they are able to speak; in the initial phase of the first language acquisition, they can understand a complex message without being able to spontaneously imitate or produce speech.
-the child’s listening comprehension is achieved because he is supposed to respond physically to the spoken language (the parents’ orders)
- once the listening competence has been achieved, speech develops in a natural way, without effort.
The teacher, working with this method, gives simple commands in the foreign language. They are structured in such a way that obeying them does not require verbal response. In each case, physical response with the whole body engagement is necessary. The objective is to activate the left hemisphere, which is responsible for realising physical response. TPR method uses various stimuli to reflect reality outside classroom.
Other characteristic features of this method are:
- priority of listening and physical response over speaking;
- the use of imperative and interrogative moods as the predominant functions, even at the advanced level;
- use of humour during the lesson to make it more pleasant;
- no demand that the students should speak until they feel safe enough and ready to do so;
- priority of grammar and vocabulary over other language spheres.
The typical techniques used in this method are:
- the use of commands to stimulate behaviour;
- exchanging roles – students give commands to the teacher or other students;
- action sequence – with the advancement in learning, new commands, requiring new kind of response, are added.
Teachers who use the TPR believe that their pupils rely on their own experience when communicating in a foreign language. The method was developed to ease the stress felt by those who learn a language and to encourage consolidation and increasing the student’s experiences and skills.
TPR is most suitable for teaching the grammar and vocabulary of imperatives, tenses and aspects. It allows relaxation during the lesson overcoming inhibitions and fear to speak. It is used in the early phase of teaching (class I–III), in which, as mentioned above, the child’s motor development is in progress and there is a natural need of mobility.