TPR (Total Physical Response) | Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching

Teaching a foreign language can be a challenging but rewarding job that opens up entirely new paths of communication to students including TPR (total physical response). It’s beneficial for teachers to have knowledge of the many different language learning techniques including ESL teaching methods so they can be flexible in their instruction methods, adapting them when needed. That's where TPR or total physical response can come in. This is when students are expected to use their bodies to act out new words that they're learning. For example, sit down or stand behind your friend. TPR works particularly well for teaching young learners, especially beginners. Watch along for all the details you need to know about the most popular foreign language teaching methods. Some of the ones covered are the communicative approach, total physical response, the direct method, task-based language learning, suggestopedia, grammar-translation, the audio-lingual approach and more. This video dives deep into using TPR (total physical response) in the language learning classroom. --------------------------- Learn about another language teaching method (grammar-translation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4wITfj_v-A -------------------------- More information about total physical response for language teaching: Check out: https://eslspeaking.org/total-physical-response-tpr/ ------------------------- Want to find out more about TPR? Tips for Teaching ESL/EFL: https://amzn.to/3o9kFCj https://eslspeaking.org/total-physical-response-tpr/ https://www.facebook.com/eslspeaking https://www.pinterest.ca/eslspeaking/ https://www.instagram.com/jackie.bolen/ https://www.tiktok.com/@englishwithjackie #tpr #teachingenglishwithjackie #teachingenglish #esl ------------------------------ More details about using TPR with @Teacher Michael https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrxgmh9SfQM ------------------------------ Tags: TPR, total physical response, TPR total physical response, total physical response, TPR, language teaching approach, language teaching approaches, language teaching method, language teaching methods, teaching young learners, teaching esl, teaching english to kids Transcript: Hi everybody, this is Jackie Bolen from eslspeaking.org. So today I'm going to talk about a teaching strategy, TPR or total physical response. This is basically where you give a command or a directive and then students have to physically act it out. It could be something like touching your head or picking up your book, putting your pencil on the desk, opening your book, etc. It combines language learning plus physical movement. It can make, in a lot of ways language learning more memorable. It takes it from the brain, only in the brain, kind of this abstract thing, learning a language and it turns it into something physical and tangible as well. I think it uses different pathways in the brain and yeah, it just makes it more memorable. It's best for young learners. I would use this often in definitely like preschool or kindergarten classes or with elementary school students. They love standing up, moving around the classroom, and doing stuff like this. Something that I love using TPR with is prepositions: in, on, under, behind, etc. I would have the students go with a partner in most cases and I would say stand behind your partner. Who's in front, who's behind and touch your partner's right arm, something like that. So that's not an example of prepositions but that's a command. One game that works really well for a total physical response is Simon says. I'm sure you know it. So you say Simon says, touch your arm. Simon says stand on one leg. And students have to do it but if you say to stand on one leg and someone does it, they are out of the game because you didn't say Simon says. Try that out. That's kind of a nice way to use TPR in your classes. Another situation in which I'd use TPR with young children and would use it as a routine to start off my class. I love doing a routine. I talk about the weather. I talk about the day of the week. I talk about what time it is and how people are doing. And then I might give some simple commands like stand up, sit down, turn around, touch something yellow, etc. Why use TPR? Well, it gives some energy to the class. I find that when students are sitting down for too long it gets tiring, it gets boring, so yeah people just need a bit of a break from that. So standing up and actually doing something physical can be a nice way. And I love that this combines something physical with also language learning. It also makes vocabulary, new vocabulary more memorable. Timestamp: 0:00 Intro 0:10 What is TPR? 0:27 Why use total physical response? 0:47 Ideal for young learners 1:01 What about TPR with adults? 1:24 Ideal for teaching prepositions 1:48 Simon says and TPR 2:11 Routines and TPR 2:33 Why use total physical response? 3:11 Conclusion