3. Complexion and techniques of tpr classroom activities

This chapter will present what advantageous teaching techniques and materials teachers use in order to achieve the best results, how differs teaching procedures and what are advantages and disadvantages of Total Physical response.

1. Tpr teaching materials and Activities

TPR can be used to practice and teach various things. It is well suited to teaching classroom language and other vocabulary connected with actions. According to Richard and Rodgers (2001) there are some activities which are done by the teacher and students in teaching learning process, as follows: Imperative drill, Conversational dialogue, Role play, Reading and Writing. Imperative drills are the major classroom activity in Total Physical Response. They are typically used to elicit physical actions and activity on the part of the learners. In this sense, students play main roles as a listener and a performer. They listen attentively and respond physically to commands by the teacher. Students need to respond both individually and collectively. Conversational dialogues should be delayed until after about 120 hours of instruction and students are encouraged to speak when they feel ready to speak. However role plays centre on everyday situations, such as at the restaurant, supermarket, kitchen, hotel, or gas station. In role plays, the teacher (instructor) will be a director of a stage play and the students are the actors/actress. The teacher decides what will be learned, who will be role and show the material of learning. Reading and writing activities are used to add students’ vocabulary and to train students arranging the sentence based on tenses, e.c. each time the teacher writes a command, she acts it out. The students copy the sentences from the blackboard/whiteboard into the notebooks (Richards, Rodgers, 2001)..

For beginners no textbooks are needed but the teacher's voice, actions, TPR songs and gestures become the most important tools. Later the teacher may use common classroom objects such as books, pens, radio, furniture that students can not only observe but also touch, use or point to. Later in the course, the teacher will need additional supporting materials including pictures, realia, word cards, and real objects such as toys, goods, clothes or Asher’s TPR student kits. Most of these materials can teachers make themselves or collect them from pet shops, home or magazines. The TPR student kits can be used effectively as they concentrate on specific situations such as home, school, supermarket, park or beach. If the teacher is artistic, the TPR kits can be replaced for example by huge paintings of different rooms in different corners of the classroom or by posters of similar use. Students may use these kits, paintings or posters to construct scenes (Richards, Rodgers, 2001).

It can be concluded that there are four types of TPR activities: Imperative drill, Conversational dialogue, Role play, Reading and Writing. For absolute beginners, lessons may not require the use of materials, since the teacher’s voice, actions and gestures may be a sufficient basis for classroom activities. Later, the teacher may use common classroom objects, such as books, pens, cups, furniture. As the course develops, the teacher will need to make or collect supporting materials to support teaching points. These may include pictures, realia, slides, and word charts.