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Total Physical Response

Approach

Design

Theory of Learning

Theory of Language

Syllabus

Objectives

Roles

Types of learning and teaching activities

Teacher

The general objectives of Total Physical Response are to teach oral pro fi ciency at a beginning level. Comprehension is a means to an end, .And the ul timate aim is to teach basic speaking skills.

Total Physical Response requires inititial attention to meaning rather than to the form of items. Grammar is thus taught inductively. Grammatical features and vocabulary items are selected not according to their frequency of need or use in target language situations, but according to the situations in which they can be used in the classroom and the ease with which they ca n be learned.

Class activities include role plays and slide presentations. Role plays center on everyday situations, such as at the restaurant, supermarket, or gas station. The slide presentations are used to provide a visual center for teacher narration, which is followed by commands, and for questions to students, such as "Which person in the picture is the salesperson?". Reading and writing activities may also be employed to further consolidate structures and vocab ul ary, and as follow-ups to oral imperative drills

Learner

Instuctional materials

They have the primary roles of listener and performer. They listen attentively and respond physicall y to commands given by the teacher. Learners are required to respond both individually and collectively.

It is the teacher who decides what to teach, who models and presents the new materials, and who selects supporting materials for classroom use.

There is generally no basic text In a Total Physical Response course.

Asher's language learning theories are reminiscent of the views of other behavioral psychologists. For example, the psychologist Arthur Jensen proposed a seven-stage model to describe the development of verbal learning in children.

Asher sees language as being composed of abstractIons and nonabstractions with nonabstractions being most specifically represented by concrete nouns and imperative verbs. He believes that lea rners can acquire a " detailed cognitive map" as well as :'the grammatical structure of a language" without recourse to abstractions.