What Is TPR? TPR is based on the premise that the human brain has a biological program for acquiring any natural language on earth - including the sign language of the deaf. The process is visible when we observe how infants internalize their first language. The secret is a unique "conversation" between the parent and infant. For example, the first conversation is a parent saying, "Look at daddy. Look at daddy." The infant's face turns in the direction of the voice and daddy exclaims, "She's looking at me! She's looking at me!" Dr. Asher calls this "a language-body conversation" because the parent speaks and the infant answers with a physical response such as looking, smiling, laughing, turning, walking, reaching, grasping, holding, sitting, running, and so forth. Notice that these "conversations" continue for many many months before the child utters anything more intelligible than "mommy" or "daddy." Although the infant is not yet speaking, the child is imprinting a linguistic map of how the language works. Silently, the child is internalizing the patterns and sounds of the target language. When the child has decoded enough of the target language, speaking appears spontaneously. The infant's speech will not be perfect, but gradually, the child's utterances will approximate more and more that of a native speaker. TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE  (SAMPLE LESSON PLAN) by Judie Haynes Total Physical Response (TPR) is an ESL methodology developed by James J. Asher. It has been in use for nearly thirty years. While other methods have come and gone, TPR is still a valuable tool when teaching newly-arrived ESL students. Despite the wealth of materials available to us, nothing is more useful than this very direct and visual instruction. With the TPR method, the teacher says a single action word or phrase such as "jump" or "point to your eye" and then demonstrates the action. At first, students will only be able to follow the command. They may also be able to repeat the teacher's words as they copy the action . The next step is to proceed to more difficult language while still keeping the instruction direct and visual. I like to use simple TPR sequences in order to enlarge the students' vocabulary, teach the present continuous and past tense in context and practice English sentence structure and word order. When I teach a TPR lesson with my beginning students, I like to tape it in advance to music. This gives me the opportunity to repeat the command, demonstrate the action, and not worry about what command I need to do next. I can be sure that I have covered all of the actions that I intended to, and it helps me keep a record of what I have done. Of course, I save the tapes and use them again with my next group of newcomers. When you tape a sequence in advance, be sure to leave enough time between commands for students to act it out. Lesson Topic:  Total Physical Response (TPR) for Beginners Proficiency/Grade Level:  Beginning, Grades 1-8 Background Information: Basic TPR commands such as : Stand up, sit down, turn, jump, hop, march, eat, walk, wash, etc. More advanced commands such as: Stretch, yawn, brush (hair, teeth) Content Concepts and Skills: Present continuous and past tense in context; sentence structure and word order in English. Total physical responseInstructional sequence Choose background music for your TPR sequence. This is best done on a tape recorder which allows you to tape so that the music plays as a background to your words. Write a series of actions which students can act out. An example might be "Getting Up." ˇ I'm waking up. ˇ I'm rubbing my eyes. ˇ I'm yawning. ˇ I'm stretching. ˇ I'm getting out of bed. ˇ I'm washing my face. ˇ I'm brushing my teeth. ˇ I'm combing my hair. ˇ I'm getting dressed. ˇ I'm walking to the kitchen. ˇ I'm eating breakfast. ˇ I'm putting on my backpack. ˇ I'm kissing my mother "good-by." ˇ I'm opening the door. ˇ I'm walking to school. Have students demonstrate their mastery of the commands by stopping the tape after each command and asking each student to act out a command or two. This whole sequence can be repeated using the past tense once students have mastered the present tense. Even first graders can grasp the concept of "past tense" if you use a calendar to show today (October 26th) "I'm washing my face"; yesterday (October 25th) "I washed my face." Another example of a TPR sequence is "Going to Bed." ˇ I'm watching TV. ˇ I'm eating popcorn. ˇ I'm tired. ˇ I'm stretching and yawning. ˇ I'm hugging my mom. ˇ I'm walking upstairs. ˇ I'm taking off my clothes. ˇ I'm getting into the bathtub. ˇ I'm taking a bath. ˇ I'm washing my hair. ˇ I'm drying myself with a towel. ˇ I'm putting on my pajamas. ˇ I'm getting into bed. ˇ I'm sleeping. Make up your own sequences as the need arises. With TESOLšs Pre-K-12 ESL Standards, Goal 3, a new spin can be put on this older methodology. Some of the social skills which need to be taught to your ESL students can be taught uses TPR sequences and are especially good for older students. Suggestions might be "Calling up a friend on the phone," "Inviting a classmate to your house." Or you can help your students write their own short sequences. everythingESL.net | 14-Nov-99 MORE SITES TO VISIT http://tpr-world.com/tpr_2001.html Year 2000 update for the Total Physical Responsehttp://tpr-world.com/tpr-y2k.html http://eslsv001.esl.sakuragaoka.ac.jp/teachers/BR/papers/ElucidatingTPR.html TPR and Beyond