Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching approach which is built around the coordination of speech and action; it aims to teach children foreign language through physical activities. Students can acquire a foreign language by acquisition of comprehensible input through reacting imperative drills and other activities in classes, which is just like babies learn their first language. (Asher, 1969)
“The method relies on the assumption that when learning a second or additional language that is internalized through a process of code breaking similar to first language development and that the process allows for a long period of listening and developing comprehension before production.”(Asher, 1969:13-17)
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Total Physical Responses (TPR),is a second language teaching method,developed by Dr.James J.Asher in 1966,and became very popular in 1970s.This approach is focused on the mode of interaction in language learning, and an advocate of the language and behavior linked to teach foreign languages through body movements. It is the essence: given directions by verbal orders, supplemented by body movement demonstration to help understand the meaning of instruction, and when the learners fully understand the significance of the statement, then to make the right response through body movements, which not only can reduce the opening pressure, but also can accumulate enough confidence. Asher convinced that the receiving and hearing of a lot of information and the reaction of body movements combined to make the impression of learning more profound and lasting.
TPR was introduced to our country, which aroused widespread interest among educational researchers and English teachers in China. Especially after entering twenty—first century, the foreign language education began to spread to the primary school. TPR has caused serious concern of primary and secondary school English teachers due to its own characteristics. After careful research on the theoretical basis, the teaching method in the teaching activity and the teaching steps, they start to apply TPR in the English classroom as a teaching method, combing the reality of the foreign language teaching with the characteristics of English teaching and learning in primary and middle school, which has achieved significant results. Many primary and secondary school teachers write their teaching conditions and reflections on paper for other English teachers to reference. Most of them think that the TPR method provides an effective way for teaching English to children, but at the same time, they also see the shortcomings and limitations of TPR. These scholars and teachers generally think that TPR will achieve better results if it is efficiently combined with other teaching methods.文献综述
Hu Tieqiu, a famous professor of the Affiliated High School of Peking University points out in an article, TPR—a modern foreign language teaching approach worthy of promotion, TPR has many advantages, but because of the environmental culture, language transfer, teacher’s language ability and personal charm, teaching materials and teaching aids, the number of classes and methods of assessment of many factors, TPR also has some problems in the implementation process. For example, the memories and interpretation of the words and phrases are not stressed enough; students’ cognitive level is not easy to determine; Study effect evaluation is hard to quantify and so on. Therefore, only with TPR, it is difficult to achieve ideal mark. However, the standardization of traditional teaching method can make up for the deficiency of TPR in these areas due to its own very strong compatibility and flexibility which make it applied well in language teaching together with other methods. Therefore, the organic combination of TPR and other traditional teaching methods, complement each other, can further deepen the reform of foreign language teaching in China and achieve the ideal learning effect finally. (Hu Tieqiu,2000:54-56)