Total Physical Response (discussion)

What are the goals of teachers who use TPR?
answer : Teachers who use TPR believe in the importance of having their students enjoy their experience in learning to communicate in a foreign language. In fact, TPR was developed in order to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign language and thereby encourage students to persist in their study beyond a beginning level of proficiency.
What is the role of the teacher? what is the role of the students?
answer : Initially, the teacher is the director of all students behavior. The students are imitators of her nonverbal model. At some point (usually after ten to twenty hours of instruction), some students will be 'ready to speak.' At that point there will be a role reversal with individual students directing the teacher and the other students.
What are some characteristics of the teaching/learning process?
answer : The first phase of a lesson is one of modeling. The instructor issues commands to a few students, then performs the actions with them. In the second phase, these same students demonstrate that they can understand the commands by performing them alone. The observers also have an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding.
What is the nature of student-teacher interaction? what is the nature of student-student interaction?
answer : The teacher interacts with the whole group of students and with individual students. Initially the interaction is characterized by the teacher speaking and the students responding nonverbally. Later on, the students become more verbal and the teacher responds nonverbally.