 Storytelling in the Yup’ik Immersion Classroom
Total Physical Response
James Asher’s Total Physical Response (TPR) is a technique
based on the belief that listening comprehension should be developed fully,
as it is with children learning their native language, before any active oral
participation from students is expected. It is based on the belief that skills
can be more rapidly assimilated if the teacher appeals to the students’ kinesthetic-sensory
system. TPR utilizes oral commands that students carry out to show their understanding
(Omaggio Hadley, 2001). Asher (1993) recommends focusing on physical movement,
drawing, acting in a skit and dramatizing a scenario (Stand up. Walk to the
door. Open the door, etc.). When giving commands for the first time, the teacher
models the desired behavior removing the model after several repetitions of
the same command (Curtain & Dahlberg, 2004). After responding confidently
to a number of single commands, the teacher begins to combine commands in original
and unexpected ways so that students discover that they can understand and
respond to language in ways they have never heard before (Curtain & Dahlberg,
2004).
Asher (1993 p. 2.4) identifies three key ideas that underlie
the TPR approach:
- Understanding of the spoken language must be developed in advance of speaking.
- Understanding should be developed through movements of the student’s
body. The imperative is a powerful aid because the instructor can utter commands
to manipulate student behavior. Asher’s (1993) research suggests that
most of the grammatical structures of the target language and hundreds of
vocabulary items can be learned through the skillful use of the imperative
by the instructor.
- Do not attempt to force speaking from students. As the students internalize
a cognitive map of the target language through understanding what is heard,
there will be a point of readiness to speak. The individual will spontaneously
begin to produce utterances.
TPR is not designed to be a comprehensive “method” but
represents instead a useful set of teaching ideas and techniques that can be
integrated into other methodologies for certain instructional purposes (Omaggio
Hadley, 2001). Asher has stressed that TPR should be used in association with
other methods and techniques (Richards & Rogers, 2001).
One criticism of TPR is that it “is fine at the beginning
of language training (perhaps the initial month or two) but then what?” (Asher,
1993). Asher suggests a follow-up to the TPR experience is storytelling (Asher,
1993). TPR Storytelling uses techniques that foster efficient language acquisition
and deep ingraining of vocabulary aurally through Total Physical Response in
the use of stories as a means of both instilling comprehensible input and eliciting
expression at the acquisition level of the student (Ray & Seely, 2001).
Where TPR alone is almost exclusively limited to the imperative mode (commands),
TPR Storytelling adds the narrative and descriptive modes of language which
allow teachers and students to achieve significantly higher levels of language
(Anderson & Marsh, 1998).
In TPR and the Natural Approach it is essential for the teacher
to establish a learning environment that maintains a low anxiety level among
the students so that they can make maximum use of the comprehensible input
the teacher provides. In TPR this means the teacher waits for the students
to be ready to speak and does not force the students to speak. However, in
TPR Storytelling the teacher expects the whole class to participate in the
storytelling activity. The students are expected to speak.
At first this may appear to be a contradiction. TPR says do not
demand speaking because it will raise the student’s affective filter
(see [General Steps of TPR Storytelling]). TPR Storytelling
says students have to participate by speaking.
The way I deal with this conflict is that at first I accept whatever
attempts the students make to say the words and phrases of the story. I gradually
correct their pronunciation whenever necessary, but I try not to focus on it
too much. Since TPR Storytelling is practiced as a whole group, students are
not singled out in a way that will stress them out or make them uncomfortable.
In short, the ideal TPR Storytelling event engages students in collaborative,
stress-free dramatic play and so does not raise the affective filter.
Table of Contents
| 
