TPR (Total Physical Response) has really taught me a lot this week. Oh, and my students learned a something too! I don't believe there is any technique as versatile and as useful as TPR when teaching beginners in a language. This week, for example, when setting up the aforementioned quiz game (See Post 16), I had the students draw a chart using commands in TPR-fashion. I got instant feedback on what my students understood and what they didn't understand – they did not always notice when I said "draw one line" or "draw two lines". When I said "write ~ on the right", they sometimes wrote BELOW the previous word or sentence. When I asked them to spell "baseball", they told me the Chinese meaning ("bangqiu"!) instead of the spelling. A few students, even after hearing "baseball" spelled, still wrote "basketball", but most got it.

Of course the best thing about TPR is not that I found out what they did not understand. The best thing is that now they DO understand. They no longer have to feel that they can't understand the teacher. They no longer have to feel that it's too difficult. If they pay attention, they'll figure out the meaning behind the words. It's not just a fun activity. It's real learning on the deepest level.

My challenge now is this: how can I build on this in the future?