THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE METHOD FOR SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

Abstract

Abstract : The purpose of this report was to evaluate the Total Physical Response Method for learning to understand spoken Russian. Ss listened to commands in Russian, then along with a model, obeyed with a physical action. Early in training the commands in Russian were one-word utterances as 'Stand', 'Sit', 'Run', 'Stop', 'Turn', and 'Squat'. Later, the commands were expanded in complexity as for example, 'Walk to the table, pick up the book, and put it down near the door.' The primary results showed that Ss who learned with the total physical response technique retained significantly more Russian (p<.001 using two-tailed t tests) than control Ss who translated into English. The second finding was that the facilitating effect occurred during the performance task - the retention tests, rather than in training. The third finding was that a training procedure in which an attempt was made to acquire together, both listening and speaking of Russian significantly decreased the understanding of Russian in comparison with Ss receiving listening training only. The fourth result was that when the action technique was applied to both adults and children, the adults vastly outperformed the children in listening comprehension of Russian.

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