b. Teacher and Learner Roles Teacher Roles
The teacher in Total Physical Response classroom is the teacher that to take a role like a director, direct learner with giving them command
and learner must respond. The teacher needs to make learning process is active and fun. Because of that, the teacher should have well-prepared and
well-organized so that the lesson will flow like what you want and predictable.
Learner Roles
The main role of the learner is as a listener and performer.
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Learner listens commands from the teacher listener and respond it with physically performer. Learners are like an actor in the classroom who
performs all the command from teacher. The teacher has to make learners monitor and evaluate their own progress. So they have ability to know the
progress of their achievement.
c. Types of Learning and activities
Type of learning in Total Physical Response is with the imperative drill. Where the teacher gives commands, request, suggestion and so on, to the
students until they understand the meaning of the sentence and each verb in the sentence. After the students understand the teacher start to explain about
the material. In conclusion, Total Physical Response has an objective there is to
teach oral proficiency of the students using the sentence-based syllabus. In the classroom, the teacher and learners have their own roles. The roles are connected
each other. It can symbolize like a director and an actor, with giving commands, request, suggestion and so on to the actor until students understand the meaning of
the sentence, the sentence is delivered by command, request, and so on.
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Jack C. Richards, and Theodore S. Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: A Description and Analysis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, p. 93.
5. The Advantage and Disadvantage of Total Physical Response
Just like any method that use in teaching in the classroom, Total Physical Response also has advantage and disadvantage. For the advantage, it could help
teacher to deliver the material with a fun way, because Total Physical Response involve physical activities in teaching learning activity. Students will enjoy
getting up out their chairs and moving around. This is in line with the principles of TPR that is “Language learning is more effective when it is fun”.
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It means that learning a foreign language with Total Physical Response helps the student
interest to the lesson and it helps student to understand the meaning of the sentence. Meanwhile, Setiyadi said that “to avoid the students from stress,
language class consists of commands and language learners perform physically”.
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Based on that definition, we could see that with physical activities students will ready to receive the lesson that teaches by the teacher because they did not feel
stress. However, Total Physical Response also has disadvantage. The
disadvantage of Total Physical response is the limitation of students’ vocabulary. In Total Physical Response, teacher stress to students that they may guess the
meaning of the sentence by performing the actions in accordance with the command. If students have lack of vocabulary, they will not understand the
command and make them confuse. Confusion in performing the actions may cause boredom and frustration.
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If students feel bored, they will not focus when studying the lesson and ignore the teacher. Because of that, teacher must be
careful in choosing words to teach. In conclusion, the advantage of Total Physical Response is providing the
teaching learning activities with a fun way or students perform the commands from the teacher with physical movement. And the disadvantage of Total Physical
Response is students will not understand the command if the students have lack of vocabulary.
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Diane Larsen-Freeman, Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 112.
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Bambang Setiyadi, Teaching English as A Foreign Language, Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu, 2006, p. 132.
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Bambang Setiyadi, Teaching English as A Foreign Language, … p. 128.
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