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A language-teaching method that was developed by James Asher in the early 1970s. Like the natural approach, it is a
comprehension approach, based on the belief that learners need only understand input, and should not be required to speak until they are ready to (-+ silent period). TPR is modelled on the way that young children receive
comprehensible input in their first language. Learners are exposed to input in the form of commands that require a physical response, such as Stand up, turn around, pick up the orange, hand it to me, etc. Hence, teaching sequences consist of a series of such commands that learners first see being demonstrated, and then act out themselves. Auxiliary verb which expresses the mood or the attitude and modifies the meaning of the main verb in the sentence e.g. must, can, could, will, would, may, might, shall, should. There are 9 pure modal verbs, they do not conjugate like normal verbs & they express functions such as possibility, ability, prediction & obligation. They can have extrinsic (likelihood) and intrinsic (obligation, ability) meaning and each modal verb can express both meanings. A language-teaching method the mains characteristics of which are: only TL must be used in the classroom, no translation is allowed, grammar is taught inductively, form and meaning are established using realia, pictures, demonstrations; T>Ss and S<>S interaction patterns, questions/answers (full answers are important), topic/situation based syllabuses, Ss self-correct themselves, speaking is the most important but all four skills are developed. For example:
T: Stand. I'm standing next to the door. Am I standing next to the door?
S: Yes, you are standing next to the door.
T: Where am I standing?
S: You are standing next to the door. Lesson design proposed by Jim Scrivener.
Authentic use: I can use all the language I have at my disposal. Activities such as communicative activities, discussions, conversations, or in skills other than speaking, reading newspapers, poems, notices, listening to radio or TV. Authentic stages of the lesson occur when students do things which we would do ourselves as native speakers.
Restricted language use: there is a deliberate limitation on the language that I use. I am using only part of what I know. Indeed I am being directed to use a particular item. Drills, exercises, elicited dialogues etc. Scrivener later revised his description of Restricted Use into R1 and R2, where R1 is more accuracy and form focussed, and R2 is freer, more meaning focussed practice.
Clarification and focus of language item: As if using a magnifying glass, I zoom in and look closely at some specific pieces of language. These pieces may be 'new' to me or they may be language that I already use (note that this is the language focus category). Rules, examples, reference information translation, error analysis etc. 