Total Physical Response vs. The Silent Way - Unit 5

How do you learn best? There are so many different ways of learning and as a result huge amounts of different ways to teach. Different methods and techniques of teaching have been introduced over the centuries, some fade, some stick, some are revived years after their death. In this post, I want to compare and contrast two, of many, methods of teaching a language, total physical response, and the silent way. Both include good things and bad things about them which we will see shortly.
The total physical response method was developed by James Asher in 1977 (Brown & Lee, 2015, p.27). This method is based on a lot of children’s abilities to learn through listening and physical responses to their listening. Asher’s hope was to create a relaxed environment where students would feel safe to engage and participate in their language learning. It would begin with a lot of listening and physical responses but it would develop to where students would feel safe to begin to speak and ask questions.
Something valuable about the total physical response method is the engagement with the mind and body. Often students (including myself) get bored, stuck in a seat “listening”/suffering through a lecture. I doodle, think about what needs to be done at home, and make a mental grocery list instead of engaging with the material being presented in front of me. However, something as simple as the teacher saying, “repeat after me,” I clue right back in. Using physical response keep students alert. It also helps in memorization as our muscle memory, jolts our mind memory.
I recall once desiring to memorize a long piece of the Bible with a friend. We created a long sequence of actions to help us memorize it and we got really far. Even today I can recall some of the actions and scripture we memorized.
The total physical response method also has something lacking in its method is the encouragement of oral production. Although this method gives room for an oral response it is not taught as directly or as quickly as other methods, such as the silent way.
The silent way method was founded by Caleb Gattegno (Brown & Lee, 2015, p. 25

). This method is based on problem-solving. Encouraging individuality and responsibility is one of the main themes in the silent way method. In this method the teacher is silent as much as possible, students figure out solutions by themselves with little teacher influence. Teachers give brief suggestions and direction and give little feedback. 
One reason the silent way is a precious and helpful method is the lack of teacher interaction. Teachers often have the impulse to step in whenever a student is struggling, even mildly, with a skill. By creating an atmosphere where students are encouraged to problem-solve by themselves or amongst each other, students learn that they have more skills then they may think. Students find themselves surprised at what they know or what they can find out without a teacher giving them step by step directions. In this method, students can really grow in their autonomy with the assurance that a teacher is still available to correct and improve their skills.   
The silent way method is left wanting for the same reason it is effective, lack of teacher interaction. Left to themselves, in a sense, students have the potential of feeling lost or else like they could be doing the same thing at home. I was once in a Sunday school class that was run using the silent way. Although not a language class, I found myself frustrated that I was attending a class that was requiring me to do something I could do at home without a teacher’s guidance.
Both methods, total physical response, and the silent method have good and bad things about them. I think it is important to realize that one method and one method only is not helpful in most classrooms. Incorporating different methods based on your character and the characters in your class is essential for creating an effective classroom.

Bibliography

Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (Fourth ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education. 

For more resources look up these:

A. (2018, July 24). The Silent Way: An Unconventional Language Teaching Method. Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator/silent-way-teaching-method/

Rediscovering silent grammar. (2003, February). Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/rediscovering-silent-grammar

S. (2018, August 04). TPR for ESL: How Total Physical Response Can Shake Up Your Classroom. Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/educator-english/total-physical-response-esl/

Total Physical Response (TPR). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/total-physical-response-tpr