Sorry for another acronym. TPR simply means total physical response. This was a term coined by Dr. James Asher at San Jose State University in 1965. He showed how students can learn a language by listening to and carrying out instructions. Asher?s theory is that languages can be more easily learnt if we look at how infants learn their first language. Before being able to speak, a baby reacts physically to language and then moves to verbal expression. During the pre-speech period, the baby internalises the language. The use of TPR in the classroom in many ways tries to take advantage of this ready-made learning capacity that everyone has. In a way, the teacher takes on the role of the parent ? giving prompts, setting patterns, playing games, and the student then responds physically to the prompt. The teacher then responds positively to the correct response, much in the way that a parent would. This reinforces the learning and encourages further steps. TPR also recognises a ?silent period? during which the learner is absorbing the new language and cannot yet produce new words with confidence. Whether you have heard the term TPR or not, almost all pre-primary teachers have likely used it instinctively.