Maria, Argentina
I think if you teach very young children you use it all the time. They can respond to your questions with action, because it is for them very difficult to answer in the language. For example you ask them to point at something to test they understand the vocabulary.

Andre, UK
One example is the human clock. Spread pieces of paper with the numbers 1 to 12 written on them in a circle (as in a clock). One student goes to the middle using his arms as the hands of the clock. Either he points the time and others have to say what time it is, or they tell him what time it is and he/she has to point it correctly.

Morad Bakir, Morocco
One way of putting tpr into practice within your classroom is by giving your students some commands followed by a clear demonstration of these commands. Then you can make your students perform the actions on their own. For instance, the teacher says 'stand up!' (performing the action several times before the students) then he designates a student to do the the same thing after hearing that command.

Malachy, China
Hi Isa,
I strongly believe that just about every low-level word and grammar structure can be taught using TPR. I have previously used this when teaching in a primary school here in China. It proved very useful and highly entertaining and memorable for both the students and teachers. Having said all that, of course it'd be difficult to use TPR for some abstract concepts for higher level students.

Some examples I've used are:
Stand up - Raise your hands upwards with palms facing up.
Sit down - Lower your hands with palms facing downwards
Turnaround - Circle your hand or finger in front of you
Sleep - Put your hands together and then tilt your head with your hands under it.
etc etc.

Even simple sentence structures can be conveyed with this TPR:
I'm eating an apple - Point to yourself and motion that you're eating an apple. I use each bodily motion to represent syllables also.

I even observed another teacher using TPR for plurals also which greatly impressed me. Every time he said a plural, he stomped one of his feet on the ground. After some time the students become accustomed to the concept of plurals when he stomped his foot and they realised that it was a plural.

I always use mime in class and always uses an activity where the student have to mime sentences. You will be amazed how much information you can convey using mime and simple body language, which is what TPR is all about.
Hope this helps!

Leahn, Spain
TPR is great to use in the classroom with children and can also be used with older learners. I use a lot of TPR activities like the game Simon says. There are many games you can play with flashcards which are based on the TPR theory. I stick flashcards of vocabulary on the board and then call out the words and the children have to run and circle or pick up the corresponding card. There are many variants of TPR, even a simple drawing dictaion could fall under this heading. As I said before its great fun to use with children and can be used successfully with older learners too. Games that could be used with older learners which require a TPR response are those such as get into line from tallest to shortest for example.

Gloria Pai, Brazil
I've worked a lot with children using TPR.
1) Choo choo train - Arrange students in 2 rows, 1 facing other. One side makes a question and the other answers. Move the first student on the right to the very left, so you'll have different students facing each other now. It's got to be dynamic; the teacher trains the students to move when he/she snaps her fingers.

2) Get flascards and have the students standing in a line. The teacher holds the flash card, and the first student says what's on the card. If he/she says it right, then he/she takes the card and repeats with the next student.

3) Hopscotch game - arrange flash cards on the floor like a hopscotch. There should be the total of 10 cards on the floor. The student has to throw a piece of "rock" or anything that can be thrown on a flash card. Anyway, the flash card he has thrown the "rock" on , the student says what it is, or answers a related question. Otherwise, he misses his turn. And there are more and more activities....Hope it helped.

Alison, Spain
A crossword with a 'physical' element: if you want to give students information, such as clues for a crossword, first type the clues in quite a small font (so that they cannot be read from across the classroom), cut them into individual pieces of paper and stick them around the room. Divide the students into pairs. One from each pair must go and read a clue, 'memorise' it, go back and tell the information to his/her partner who is still seated and who will write it down. The reader cannot write down the clues and, if he/she cannot remember the whole clue, must return until it is complete. The students take turns in finding/reading and writing and then, when all the clues have been correctly collected, they solve the crossword together.

Luis Sepúlveda , Chile
Apart from using TPR with (very) young learners, once a teacher and actor from Canada showed us how to use it with teens and older students. You can use it to describe sets of instructions. For example, how to use an ATM or how to buy a can of fizzy drink from a vending machine. Students recite the instructions in small groups and they mime the actions at the same time. We can also use actions with songs, suitable for learners of all ages.
You can get some interesting ideas from the videos on www.teachers.tv

Fekhar Ayoub, Morocco
Using T.P.R within the classroom has actually a lot of good returns. That is from my own experience teaching elementary students. By using this technique of teaching, you have to depend much on your body language and have a good command of it. For instance, if you are to make students get familiar with the first words frequently used in your classroom, you have to act the verbs you say and your students do the same. This might be a simple way of implementing T.P.R inside the classroom. Another way of doing it would be to use I.T. Including dialogues from time to time is useful too to make students not only see actions stated by you but help them memorize it as well. Thus they will have something in mind to take away with them.

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