What are the Roles of Teacher in Total Physical Response?

Roles of Teacher in Total Physical Response

The teacher plays an acted and erect role in Total physical response. “The instructor is the director of a stage play in which the students are the actors”. It is the teacher who decides what to teach, who models and presents the new materials, and who sleets supporting materials for classroom use. The teacher is encouraged to smoothly and predictably. 

The teacher has the responsibility of providing the best kind of exposure to language so that the learner can internalize the basic rules of the target language. Thus the teacher controls the language input the learners receive, providing the raw material for the “cognitive map” that the learners will construct in their own minds. The teacher should also allow speaking abilities to develop in learners at the learners’ own natural pace.

In giving feedback to learners, the teacher should follow the example of parents giving feedback to their children. At first, parents correct very little, but as the child grows older, parents are said to tolerate fewer mistakes in speech. Similarly teachers should refrain from too much correction in the early stages and should not interrupt to correct errors, since this will inhibit learners. As time goes on, however, more teacher intervention is expected, as the learners’ speech becomes “fine tuned”