Which language-teaching method, developed by James Asher in the early 1970s, is based on comprehension and uses commands requiring physical responses?

• A. TPR
• B. Communicative Language Teaching
• C. Direct Method
• D. Grammar-Translation

Answer: (A)

Total Physical Response centers on comprehension first, using commands that students respond to with physical actions. James Asher developed it in the early 1970s to connect listening and understanding directly to movement, so learners can physically act out what they hear before they start speaking. In practice, the teacher gives commands in the target language—stand up, open your book, walk to the window—and students follow with whole-body responses. This approach lowers anxiety, reinforces vocabulary and structures through action, and mirrors how young children acquire language: understanding comes before production. Once learners reliably comprehend commands, they begin producing language gradually, often by creating their own commands and eventually speaking in the target language.

This method stands apart from others because its core mechanism is physical response to spoken input, not just interaction for meaning or translation practice. It differs from methods that prioritize speaking from the outset, like the Direct Method, or those focused on translation and grammar rules, like Grammar-Translation, or on broad communicative practice without the action-based structure of commands.