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How Do Novakid Teachers Use TPR in Class?
- Why is TPR Effective for English Language Learners?
- How Do Novakid Teachers Use TPR in the Online Classroom?
- What is an Example of TPR in the Online Classroom?
- How TPR Supports Online Learning at Novakid
Takeaways
- Total Physical Response (TPR) links language learning with physical movement and actions to support understanding before speaking.
- TPR mirrors how children naturally acquire their native language, making it especially effective for young learners and beginners.
- Novakid teachers use gestures, modeling, and movement to support comprehension and engagement in online English lessons.
- TPR helps bridge the gap between screen-based learning and real-world communication.
- Movement-based learning improves confidence, memory, and long-term language retention.
Total Physical Response (TPR) is a dynamic teaching approach where language is closely linked to movement and actions. With TPR, students are encouraged to respond to spoken language with physical actions, rather than being expected to speak immediately. By acting out what they hear, learners can connect meaning to language more naturally and with less pressure. This approach is especially effective for young learners and beginners, as it supports understanding before verbal production.
Why is TPR Effective for English Language Learners?
TPR is based on the way children naturally learn their first native language. As infants, we do not begin by speaking, instead we start by responding to gestures and actions such as waving goodbye, pointing, or reaching for objects. Parents and caregivers consistently pair these gestures with spoken language, which helps children understand meaning long before they use spoken words themselves. Over time, gestures turn into spoken responses. TPR aims to replicate this natural learning process in the classroom, allowing learners to build comprehension, confidence, and memory through movement and actions. This makes TPR one of the most effective teaching approaches for learning English. For more teaching approaches used by our Novakid teachers, see the top 10 new modern methods of teaching English.
How Do Novakid Teachers Use TPR in the Online Classroom?
At Novakid, our experienced teachers are trained in the use of TPR and it is integrated naturally into the classroom activities. Teachers constantly use gestures to supplement their verbal instructions, such as acting out the actions for “circle”, “draw”, “listen”, and “find”. Teachers also model actions for target language within the lesson, such as “jump”, “run”, or “swim”, and encourage students to model the actions as well. This physical involvement helps to keep the learners engaged within the lesson and supports communicative language teaching by linking meaning directly to the action.
What is an Example of TPR in the Online Classroom?
In an online Novakid lesson, TPR teaching can be used in many practical and engaging ways to help support strategies for teaching English language learners. By combining spoken instruction with clear physical actions, teachers help learners understand meaning without relying solely on verbal explanation.
Some common TPR examples in the online classroom include:
- The teacher says “Listen”, while cupping a hand to the ear, helping learners connect the instruction with the action.
- Action vocabulary such as jump, run, swim, and climb is taught by physically modelling each movement and encouraging the learner to copy the movement.
- The teacher says “Find the dog” while shading the eyes with a hand to indicate looking or searching for something.
- Colours are reinforced by asking the learner to find an object of a specific colour in their room, turning language practice into an interactive task.
These activities show how TPR teaching makes online lessons more dynamic, interactive and accessible, especially for young learners and beginners.
How TPR Supports Online Learning at Novakid
In an online learning environment, TPR teaching helps to bridge the gap between screen-based learning and real-world interaction. Novakid’s interactive platform encourages movement, imitation, and active participation, ensuring that lessons remain dynamic and engaging, as well as supporting long-term learning and retention.
Want to see TPR in action? Book a FREE trial lesson and experience how movement-based learning helps children learn to speak English with confidence.
Sources:
Kawasaki, J. (2024) What is TPR for teaching English and how can I use it?, BridgeUniverse – TEFL Blog, News, Tips & Resources. Available at: https://bridge.edu/tefl/blog/what-is-tpr-for-teaching-english-and-how-can-i-use-it / (Accessed: 26 January 2026).
Rowland, M. (no date) Total physical response (TPR), The Teacher Toolkit. Available at: https://www.theteachertoolkit.com/index.php/tool/total-physical-response-tpr (Accessed: 26 January 2026).
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