I saw a friend's kid playing this game, and it reminded me of the "total physical response" method for language acquisition. I know it's more of a "virtual response" rather than a "physical response", but I bet that it will do the trick. Does anyone know of something similar in Japanese?

Kid's Game Example
http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/b...a_411.html

Total Physical Response

PS My language skills aren't high enough yet for google.jp

Children are rarely actively interested on learning a language, that's why TPR is very useful for teaching them a second language. However I would like to see how TPR could benefit us adults learning Japanese. BTW, I love Curious George.

I am kind of necroing a thread hear. But TPR can be extremely useful to adult learners. There are many studies showing it to be the fastest means to retain vocab. The research was done by the Navy and TPR was used at DLI for a while till getting replaced with more flashy techy things.

ikiiki nihongo is a good book for adults. It has about 60 scenarios (going home, setting up a candle ect. ect.) which can be practiced. This is a good way to get a lot of vocab in your head. You can have a skype teacher execute it or even use a text to speech program if you are really lazy.

To learn a language you need repeated comprehensable exposure to elements you don't yet know (words, patterns, phonemes whatever it is) over stretches of time long enough for your brain to physically change in response. That is all and any exposure will do as long as you are understanding new parts of it. It doesn't have to be total or physical, nor do you need to respond necessarily.

There are a trillion and one different little things to learn in a new language so I don't know why you'd bother engineering games or doing exercises to 'lock in' specific parts. Keep consulting reference when required but the idea that you can install high level, usuable knowledge into your brain in a short time like in the matrix if you just use something like TPR seems very fanciful. It only has something going for it provides a pleasurable first exposure to the content, which may be the case for kids but (i suspect) not adults.

No it does not have to be TPR but there is exposure that is faster than others. This is even conceded in TPRS where they will teach on average 9 tpr terms in the same time they will teach 3 terms via circling.

I would not called it the matrix. I would just say its faster than other exposures. It might be fanciful but its well back up by research.

TPR and TPRS are supposedly highly effective, but I have no idea where to even find a place it's being taught with Japanese. One of the ways TPR methodlogy is supposedly better is it makes more use of the right brain (the side more responsible for creativity rather than analytics) then other methods tend to.

Unfortunately, it's hard to take TPR and apply it to self study as a lot of us are doing. I think it could be done with software though. However, it would have to be something a lot more complicated then that phone dialing game to be effective. I think the main problem is to be more or as effective as a TPR classroom, it would have to adapt to the learner.

http://effortlessjapanese.blogspot.jp/

Japanese TPRS. They also sell a beginning course but it is really over priced.

TPR could easily be done by youtube.