The Everyday Language Learner Interview Series: Dr. James J. Asher

www.everydaylanguagelearner.com
This past week I had the priviledge of sitting down via skype to talk with Dr. James J. Asher. Dr. Asher is the creator of the Total Physical Response (TPR) technique which is used across the globe to teach foreign languages to everyone from children to adults.
In our interview we covered a lot of ground and no matter where you are at on the language learning journey, there is something here that will be of value.
Dr. Asher will challenge you, encourage you and he just may offend a few of you.
Here Are Some TPR Resources
TPR World Headquarters - www.tpr-world.com
TPR Student Kits - goo.gl/mXebu
Learning Another Language Through Actions - goo.gl/SgS1G
Brain Switching: Learning on the Right Side of the Brain - goo.gl/IDlM1
Growing Up in Norman Rockwell's America: A Memoir (Dr. Asher's Memoir) - goo.gl/WbIUH
[The links to Dr. Asher's books are affiliate links. I'll get a small commission if you purchase one of them through these links though the price won't change for you. It is just one of the many ways that I generate an income so that I can continue to do what I do here.]

[@christopheclugston]

Production reinforces a strong active mastery in a way that receptive (passive is the wrong word and is not used in modern terminology). A word about FSI and DLI they both heavily screen the students: only those with great aptitude are allowed into the program.

[@ronnygefferson5294]

James Asher has totally changed the way of teaching languages around the world.

[@latidian]

Aaron, thank you so much for this interview with Dr Asher. Since watching it I have radically changed the way I teach. The results are very very encouraging.

[@aarongmyers]

Here is my interview with Dr. James J. Asher (Total Physical Response). I'll post it with an article on Wednesday at The Everyday Language Learner.

[@davidmansaray]

This was an *excellent* interview Aaron. You did a great job extracting valuable information from Dr. James. Keep up the good work! :)

[@akramrasikh1330]

I just cannot emphasis enough, how much I love this interview. Thank you soooo much for this, both of you

[@toddmckay517]

Dr. Asher and I present to teachers around the world (I am just one of his many authors) and he is as engaging in person as on camera. A real pillar in the profession. Thanks for the work on this, Aaron!

[@abdulazi1]

Peace/blessings! Hi Aaron, this was a fantastic video. Thanks!

[@boabysands123]

Zachary, the blending of these methods you're describing on your blog are great. I hope to read more as you expand your investigations /learning.

[@kimanh1510]

It's awesome. Thank you so so much Aaron.

[@ryanstutes27]

Wow. I really enjoyed taking in this guys knowledge. Thanks!

[@Mafl001]

Very interesting interview! Dr. James Asher is really a remarkable man, and he knows a lot. Thanks for posting

[@johnollerjr]

Thanks, Aaron, and Dr. Asher. He might not remember me, but I have been among his supporters and admirers since we met in summer 1969 at a conference in Cambridge, England. Loved your chapter about Maria Montessori. Still terrific after all these years. Best to you.

[@languagestudiestb7616]

Excellent discussion. Thanks so much for this production.

[@gammondog]

I hope that someday you might be able to give us the back story on how this interview came about. This is the most exciting and informative interview I have ever seen on any subject. It's just marvelous.

[@lourdessoniariverofernande2563]

Thank you very much for this video, it was really interesting!

[@eemagreca]

Thaks a lot. Great video. I am applying TPR in my classes. It really works !!

[@DonDonato666]

A lot of things can be leart from this interview... Thanks for sharing it...

[@christiannieto1123]

wow this is gold, so underrated..

[@Jate0000]

Wow! James Asher! Awesome!!

[@jahurofi]

Excelente entrevista Aaron !!! gracias !

[@boabysands123]

Thanks. I might check it out.

[@Hola.07]

Aaron,thank you for providing me the opportunity to ´know´ Dr.James Asher !!! Kind regards

[@5Gazto]

Comprehension before pronunciation, fluency, grammar, heck, even conversation.

[@atillaadn]

You did a wonderful job, hope you may return to Istanbul soon (nice tunes at the start played by Banjo:),

[@arkadyzilberman2363]

Aaron, congratulations! It was a great idea to interview Dr. Asher. I enjoyed it very much and find extremely useful, especially his statement that the conventional ESL/EFL teachers are on the wrong side of the brain and we should blame the universities which continue teaching young professionals using the 19-th century methodology. Keep searching; is TPR the only way to the right brain or there are other methods?

[@gregschwab6455]

Excellent. You should also interview Blaine Ray, the creator of TPRS. He took TPR and expanded it to storytelling.

[@christopheclugston]

You are correct.

[@ronnygefferson5294]

Great

[@epsilon910]

Oh wow! I thought he passed away a time back! Nice to see he is still at it!

[@sadettinavcilar]

Aaron, Thank you very much for this video. I am learning and teaching languages including Turkish for foreigners. These left right brain issue is very important. I live in Istanbul where did you study or work in Turkey?

[@boabysands123]

My current understanding is that the early views based on Roger Sperry's work that the right brain is for X, the left for Y have been revised as over-simplistic and locationalist. Newer technologies (fMRI etc) have allowed observation of active brains and not just damaged brains. This has, I believe, led to a view of the brain and the mind's different capacities that rejects a simple right/left brainmodel. Although there is also Ian McGilchrist's recent book defends a more complex L/R view.

[@davidmansaray]

In my experience doing interviews, I've learned that getting a good answer from an interviewee heavily relies on the quality of the questions asked by the interviewer.

[@boabysands123]

A) Sure there are other fora, but for all YT's flaws, it still works for me. I do track some other places - quora, stack exchange, HTLAL, and personal blogs. Though I find many language learners completely uninterested in anything intellectual, teachers often focussed on classrooms or educational politics and most linguists interested in minutae I can't understand. B) I do like McGilchrist, but I need to read some of his book before I can comment. C) Soon I'll get around to your latest vid.

[@aarongmyers]

I know that there are many extensions of TPR, most notably, TPR-Story telling. Another newer idea is called Where are Your Keys but I'm not as sure about it. If you search for that term at the blog you'll find the article. Does anyone else know of other comprehension driven approaches? Rosetta Stone and other programs like it are trying to approach languages in this way I believe.

[@boabysands123]

1) Without trying to have the last word on this, here's an aside on this issue. I've noticed that we have different objects of discussion and not just differet perspectives. When I say Buzan and his popular psychology elk are "empty" I am mostly referring to their explanatory frameworks which directly and indirectly claim support for their techniques tools from neuroscience. I am not assessing the usefulness of those techiques or approaches - but their often pseudo-sci 'evidence' & rhetoric.

[@aarongmyers]

It's just a song from the iMovie jingles on my Mac. Not sure what the name is.

[@bobozim]

What's the name of the song at the beginning?

[@UserOfCommonSense]

could this video also be relative to speed reading? the key to speed reading seems to be cutting out the actual saying of words in your head (ie left brain) and instead simply concentrating on the words and allowing them into your brain. well anyway, i went from reading 160wpm to 600wpm and my language learning definitely picked up a lot. i sense a relationship between the two.

[@christopheclugston]

ALG used for Thai, Khmer and Japanese

[@arvidfalk5719]

It might work, but I'd never do it like that. Input based learning, a lot of reading and listening, works perfectly well and I can do it with interesting material without doing Waldorf-like physical learning...

[@scenecore12]

Christophe clugston couldn't hack in Monterey and everyone knows this. Steve Kaufman however was offered a seat in Monterey but turned it down for the British version in HK. DLI is not the end all be all. I made it through and have met plenty of people who are highly functional in their l2 who have never even heard of DLI.

[@aarongmyers]

I would appreciate it if those who have issues with one another could take their comments elsewhere. I'd like the discussion here to be civil. Personal attacks do little to help those of us interested in learning from one another. Thanks everyone!

[@scenecore12]

and how do you know if DLI produces good results if you have never met anyone who has finished it?

[@UserOfCommonSense]

i understood his comment on criminal prosecutions. i spent 2-3 years trying to learn german & didnt get very far. its drudgery, & a criminal waste of time. one day i was looking after my 18 month old nephew & it struck me. how come i'd studied for 2-3 years but couldn't speak even as well as a 5 year old german child? thats when i realised we should learn our second language the same way we learnt our first. i found TPR. After 6 months i understood german well, after 12 months i was fluent.

[@scenecore12]

you have to learning the language. Most people just buy 100 resources looking for that perfect resource but really you just got to devour the language from start to finish. Don't let the resource name be a distraction.

[@boabysands123]

Based on 1/2 a day of scanning & some reading, I'm now of the view that most current discourse of the rght/left brain functional lateralisation exagerrate the concept beyond what is believed in neuroscience. I'd especially include as empty the versions from the Brain Fitness & Tony Buzan/Pop. psych. domains. Christ, even the role of language areas (Broca's & Wernicke's) has undergone a serious shift. Still gonna have a look at McGilchrist's book as the subtlety in his online talks intrigues.

[@arkadyzilberman2363]

"50 years from now, we would look back at this and say it was cool and unusual punishment for young people. (Most instructors) continue with this 19th century model, which I call slow motion learning - word by word -driving people crazy and simply convincing them that they are no good at foreign languages. I want to say something outrageous: these traditional instructors now, at this point in time, really should be criminally prosecuted because it is like malpractice in medicine." (Dr. J. Asher)

[@scenecore12]

person for their specific job but anyone can learn a language without it...they just can't do the other stuff. If you want to learn another language...good go for it and use whatever method you find the best. Clugston doesn't get that there are multiple paths to follow.

[@christopheclugston]

Well, if you end up at this university you will have a class in Language Acquisition. I know many people in that program. It's tyrue that the U Tube Gurus know little (I'm talking about the popular ones) about actual research or linguistics. Rough? They should try the military or serious grad programs-they'll learn rough then. I'm merely the Sam Harris of the U Tube Language Crowd.

[@26blanco]

there still one big mystery,how language originated

[@lauraaguirre4324]

is there any free PDF Asher's books?

[@toddmckay517]

Hi Laura. Yes, there are. Dr. Asher is very generous. Visit tpr-world.com

[@scenecore12]

There are an incredible amount of people who have completed DLI and go on to become CTs. What does it matter if I use a cartoon as a profile picture and something other than my real name? I also keep all of my content locked away from people.

[@boabysands123]

2) Many practices I myself use and value have little or no scientific evidence to back them up. And I wouldn't try to defend them using 'creatively' selected neuroscience titbits. And I am very skeptical of any who might try to use the current legitimacy of neurosci imagery, models and terminology to support practices they just like and find useful.

[@scenecore12]

If a person has motivation and determination they can learn language, math or other skills by any means. You try to hold people to some high standard but what about yourself? What are you degrees? What was your experience in DLI? What are your language skills? What are your credentials to back yourself up? You dog Steve but at least he tells everyone were he went to school, his training as a diplomat and talks about his successful business. If you yourself demand courtroom style credentials

[@christopheclugston]

Here's a video that Steve Kaufmann will run away from.

[@christopheclugston]

Something that many of you don't know is that Ahser conducted much of his research at the Naval Post Graduate School and that his methods were used at DLI. Again, thorough research and PERSONAL EXPERIENCE can eliminate these fruitless pundit discussions.

[@boabysands123]

Well,... there really wasn't much need for questions in this interview. He's a teacher who's well used to talking and being listened to ;-) . I wish he had referred a bit more to the research that backs up his positions. Personally, I'm not sure how legitimate this right/left brain model is anymore. Maybe he's just using the right/left dichotomy more as metaphor for the language acquistion/language learning distinction.

[@scenecore12]

Thats fine. What I am saying is you don't need DLI. You only need motivation and determination. People don't go through the program to simply learn a language just to chat, there are a lot of complicated things involved. Again, why would a person in a specialized field post all sorts of public information? I don't see why you can't get over the cartoon and I could care less about offering proof because in actuality I cant disclose a lot of things. With Clugston he offers his picture but what

[@scenecore12]

from everyone else why don't you display the same back? Sure we know your name and that you live in Thailand but nothing else while you demand different standards from everyone else. I am also still in the service and cannot simply live my post. You are more than welcome to come here and have a discussion.

[@scenecore12]

Some people value privacy. As I said I went through DLI as my AIT. Most people in the armed forces in our mos value privacy. This is why I can't understand the obsession with DLI and having people use real names and photos. DLI is not just to "learn a language" its is training program to make you a good solider in your job. I didnt join just to speak a language I joined to serve. I bring this up because Clugston thinks its the only thing to learn language. Not true. Its good at training a

[@christopheclugston]

That's because he (Tom)is a TESOL person and not a linguist per se. People who have not gone through DLI or FSI THEMSELVES have NO concept of what it is. Like trying to describe the color GREEN to a BLIND MAN--they willl not get it. It's the experience. Performance? Are you insane Tom? If it didn't get outcome they wouldn't use it.

[@scenecore12]

What does that even mean? Why do you challenge people to come meet in you person like its some teenage street fight? Is it to deflect and not address your critics? As if one has to meet in person to engage in meaningful conversation. KZbin is not not a courtroom. Its a place people go to watch dogs play baseball and cats that dress like Elvis. DLI is a place that equips one to do their job as a solider, just like every AIT. The average person does not need it to learn a language.

[@scenecore12]

"What does it matter if you use a cartoon and no real name? It makes it look like you are some kid sitting in his room and a computer his parents bought him. Were exactly is that content locked up, deep in the recesses of your imagination?" Good. I see the first thing you went to was a cultural stereotype, is that you usual? As I said I have content set to private on my channel so I have no idea why you would ask where that content would be.

[@scenecore12]

else does he offer in terms of his proof? Whats his degree? What does he do? Where is the proof of his languages? All he does is rant about military style training for civilians who have a totally different objective. If you want to learn language and you are motivated enough, its possible to use any resource to learn whatever language you like. If you want to learn Arabic you don't need DLI ..watch Aljazeera until your eyes bleed, keep a journal in Arabic and devote every free minute

[@JohnDoe-nk1dd]

I want to chime in and echo a previous comment while I am at it. Asher dodged questions. He came off as arrogant and seemed to put a lot of stock into community colleges as a great place to learn foreign languages which is a total lie. The statistics do not lie. It is very rare that anyone attains fluency in a foreign language by a college classroom. Then his constant pitches for his book were annoying. I am interested in reading his book but I have to say that I am skeptical of Asher for his poor interview etiquette, he just doesn't seem very honest and forthcoming.

[@STNMNinc]

Whole interview with zero information specifically on how to learn a language, again..