The Power of Gestures and TPR for Acquisition in Spanish Class

teach to the eyes, use tpr and gestures for language acquisition — *“Repite, por favor”*

Teach to the eyes, they say. You’ll know if they comprehend if you teach to the eyes.

What happens when I’m mid-input and their eyes tell me “I have no idea what you’re saying to me AT ALL”? The temptation is to switch to English, and so begins the slippery slope of using less and less target language.

Enter Gestures for the Win!

I credit La Maestra Loca for getting me started on using gestures and TPR. She has 3 great Youtube videos (video 1, video 2, video 3) where she demonstrates the gestures she uses.

While using the TPR initially feels clumsy, the movements soon become part of you, flowing from your body along with your spoken words. It feels like you’re physically giving the students the input!

In fact, the ACTFL Smartbrief newsletter recently featured an article that speaks to the power of using gestures and TPR in language classes.

*“Lingít scholars document traditional hand gestures that could be used in language learning.” December 6, 2023 by Yvonne Krumrey, KTOO (Photo credit: Paige Sparks/KTOO )*

In the article, KTOO author Yvonne Krumrey quotes Jeff Leer, a Lingít scholar who heads up the Sealaska Heritage Institute Tlingit Gesture System program. An avid life-long learner of the language, Leer has been tracking the vast number of gestures people use when communicating in Lingít.

Originally used when hunting as a form of sign language to stay quiet in the woods, the gestures became part of their regular storytelling.

Roby Littlefield, an educator at the Sít’Edtí Shaanáx Glacier Valley Elementary School believes in the power of using gestures to aid in second-language learning. “[There are] many learning styles that people naturally do well with when they’re learning a language. And one of them is a movement - a physical movement can lock the word into your brain, “ Littlefield said.

I find this article thrilling and confirming - why?

Because gestures are a key component of my teaching style. Together over the years, my students and I have created over 30 gestures for high-frequency structures to support comprehension. I don’t use ASL, although it is a wonderful source of inspiration for this TPR. Every time I teach a new gesture, we PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

I usually give a kid the gesture as a class job to make sure it’s not forgotten. We do brain breaks where we review them and group vs. group gesture battles to make it fun.

Check out this video of the gestures I use for the sweet sixteen verbs!

Since they do this EVERY SINGLE TIME the word comes up in class, students hear so many repetitions that they don’t forget it. True story: years later kids even remember which student had ‘hay’ as a job way back when!

Apply the Gestures in All Verb Tenses!

The gesture’s meaning is tied to the verb stem; if they know the gesture for ‘tiene’ and you need to teach ‘tenía’, repeat the gesture and then point behind you to show it’s in the past tense. The key is to attach meaning to the new word by linking it to prior knowledge.

Wishing you lots of inspired gestures as you ‘teach to their eyes’ this year!