An Application Study of Total Physical Response Method in Children’s English Teaching

【Abstract】Total Physical Response Method （TPRM） is a common approach used in children English teaching. The present article attempts to overview TPRM as a method of language teaching and show its implications in English language classroom. This paper makes a closer examination of TPRM used in a demo lesson. The research results can be seen as follows： create enjoyable atmosphere， arouse students ’interests of English learning， helpful to enhance the knowledge and so on； however， it has some limitations when it is applied into Chinese classrooms.

【Key words】TPRM； children English language teaching； demo lesson； advantages； limitations

【作者簡介】张瑞芳（1995.4- ），女，河北邢台人，硕士，陕西师范大学，研究方向：学科教学 英语。

I. Introduction

Early childhood is a precious period when children get their most rapid performance in terms of emotional， physical， cognitive and language development. In the process of globalization， foreign languages will be essential in life so it can be practical to teach a foreign language to children when they have a potential to learn languages. Foreign language education in preschool years is vital and there are many studies showing its importance. TPRM， as a new teaching method， is now being applied into language classroom more often.

II. A case study of TPRM in children’s English classroom

1.An introduction to the demo class. Sixty volunteer students in Grade Two， who haven’t learnt English before， are randomly chosen to take part in a public class of Genkin English. One foreign teacher and a Chinese teacher will give them an interesting English Lesson. They will receive a quick quiz to test how well they have mastered the knowledge they have been taught.

2.Teaching Procedures. At the beginning， the foreign teacher and the Chinese teacher will lead all the students do some warming up with the song. At the same time， they will give students several instructions or rules students need to obey at class. Then at the presentation stage， the foreign teacher introduces these animals using flash cards with pictures of animals and most importantly， with actions. For example， the first word goes like “whale”， the foreign teacher reads this word while doing the action of whale， swimming like a whale. And the students need to repeat the word when they do the action. After that， the foreign teacher will try to strengthen students’ memory with some games. After that， the foreign teacher will try to help children to practice these words by some other games. Finally， in the production stage， there will be a small task for the students. Two students will be combined to a little group. They will make conversations using “What can you see under the sea？ I can see a seahorse/crab/dolphin/whale/shark.” Then the foreign teacher will choose some groups to give speeches on the platform. After that， class will be over. Students will take a relax using a song” What can you see under the sea？” In the end， the foreign teacher will give a quick review of what has been taught on the class. He will stick all the five cards on the blackboard in order. All the groups then read these cards one by one.

3.Quick quiz. After the class， all the volunteers will be given a 5 minutes’ quick quiz. After they have finished the quiz， the teachers will score these papers. According to the statistics， 72 percent has got scores above 90（A）， 19 percent has got scores above 80（B）， 9 percent has got scores above 60（C）.

III. Reflection of TPRM

It is surely benefit for language teaching. First， it can create enjoyable atmosphere of English learning， which will make students understand English better as well as speak English fluently. Second， it will arouse and maintain students’ interests of learning English. If the students are interested in what the teacher teaches， the teaching quality will be high. Thirdly， it is helpful to enhance the knowledge. Teachers will use some games to maintain students learning interests， making the students understand new words as a whole. However， this method has disadvantages inevitably. First， it is difficult to teach abstract words and grammar using this method. Second， it can be regardless of writing in this way. Only if listening， speaking， reading and writing are combined， can students understand the usage of English correctly and deeply. Third， it is easy to overuse TPRM， thus TPRM has strict requirements on the quality of the teacher.

IV. Conclusion

This study reveals that TPRM is a valuable asset to teach a new language for the beginners. Many studies confirm that students in a TPRM classroom perform better than students in traditional classroom. TPRM also helps in developing students’ listening and speaking skills. Besides， it is a good way to apply TPRM into children’s classroom to enhance the learning of vocabularies. However， TPRM also has several limitations such as the neglect of writing skill and grammar， the risk of overuse and so on. Therefore more experiments need to be undertaken to study items like how much instructional time needs to be given to TPRM in order to achieve optimal results.

References：

[1]Asher，J.1986.The Learning Strategy of the TPR：A Review[J].The Modern Language Journal（2）.