TPR, an Effective Way to Learn Short Sentences

TPR, an Effective Way to Learn Short Sentences for the Students in Elementary School Grade 1&2 Amy, Feixia Huang

Keywords: TPR ,multiple intelligences, IP theory, interesting, concentration, effective, short sentences I. Introduction: Total Physical Response (TPR) is a kind of language teaching method which is built on the coordination of speech and action; it connects teaching language with physical (motor) activities.(Asher, 1966; 79-84). James Asher developed the total physical response method as a result of his observation of the language development of young children. Nowadays, TPR is used world wide, especially in kindergarten and elementary school. It is beneficial to evaluate the present situation in the schools in Guangzhou to begin assessing how TPR can build language development. In Guangzhou today, there are about 45 pupils in in one class. It’s common that the students in the first and second grade in elementary school can not concentrate on learning English in class. They can easily get tired and distracted. The long period of 4o minutes is too long for the young kids. After heavy work on Chinese and mathematics, they feel exhausted with English learning. And it’s difficult for them to control themselves in oral English class without writing and doing paper worksheet. Using TPR can make the class more effective by involving them in class and paying more attention to what they are learning. So they will learn more and enjoy the class learning, and the teachers will handle the class more easily. On the other side, it’s difficult for the young kids in grade one an two to learn the sentences even though they’re short. TPR can make it easier to learn the sentences. That’s the reason that why does the author choose this topic. TPR can solve the problems in class. II. Literature review(Theoretical background)： 2.1 About TPR 2.1.1 The definition of TPR Asher saw that most of the interactions that young children experience with parents or other adults combine both verbal and physical aspects. This creates a positive feedback loop between the parent’s speech and the child’s actions.[1] Asher also observed that young children typically spend a long time listening to language before ever attempting to speak, and that they can understand and react to utterances that are much more complex than those they can produce themselves.[2] 2.1.2 The feature of TPR

Asher outlined three main hypotheses about learning second languages that are embodied in the TPR method. The first is that the brain is naturally predisposed to learn language through listening. Asher hypothesizes that speech develops naturally and spontaneously after learners internalize the target language through input, and that it should not be forced.[2] A reasonable hypothesis is that the brain and the nervous system are biologically programmed to acquire language. [3]

The second of Asher’s hypotheses is that effective language learning must engage the right hemisphere of the brain. Physical movement is controlled primarily by the right hemisphere, and Asher sees the coupling of movement with language comprehension as the key to language acquisition. He says that left-hemisphere learning should be avoided, and that the left hemisphere needs a great deal of experience of right-hemisphere-based input before natural speech can occur.[4]

Asher’s third hypothesis is that language learning should not involve any stress, as stress and negative emotions inhibit the natural language-learning process. [4]

2.2 The theory of Multiple intelligence

The theory of multiple intelligences was proposed by Howard Gardner in his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences as a model of intelligence that differentiates it into specific (primarily sensory) "modalities", rather than seeing it as dominated by a single general ability. [6] The core elements of the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence are control of one's bodily motions and the capacity to handle objects skillfully.[8]

2.3 The Chinese compulsory education curriculum standard: The first grade standard is described as: The children can distinguish and point to pictures or objects following the teachers’ instruction. The children can understand the brief instruction given by the teachers in the class and give relevant response. And they can follow and react the instructions according to the teachers’ orders. The children can imitate and follow the recording; can give simple greeting to others; The children can express their feelings and emotions.They can say out the words and sentences according to the pictures and text. 【9】

2.4 Age characteristic of children

It’s beneficial to analysis the characteristic of the age 6 &7 children : They are active ， talkative, naughty, noisy, restless, easily excited, and exuberant ， indecisive ， self-centered.eager to learn. They like to participate in interesting activities and perform little tasks, They dislike being spectators. .sometimes they are bossy, aggressive, and unkind to contemprory. They have improving memory.Their mood can change easily. So the teachers and parents need patience with the children’s abundant energy and restlessness. And supply more opportunities for the children to participate the activities.And the TPR activities are good chances for them to enjoy themselves. Learning by doing is suitable for them to practice their oral English.[10]

2.5 The IP theory of learning acquisition. According to Muriel Saville-Rroike in Introducing Second Language Acquisition, Information Processing is one or the major framework for the focus on learning processes provided by psychology. There are some of the assumptions (McLagughlin 1987): learning of a skill initially demands learner’s attention, and thus involves controlled processing. Learners go from controlled to automatic processing with practice. Automatic processing requires less mental “space” and attentional effort. Learners essentially involves development from controlled to automatic processing of component skills,freeing learners’ controlled processing capacity for new information and higher-order skills. The importance of output for successful L2 learning is concern about enhancing fluency by furthering development of automaticity through practice. Noticing gaps may lead learners to give more attention to relevant information. Fluency is achieved in production both through use of automatized rule- based systems and through memory-based chunks. （ Merrill Swain and Lapkin 1995). [11] III. Research foundation: Teachers begin to use TPR method in the classes at many primary schools. The author has taught the students phonics connecting with TPR method in recently years. It is confirmed that using TPR makes it easier for the students to learn phonics . The students are interesting in imitating the pronunciation of the letters and following the activities of the teachers. The students can remember the sounds fleetly.

IV. Methodology: Literature review method , observation, experience sum-up method.

V. Research question: What are the advantages of TPR using in the oral class of elementary school? Can TPR improve the students' ability of oral English?

VI. Application of TPR in oral English Class. 6.1. Analyze the students The general present situation of Chinese primary school : Many students often talk to others in class, play with stationaries or toys. It is difficult for the teachers to control the class. And the sentences of the text book are difficult for them to learn in the limited time. 6.2 There are some methods of using TPR in oral English class. Method 1: Listen and act: When the students learn the classroom English, it’s easy for them to act. Stand up./Sit down. Open/Close your books. Raise /clap your hands. Stamp your feet. Close the window. Come to the blackboard. I like/can dancing/Singing/swimming/skipping rope /playing football/watching TV/cleaning the house/ Method 2: Listen and point: The teacher says: Touch your nose/head/left arm/ears/bag/desk...The students point to the the object as what the teacher mentions. Method 3: Play TPR games: Simon says game: The teacher say :“Simon says‘Mop the floor,please’, the students repeat the sentences and act. But when the teacher give orders with saying Simon says,the students should not repeat the sentences and act. If one follow and act he will fail in the game. Freeze the body game: When the teacher say “I like playing football.” the students repeating “I like playing playing football.” and do the actions. When the teacher says“Stop” the students should freeze their body without moving. If anyone still moves his body, he will loose his point. Method 4: The teacher do the action, the students say out what he is doing. Such as the teacher act out swimming. The students say: I can swim.

VII. What I have found in the research: TPR is an effective way to learn English, especially short sentences in oral English class.TPR makes the language more visible, let the students get the clear meaning of the sentences, and involve them in learning English because they are interested in following the teacher and doing the activities in class. 7.1 TPR can arouse the curiosity and interest of the children. The children will get involve in the class. The children of 6&7 are. Enjoy group play with simple rules. They like to participate in activities and perform small tasks, They dislike being spectators. So they will be very interested in learning things while doing the actions. They were eager to follow the teachers by acting while repeating the sentences.And repeating more can make perfect. They can say out the sentence fluently. People who have bodily-kinesthetic intelligence should learn better by involving muscular movement and be generally good at physical activities. Interest is the best teacher. So TPR can trigger young pupils’ interests in attending class and speaking English.

7.2 TPR can attract the young children’s attention which is the prerequisite of attending class and learning English. According to the age characteristic of the 6 or 7 years old children, It is hard for them to concentrate themselves because they are full of energy and lack of attention. And the time of one period is forty minutes is too long for a 6 or 7 year-old pupil. Therefore, the class teaching is often in low efficiency. It’s easy for them to forget what they have learned in class. If the children just follow the teachers to repeat the sentences, it will be very boring so that the children will be absent minded to learn . In this case they The are unable to remember what they have learned after several hours. Sentences can be taught in concrete ways by using TPR. The students should listen carefully in order to catch the teacher’s demand and respond physically to the sentences of what the teachers have said, and the teachers reinforce the children’s responses through further speech. So what we can see in the class is that they can behave well when they doing response to the teachers’ demands. Specifically, Asher says that learners best internalize language when they respond with physical movement to language input.

7.3 There is no stress during learning procedure, it’s good for learning, the children can learn the sentences very easily. The stress of learning can be reduced by using TPR. As Asher recommends that teachers focus on meaning and physical movement to avoid stress. He regards the stressful nature of most language-teaching methods as one of their major weaknesses[4]. When the students are involving in the activities in class, they will focus on what they are learning instead of being afraid of influence of speech. When they are in the condition of relaxing, they will recall what they learned in the class without much efforts. 7.4 TPR is effective for understanding the language by providing more opportunities to develope the students’ ability of listening comprehension.

Understanding language is the first step of learning, it can transfer to the next process of speaking, reading and writing. Situation can be easily built by TPR method. Doing activities while presenting new learning materials makes the meaning of knowledge more visible and directly perceived through the learners’ senses. The children can understand it naturally. TPR provide the chances to build the students listening comprehension ability, because the teachers often repeat the sentences many times before the students can follow and say. TPR research opened up the concept that for children acquiring another language in school, success can be assured if comprehension is developed before speaking. One important reason: Everywhere on earth in all languages throughout history, there is no instance of infants acquiring speaking before comprehension. Comprehension always comes first with speaking following perhaps a year later.A second reason is that talking and comprehension are located in different parts of the brain. Talking comes from Broca’s area located in the frontal lobe of the left brain. (Asher,2007) 【12】. Being the first step of learning procedure , the comprehension is very important for colloquial English ability of the children . While learning classroom English such as:”Come here,please.” “Stand up.” “Sit down.” “Open the books and turn to page 10.” With the gesture and body language, the meaning is very clear for the children. The distinction of input brings out the natural output after the internalization of the knowledge because of the response of activities. The benefit of TPR for understanding is viewing especially in retelling the sentences of stories, TPR is a useful tool to language acquisition by providing the context of language, so TRP will make it easier to understand the whole sentences and act them out.

7. 5 TPR create long-term memory of short sentences. By using TPR, more practice can be provided. Practice more can make perfect. According to the IP theory, To transfer the message from controlled processing to automatic processing needs attention for the input and practice . Learners go from controlled to automatic processing with practice. TPR is a good way to practice the materials and innate the knowledge, therefore , the output can be formed naturally,can be used for inter-rection, thus the ability of memorizing sentences is improved. TPR can be used in big or small groups. It’s suitable for the Chinese class.

7.6 It’s easy to use TPR method in class because the teaching materials in grade 1&2 are mostly short sentences which consist of objective verbs and nouns can be shown by TRR easily. For examples,there are many imperative sentences like“Open the door, please. ” “Clap your hands.” “ I go to school on foot.” “I like swimming/running...”

The static sentences can be transfer to dynamic learning of the students. Learning by doing is the most effective way for the kids.

Here is one of the case of learning stories:

The story : The crow and the fox. The teacher act out the story by two headwear for leading-in: One day, a fox was very hungry. (the teacher put her hands on the stomach and act as hungry. ) He was looking for something to eat. ( The teacher was looking around and search for something.) He saw a crow with a piece of meat. (The teacher put a piece of paper in the mouth)

Mr fox: Mrs Crow, you’re so beautiful. You can sing very well. Please sing a song for me, please.

While learning these sentence, the students can act with gesture, make the sentence visible. At the same time they get the pleasure of learning.

VIII. Conclusion: The relationship between TPR and the ability of students’ oral English. TPR leads to the success of learning English especially the short sentences for the children in grade 1and 2 at elementary school. It can arouse the curiosity and interest of learning. The children are eager to speak English by doing activities. It’s nature for them to utterance with acquired reflex. TPR can make it easier to understand the language because it support many opportunities to enhance their listening comprehension ability and to practice oral English. The students can concentrate themselves for much longer time by using TPR, so they will get a deep impression of what they have learned. The teacher can also use TPR without much effort because the sentences of the text for the grade one and two are not abstract verbs phrases. So it’s an effective way to learn the sentences. After using this TPR, my students are very interesting in learning English and they can behavior very well. But there are still something that the teachers should remember: 1. Don’t use TPR in the whole class, other wise the students will get tired by moving too much. 2. Keep the rules: Tell the students what they should do and what they should not do. 3. A score bord for the arrangement is needed: If someone fail what he should do, he will loose his points. When keeping these as class regulations, the whole class will involve in learning English effectively. “If you tell me, I forget. If you show me, I remember. If you involve me, I learn.”

IX. Reference

1 【1】Asher, James J., "What is TPR ?" in TPR-World. Retrieved on 2012-05-29. 2 【2】 Asher,James J"The Total Physical Response Approach to Second Language Learning" The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Jan., 1969), pp. 3-17 JSTOR

1 【 3 】 Asher,James J."The Learning Strategy of the Total Physical Response: A Review" The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Feb., 1966), pp. 79-84 JSTOR 2 【 4 】 Asher,JJ"The strategy of the total physical response: an application to learning Russian" ERIC ED011378 , 1965 3 【5】Asher, James (1996). Learning Another Language Through Actions (5th ed.). Los Gatos, CA: Sky Oaks Productions. 1 【6】Gilman, Lynn (2012) [2008], "The Theory of Multiple Intelligences", Indiana University, retrieved 14 November 2012 2 【7】Robert Slavin Educational Psychology, 2009, p. 117 ISBN 0- a b c d e f g 3 【 8 】 Gardner, H., & Hatch, T. (1989). Multiple intelligences go to school: Educational implications of the theory of multiple intelligences. Educational Researcher, 4-10. retrieved 15 July 2013 from JSTOR 4 205-59200-7 5 【9】the Chinese Compulsory Education Curriculum Standard,2011 6 [10] http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp? 7 [11] Muriel Saville -Rodlike , Introducing Second Language Acquisition, Chapter 4, page 73-75

[12] ASHER,JAMES J ,TPR: After forty years, still a very good idea, February 5, 2007, TPR Online Store 9. Acknowledge ment