Astudy Of The TPR Method In The Teaching Of English To Primary School Students

This paper seeks to show the effectiveness of the Total Physical Response (TPR)teaching method as compared to more traditionally applied teaching methodsinvolving rote memorization. To research this, the paper proposes two researchquestions:1) Is the TPR approach an effective way in teaching children? If it is, inwhat ways will it be effective?2) Compared to traditional teaching methods, whatare the advantages of the TPR approach?To determine the answers to these research questions, the author uses twoexperimental groups of elementary school children, having one group taught usingTPR and the other group taught without the use of TPR. The second group will betaught with more conventional methods of rote memorization and repetitioncommonly used in China today. The research seeks to identify differences inlistening comprehension and memory retention between both groups through a finaltest taken at the end of the lesson. To analyze the students’ attitudes towards TPR, athird party observation of the two experimental classes is conducted, and students’and teachers’ actions, reactions, and excitement levels are and later compared. Thisprocess is lasted for a two-month period at Excel, a private English school inKunming, Yunnan, China.The data from this research show that the students taught with TPR method aremore effective learners than those who are taught through memorization andrepetition. It is found that the students with TPR on average do better in listening andretention than the students taught without TPR. There is a consistent growth andmaintenance in achievement of students using TPR as compared to their counterpartsusing rote memorization and repetition. Moreover, TPR classrooms are proved to be more positive and students are clearly more motivated to learn than theircounterparts.Given these results, this paper concludes that the TPR method, despite itstime-consuming nature of application, should be adopted in more English teachingclassrooms. It is hoped that this study would enlighten and encourage more teachersto use the TPR teaching method.