The Application Of TPR Teaching Method In Junior Middle School English Teaching

TPR is short for Total Physical Response. It is a method developed by Dr. James J. Asher, a professor of psychology at San Jose State University in California of USA, to aid learning foreign languages. This method has already been used to teach Spanish, French, German, English, Chinese, Japane and so on. It has a high reputation and a significant impact in foreign language teaching. In1990, on the basis of the theory of TPR, Spanish teacher Blaine Ray proposed TPRS (Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling) language Teaching method and teachers use this method to teach vocabulary, grammar, reading and writing process. There are three core concepts in TPRS:understanding, interest and circulation.TPR teaching method has a significant effect in junior middle school English teaching. Firstly, TPR can improve students’innovation ability. TPR teaching method pays attention to the students’ability of language expression and the language of communication. Students use their understanding of knowledge to output vocabulary and sentence creatively. This pushes them to learn positively. Secondly, TPR can stimulate students interest in learning English. Like games, competition, songs, pictures, can make the students learn with different kinds of senses.TPR can grasp the attention of students quickly, and attract students to participate in activities. Thirdly, TPR can improve the relationship between teachers and students. TPR teaching method derives from the feeling factors play in learning from humanistic psychology.This approach reduce the psychological burden of the students to develop a happy mood to learn and improve the learning. Fourthly, TPR can transform students’ language thinking. The teaching method of TPR using a variety of teaching patterns, such as games, performances, to make students use the action to directly establish the contact of the "action" and "voice" in the brain. With the full establishment of conditioned reflex and repeated many times, the learners finally can quickly response correctly without thinking. Thus the real second language gradually goes into their own thinking. Their comprehension and expression ability of the second language improve actually.Generally speaking, in China this method only stays at the stage of early childhood education in kindergarten or within the lower grade of primary school. It is not widely spreaded.In order to prove that TPR method can be used in junior middle school, the author carried out a teaching experiment in Nongchang junior middle school after a survey by questionnaire and interview in Xiping county. Through data statistics and analysis on SPSS, it is effective to learn English by TPR for students in junio middle schools.In this study, the number of participants from the same school only thirty, so they reflect the problems and the research results with relatively low coverage and can’t reflect the present situation thoroughly and China’s current problems in language teaching. A large number of participants with different backgrounds need to be involved in order to improve the generality of the study.