Application Of Total Physical Response In Chinese Vocabulary Teaching At New Zealand Primary School

Total Physical Response,also known as TPR,is formulated by American scholar James Asher.This teaching method has emphasis on consistency of language learning behavior and insists on teaching second language with body movements.At early time it focused on English education of American migrant children.In 1990 s,scholars studying English firstly introduced related theories to teaching.Then scholars of teaching Chinese as a foreign language started to study.Be limited by the object of teaching,they didn't have many research findings.This paper mainly studies the application of Total Physical Response in Chinese vocabulary teaching at New Zealand primary schools.And it discusses that how to use the method to promote students' study of Chinese vocabulary,based on Total Physical Response,how to organize the teaching,activities and class management and how to take the training of reading and writing while promoting listening and speaking of students.This paper focuses on primary school students between 6 to 10 in New Zealand and applies TPR in class teaching,activities and class management.For testing the validity of TPR,it has taken teaching experiments in Year 2 of a primary school for two weeks.Besides,it set up controlling group to compare.By observing and testing,it found this teaching method can promote studying of Chinese vocabulary for younger students.Based on teaching experience,the interview with lead teacher and suggestions from other classroom teachers,this paper continuously improve teaching content,teaching patterns and class management on TPR application.Considering learning habits of primary school students and the situation of Chinese teaching in New Zealand,this paper thinks TPR has more space to apply and hopes this study can provide some teaching tips for Mandarin Language Assistants in the future and promote the development of Chinese teaching overseas.