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THE USE OF TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR) AT PRIMARY
SCHOOL
Mirxoshimova H., 210 - group of medical pedagogical faculty
Scientific adviser: Talipova Sh.Sh.
TashPMI, English department
Actuality:
Differing from other subjects, English is fun as there are variety of ways to learn it.
Each method has its own aim and situation or advantage which can be used effectively. Among them
Total Physical Response (TPR) is mostly used in primary schools, especially, to teach children
vocabulary. In this article the information will be given about the history of TPR, its usage in the
primary school classes, the ways of using them in the classes and why is it popular and most useful to
use this method. It would also be valuable to examine the advantages and disadvantages of the method
with examples of the games in usage.
Aim:
Each person assimilates information in different ways. Someone direct method, someone
conversational, etc. Each teacher must conduct the lesson in an interactive way, i.e. should interfere
with all methods and teach the situation in the language being learnt in an interactive and interesting
way.
Main part:
They have more ability in learning anything when it is enjoyable so activities and
games, which involve physical movements, are more frequent in the syllabus of primary school
language subjects. In the context of teaching, most people assume that children learn a foreign
language in the same way that they learn their mother tongue. Basically, children are potential in
acquiring and learning a foreign language, and even they learn it more quickly than those who are
learning the foreign language after puberty. Thus, children understand the context more quickly than
the language itself. This shows that the method is truly appropriate for children. Also, TPR highly
improves listening skills. Repeating the same word over and over again make children acquire the
language faster. In this case I should mention that with TPR introvert students will not be overlooked.
The fact that all pupils in the class participate actively in the activities ensures they all learn the topic.
TPR is used in every classroom with learners at all ages whether realizing or not. In or der to use it,
teacher shows a movement and says the expression at the same time. Students do not have to learn it
from text books. In this way they can learn a whole grammar topic, for example ‘imperatives’ without
having to study grammar rules. Similar to the Series and Direct Methods, TPR is intended to mimic
childhood native language acquisition- children’s speech and listening is often accompanied by
activities such as reaching, moving, grabbing, or looking. With these uses the main advantage of the
method is that learners achieve fluency as earlier as they began learning it and this makes them
confident to speak the language. It can be observed that the students who study English only through
grammar books have great difficulty in expressing their ideas even though their reading, listening and
writing skills are high enough. Moreover, TPR works well for all pupils with mixed abilities and the
ones who are struggling to understand the language. The other factors are with this method learning a
language is less stressful and its helps to maintain positivity in the class. For this, many teachers prefer
to use TPR as a warming up activity at secondary schools too to eliminate any potential rebellious
behavior in teenagers. Besides, it does not require a lot of preparation, which is most handful for
teachers when they have a lot to cope up with. There are a number of TPR games which have been
being used for a while. The most used and popular one among them may be Simon Says, a classic
TPR game. It has been very useful to teach learners commands. The other one is Scavenger Hunt
Challenge which is quite like the game Simon Says. In this game teacher divides the class into teams
and gives them instruction one by one such as:
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1.
Bring me something orange
2.
March like a soldier
3.
Shout out your favorite color
Conclusion:
Although the TPR is really useful for learners at beginner levels it is not that
appropriate to use it with higher level students. Because more abstract and general notions are difficult
to show physically. What’s more, students at older ages tend to focus on more difficult and complex
tasks, which requires logical thinking. Therefore, they may not enjoy it as children do.
References:
1.
Шумахер, Г. И., Воробьёва, Е. Н., Нечунаева, Е. В., Хорева, М. А., Воробьёв, Р. И.,
Симонова, О. Г., & Батанина, И. А. (2008). Роль дисфункции эндотелия в запуске
иммунопатологических реакций при хронической ишемии головного мозга. Бюллетень
сибирской медицины, 7(5-2), 470-474.
