Act out the lesson for easy learning
AIYAVOO T. MONY
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If English is taught using the Total Physical Response method, it would be easier for the child to learn.
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PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK
ACTION: The best teacher.
Of all the approaches, methods and techniques of teaching English, the Total Physical Response method has been found to be the most effective. The TPR method was developed by Dr. James J. Asher based on the principle that a child learns a foreign language just like she acquires her first language.
From birth the child is exposed to a continuous body-language conversations between the parents and him/herself. The child responds to simple commands of her parents by crawling, smiling, crying, shaking hands and so on. The child internalises the patterns and sounds of the language. Speaking happens spontaneously.
Schools play only to the left side of the brain. Even the arrangement of furniture in the classrooms, which does not provide free movement for the kids, is comfortable for the left brain only. We use traditionally instructional strategies such as grammar translation and listen and repeat in the initial and even intermediate stages of learning English. By concentrating only on reading and writing, teaching is oriented to the left brain. Forcing the skill of speaking through the left brain also does not work.
Through action
English should be learned physically and mentally. But, our schools are organised, unintentionally to be sure, to shut down the right brain. In any language acquisition, the primary aim is to understand the target language. Once the children understand what people are saying in English through language-body conversations, all other skills-especially speaking will follow naturally. We can use the TPR method to teach the vocabulary and grammatical items of English and develop comprehension fluency in children. Physical responses to simple commands enable immediate understanding . This comprehension skill has a positive transfer of learning to such skills as speaking, reading and writing.
In the TPR method, the teacher uses the imperative to give simple commands to elicit physical responses from the students. First, he acts out a simple command and then asks the student volunteers to act out his commands to introduce vocabulary and grammatical items in English. Speech appears in "role reversal" after about 10 hours or more of TPR instruction in English. At this point, the teacher invites the students who are ready to assume the role of the teacher and utter commands to direct the behaviour of fellow students and the teacher. This helps students understand the basics of the language.
While introducing words and teaching grammar the teacher should act out the word and ask the student to respond physically to each of his commands.
For example: While introducing verbs — sit, run, walk and so on. Introducing adverbs — knock loudly, walk slowly etc.,
Once the students have internalised the phonology, morphology and syntax of the language through TPR, then they are ready to switch to the left-brain for verbal exercises of speaking, reading and writing. Thus the TPR method through the imperative, "the golden tense" provides the learner instant understanding, long-term retention and zero-stress. It is indeed a powerful right brain tool that can be effectively used at all levels of English instruction.
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