Some solutions to apply the TPR method in teaching English for students in grade 3

INDEX
Content
Page 
INDEX ................................................................................................... 
A.Introduction.........................................................................................
I. The reason for choosing the topic ..................................................... 
II. The purpose of research.....................................................................
III. The objects of research.....................................................................
IV. The method of research....................................................................
B. The content of the experienced initiative...........................................
I. The rationale of the experienced initiative..
1.Characteristics of children...
2.What is Total Physical Response.
II. The current situation before applying the experienced initiative
School facilities
Students and their parents
Teachers
III. The solutions of implementation..
1. Simon says..
2. Mining.
3. Touching and reading.
4. Action song for the whole class..
5. Play games..................................................................................
IV. The effect of the experienced initiative
C. Conclusion and suggestion:...
I. Conclusion..
II. Suggestion..
REFERENCE DOCUMENT..
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A. Introduction
I. The reason for choosing the topic 
As a consequence of “open door” policy in Vietnam, the study of English has been booming. English is seen as a mean of access to scientific and technological development, as the language for international communication and as an instrument for receiving grand and aid. For young people, English is an effective tool for further study as well as better job opportunities. It can not be denied that English play an important role in our modern life. English has, therefore, been most widely taught from primary school to universities. 
Actually, the teaching of English has become especially important in recent years. The trend towards an early start in learning English turns out to be a worldwide phenomenon. The number of countries now introducing English at primary levels has been increasing, including Vietnam. It is expected that English soon will be compulsory from grade 3 in every part of Vietnam, though the policy has been implemented in many provinces of the country. Vietnam has been taking a lot of important actions in an ambitious education reform so that by the year 2020 all students will reach B1 level adopting CEFR standard after leaving high schools. Obviously, children’s language acquisition and adults’ differ from each other quite a lot in terms of physiological characteristics, cognitive ability, span of attention, faculty of memory, self-consciousness, linguistic capacities, learning style, motivation for studying and so on. Because of learner difference and learning context difference, a varied view on motivation in language learning should be taken by researchers and teachers in order to devise suitable teaching styles that can both enhance language learning and facilitate the achievement of education goals. Numerous studies have been carried out to investigate motivation, which is considered to be one of the most important elements in language learning, however limited research has been done to evaluate children’s motivation.
Working as a teacher of English in a primary school in Tinh Gia district, Thanh Hoa province makes me think about the topics “teaching English for children” and “student motivation” a bit deeper than I probably would. When I first started to work with young learners, it raised questions in my mind. For example: “Whether children like to learn English or not?” “How can I inspire them?” “What strategies should be used to fit children’s characteristics?” “What should be done to motivate young learners?” Besides, many children living in the countryside generally, in my region particularly are often provided with limited facilities in learning a foreign language. In other words, these young learners will have to deal with more obstacles in acquiring a foreign language rather than those living in a city. The current context inspires me to study the issue of primary students’ motivation in English so that I could understand the motivation underlying my pupils’ learning process and I myself can find better teaching methods to help them have a foundation of English at their early stage of learning. There are a lot of teaching methods which can be used flexibly in teaching process, but there is one of the alternative methods that can be applied effectively in the classroom in most of the lessons called Total Physical Response(TPR). Althought it can be used with students at all levels, but it is the most useful way to the beginning-level students who understand little or no English.
With all above reasons, I choose the topic “some solutions to apply the TPR method in teaching English for students in grade 3” to research.
II. The purpose of research.
 Teaching English, especially for children, should be enjoyable, interesting, repetitive, and understandable. In doing so, there should be appropriate methods for teaching English to them and the TPR is one of the most perfect methods which motivates students and help them to be more interested in learning English, develop their English skills. I wish all of my students could catch the new language enthusiastically and be good at four skills, especially speaking and listening skill, they could be able to communicate in English. With my own experience in teaching English in the primary school, I have observed, studied and recognized that the teachers of English should apply TPR method in their teaching. I hope that other teachers who encounter the similar teaching contexts may have some suggestion to improve their own situation with the most suitable teaching method - TPR approach. 
III. The objects of research.
- The Students in grade 3 of Tan Dan primary school (they take part in English classes with the curriculum of 2 periods per week). Basing on the result of two surveys I made in the middle of the first semester and the second semester of school year 2016 - 2017 for the students in grade 3, I analyze their improvement after they are taught English with the TPR method and find out the effectiveness of the TPR method in teaching English.
- The vocabulary, model sentences and dialogues in the text book Tieng Anh 3 (Macmillan – The Ministry of Training and education publisher) are materials which support my research. 
IV. The method of research
- Studying reasoning: firstly, I thinks of the topic which I am going to study. In the other words, I braintorm the research idea and clarify the theories about the problem by searching the information on the internet, reading reference books, newspaper, document, lesson plan So that I can form theorical foundation for my own research. After that, I identify the research questions to find the solutions for them: How teachers of English should apply TPR method, which type of materials can be taught with TPR. 
- Analyzing the real situation: Identifying the grade 3 students’ level in Tan Dan primary school, the facility of the school, the attitude of students toward the subject,..
- Collecting data and analyzing data: This method can be used before and after applying the TPR to underly the advantages of the TPR by comparing results of the surveys.
- Observation: observing students’ reaction while learning English before and after applying the TPR.
- Experimenting the TPR method: This is the main step which shows the effect of the research. When applying the TPR techniques, the teacher of English finds students more dynamic and they are keen on the funny actions used by their teacher, which help them memorize the target language and therefore bring the effectiveness for the English lessons. 
- Reporting the results and drawing the conclusion: This will be the suggestion for myself and other teachers of English to apply the TPR for their own teaching.
B. The content of the experienced initiative
I. The rationale of the experienced initiative
TPR method tries to introduce some language skills or components in an action in which a teacher serves three roles: an order taker, a model provider, and an action monitor in which learners serve as models and action performers until they feel ready to speak out. English teachers who are concerned with teaching children should be aware of the nature of their psychology in addition to mastering all crucial components in teaching them. So far, English teachers have been experiencing difficulty in teaching children since they are less sufficient especially in implementing appropriate teaching materials and methods. We should start with describing characteristics of children. 
1. CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN 
In learning language, children begin learning simple expressions. Broadly speaking, children learn rules of language from which they listen, and even they also learn expressions that they have never heard before. It is extremely important that teachers not only get children to learn language, but they also encourage them to learn it positively. Children aged 8-10 are mature enough; They have a particular point of view; They are able to describe the difference between facts and fictions; They are curious of asking questions; They believe in what is said and the real world to express and comprehend the meaning; They have distinct opions about what they like and what they dislike; They open to what happens in the classroom and begin asking a teacher’s decision; and They can cooperate with each other and learn from others. In addition, children are competent mother tongue users. 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. On the contrary, children are less capable of absorbing or acquiring a foreign language optimally 
2. WHAT IS TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR) 
 TPR is one of the English teaching approaches and methods developed by Dr. James J Asher. It has been applied for almost thirty years. This method attempts to center attention to encouraging learners to listen and respond to the spoken target language commands of their teachers. In other words, TPR is a language teaching method built around the coordination of speech and action; it attempts to teach language through physical activity. The second language teaching and learning should reflect the naturalistic processes of first language learning. For this reason, there are such three central processes:
 2.1. Before children develop the ability to speak, they develop listening competence. At the early phases of first language acquisition, they are able to comprehend complex utterances, which they hardly can spontaneously produce or imitate. Asher takes into accounts that a learner may be make a mental blueprint of the language that will make it possible to produce spoken language later during this period of listening; 
 2.2. Children's ability in listening comprehension is acquired because children need to respond physically to spoken language in the form of parental commands; 
 2.3. When a foundation in listening comprehension has been established, speech evolves naturally and effortlessly out of it. 
- The following chart summarizes about the process of the TPR approach 
II. The real situation before applying the experienced initiative
1. School’ facilities.
Tan Dan Primary school is located in the north of Tinh Gia District. Most of the teachers here are helpful and kind hearted. They are all well trained. 
In addition, The local government always concerns about Tan Dan school’s teaching and learning. On the other hand, Tan Dan school has many difficulties: over sized class with 25 to 31 students in a class . English is a new subject which has been taught in primary schools in Tinh Gia district for 9 years. And the new English text book has been taught for 3 years. So It’s also lack of English Teaching materials: flash cards, reference books, VCD player, Television. The school has only one teacher of English, therefore, it is difficult to arrange the school timetable, especially, for the new curriculum of the text book, students learn 2 periods per week instead of 4 periods per week. 
2. Students and their parents.
Because of living in the coastal area, all of the students’ parents are fishers. They spend all time on the sea to earn living by fishing, they pay little attention to their children’ studying. Students are not willing to learn, to do homework. Morever, They have speacial voice: coastal voice, it makes them hard to pronounce exactedly. Living skills of the students are not as good as the town or city ‘students. Most of them are shy, afraid of speaking (of course, not only speaking English). Most of the students at Tan Dan Primary school as at many other schools do not know how to learn English effectively. They do not know how to use English to communicate to each other. They are shy, afraid of making mistakes. In this area, Students do not have chance to talk to the foreigners, do not have enough English materials to study.Morever, English is not easy subject with much more words, sentence parttens, proverb. And their parents can not help the children with the homework.
3. Teachers:
Being a teacher of English in a primary school for over nine years, I find necessary to study more about teaching approaches to help my students to be better at English, not only in grammar but also in developing four skills, they can use the English they learn to communicate. 
In fact that, as one of young teachers of English, I have a lot of difficulties in teaching because of the class size, the students’ characteristic and the yearly changing of the text book . I often receive similar questions from many students: “I can understand the use of sentences and do the excercises easily but I feel embarrassed to talk in English because the lack of vocabulary and how I can catch the new language in class” or “ what I should do to remember the new words quickly and use them in suitable situations” or “I am afraid of making mistake”. In my reality of teaching, there are many students who are afraid of speaking and expressing themselves to the teachers. On the other hand, I often hear a lot of complaints from the colleages: “ Students seem so quiet and lazy, they are not interested in learning English during English lessons. It is difficult for young learners to take part in English class activities”. 
 In order to solve this problem, in the middle of first semester of school year 2016 - 2017, I had a small survey with the students of grade 3 (after unit 5) with a test within 1 period: “Multiple choice”:
Result: 
N0
class
sizes
Good
Pretty
Average
Bad
worst
No
%
No
%
No
%
No
%
No
%
1
3A
35
8
22.9
10
28.6
12
34.3
4
11.4
1
2.8
2
3B
33
10
30.3
7
21.2
9
27.3
6
18.2
1
3
3
3C
35
6
17.2
12
34.3
11
31.4
4
11.4
2
5.7
4
Total
103
24
23.2
29
28.1
32
31.2
14
13.6
4
3.9
 The result shows that students have some difficulties in learning English. They understand the new knowledge in English class but they don’t remember the vocabulary when they have the new lesson. I think that I should find out the effective method which helps them to memorize the new language easily and communicate in English. And the TPR method is the best way which I should apply. However, to be apply it perfectively,We should use this method as a small technique in each lesson, because this requires students’ movement and if it lasts long time, it will make our students get tired of it.
III. The solutions of implementation
1. Simon says
It’s a classic activity among the TPR techniques, that is commonly used to teach vocabulary or check vocabulary. A vocabulary - oriented game like Simon Says is analogous to the process that takes place as children acquire their first language. In this activity, the teacher will play “Simon” and come up with creative commands and actions with which your students would then have to perform. they’ll also learn the target language in the process.
Simon Says is a fun game that helps in exercising listening skills. This game is fairly easy, but it can quickly turn into a challenge, especially if playing in a large group. Although this game goes by many names worldwide, the fun, basic rules tend to remain the same. 
Example: Grade 3- Book 1 Unit 6 Stand up! lesson 2 ( page 42 )
Warm up: Let’s play: “ Simon says” game
 	The vocabulary: 
 	Sit down
Stand up
Open your book
Close your book
The steps of “Simon says” game:
1. Gather the group of players. Normally, all the players in Simon says remain standing for the duration of the playing round. However, you could also play sitting down.
2. Designate someone as Simon. Within your group of players, designate one person to be Simon. Whoever is chosen to be Simon will then stand in front of and face the rest of players in the group.
3. Understand the role of Simon. Simon is the leader and commander of the group of listeners. Simon gives commands to the group of listeners. Simon’s commands can be given in two different ways: beginning a command by saying, “Simon says” or simply stating the command. Simon’s goal is to eliminate as many listeners as possible, until there is one listener remaining as the winner.
Depending on which way the command is phrased, the group of listeners will either obey the command, or not. Simon eliminates listeners by having them incorrectly obey or not obey commands.
4. Understand the role of the listeners. Listeners must listen closely to what the leader, Simon, commands them to do. If Simon gives a command by first stating, “Simon says” the listeners must obey Simon’s command. If Simon gives a command without first saying, “Simon says” the listeners must not obey his command. If a listener incorrectly obeys or does not obey Simon’s command, they are eliminated from the rest of the game round, and must sit out until another game round is started.
5. Give commands as Simon. Because you are trying to eliminate as many listeners as you can, you should try and make your commands tricky to follow. For example, frequently switch up when you give commands preceded with, “Simon says” Give your commands quickly so your listeners have to make quick decisions on whether to obey your command or not. When someone incorrectly obeys one of Simon’s commands, call them out so they can be eliminated from the remaining group of players still in the game. As Simon, you can get creative with your commands; however, some common commands Simon can give include:
Sit down
Stand up
Open your book
Close your book
6. Obey commands as a listener. As a listener, you have to listen and pay attention very carefully to the commands given by Simon. Simon will try to trick you into obeying commands you shouldn’t by giving the commands very quickly.Wait a split second before you go to perform a command, to think back if Simon preceded the command by first saying, “Simon says”
After Simon gives a command (assuming the command is preceded by, “Simon says”), perform the command until Simon moves on to the next command.
If the next command is not preceded by, “Simon says” continue to perform or hold the previous command.
7. Start a new game. Keep playing until there is one remaining listener left.The remaining listener is the winner for the round, and becomes the new Simon. At the start of a new game round, all the eliminated players are back in the next game.
 “Simon says” is a si