1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
The key points of English teaching reform emphasize that we should change the currenttype of teaching, which focused on teaching English grammar and vocabulary, ignoring theactual ability of children’s development. In order to know how to teach language, how toemphasize children’s learning in English class, schools should start from interests, lifeexperiences and personal recognitions of children to teach. The innovation of Englishcurriculum should focus on the development of children’s integrated language learningabilities. Thus, language learning has become increasingly important, especially the effectiveinteraction between children and teachers, which can improve the positive thinking andpractical ability of children. Based on the social impact of the new curriculum, schoolsbecome more focused on teaching methods and the education background of teachers.English is one of the world’s important languages through specialized learning.Therefore, more and more parents attached their great attentions to children’s English learning.How to choose English teaching method has becoming a problem, which made schools andparents mostly concern about. In the 20th century, American famous psychology professorJames Asher put forward TPR teaching method which is one of the language teachingmethods. He had made a lot of researches from lab to classroom, from English to Arabiclanguage, German, French, Japanese, Spanish and Dutch. Those researches proved that TPRteaching method had showed some advantages in language teaching, which made childrenquickly understand, stay in an unpressured learning environment and have a higher recall.This method can help children build an optimistic development view and provide a flexibleteaching atmosphere to them. Therefore, TPR teaching method is an important method forchildren’s English learning, the great superiority of this method can make a new life forprimary teaching.
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1.2 The Significance of Research
With the development of teaching method, there appears a new method called TPRSmethod in language teaching. TPRS teaching method can make up the shortcomings of TPRmethod. This experiment is to testify the function of TPRS method. The main purposes of thisexperiment are to testify whether TPRS teaching method could improve the English learninginterests of children; whether TPRS teaching method could improve the English levels ofchildren; how to teach English under TPRS method in primary school. From the results of thisexperiment, we can conclude the followings:TPRS teaching method is adapt to the characteristics of children whom lack of attention,behave actively and have higher self-esteem, which can also provide a new method forteachers. The key point of this method can help children produce a relaxing mood, makechildren gain a higher achievement and learn without pressure, which can lay a foundation forthe future foreign talent.Firstly, TPRS teaching method can better develop the interests of children in Englishlearning, changing the horrific psychology of children in their English study. This method,adapted to the features of children whom attention time is short, satisfying the characteristicsof children whom behave actively and have higher self-esteem. TPRS teaching method canpay more attention to the participation of children which is a kind of experiential teaching way.It contains lots of activities which can greatly arouse the desire of children in Englishlearning.
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2. Literature Review
2.1 Introduction to TPRS Method
TPRS teaching method is a special teaching method especially in foreign languageteaching, which is developed by a Spanish teacher Blaine Ray in the 1990s. This approacharouses the attentions of teachers in many schools, which can greatly enhance the relationshipbetween teachers and children. The approach can also change the learning attitudes ofchildren from passive to initiative.TPR Storytelling (or TPRS) is one of the foreign language teaching methods, whichintegrates the two ways to teach foreign language through reading and storytelling, guidingchildren when they learn foreign language in classroom. This method mainly contains threesteps. The first step: words learning and reinforce, which can teach children new words andphrases through the way of directly translation, making gestures or some personalizedquestions; the second step: making story to learn language is that teachers can apply thosepervious learned structures to ask questions and tell stories, then repeat the procedure. Thelast step: reading articles to learn the language and make a summary (Ray, B. 2001).
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2.2 The Theoretical Foundations of TPRS Method
TPR Storytelling method is based on the two core theories: one is Input Hypothesis; theother is Mastery Learning. Input Hypothesis, proposed by Dr. Stephen Krashen, suggests: “language developmentis a function of input which received by learners”. Language learning and languageacquisition are the two different ways when children learning language. Krashen suggests:“language learning is a kind of learning which needs children to make great efforts to gain thescores. They should frequently learn the words, remember the phrases, and distinguish thestructures and grammars rules. The process is a hard work”. However, Language acquisitionis an opposite way which would not need children to make great efforts to learn but onlydepend on children’s subconscious learning. When children listen or read some interestingbooks or texts, they can directly acquire the information and message of the contents. Thereare also some attracting activities that they can participate during language learning. Thus,according to the theory of Krashen, language acquisition is the only way to truly learn thelanguage. Language learning can be only named a way which can not lead to spontaneousspeaking and reading.
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3. Research Design.........11
3.1 Objectives........11
3.2 The Subjects........11
3.3 The Instruments...........11
3.4 The Experiment Time..........13
3.5 The Experiment Procedure..........13
3.6 TPRS Method and TPRS Method Teaching Mode......17
4. Research Implementation and Data Analysis.....21
4.1 Results and Analysis...........21
4.1.1 Outcomes of Interview...........21
4.1.2 Findings of Observation.........22
4.1.3 The Results of Questionnaire.........24
4.1.4 Discussion of the Paper Test..........32
4.2 Suggestions on Improving Children’s English Learning....34
5. Conclusion..........41
5.1 Major Findings........41
5.2 Limitations of the Research and Recommendations.....42
4. Research Implementation and Data Analysis
4.1 Results and Analysis
The research subject of this study is a public primary school named as Xiangxian StreetPrimary School; Grade Four is the main subject which contains four classes, has total 181children. The author randomly chose the experimental class in order to guarantee the resultsof the research. The experimental class includes 45 children. The following is about theresults and analysis of the interview, observation, questionnaire and the paper test. Before the experiment, the author would need to survey the information aboutXiangxian Street Primary School and interview some English teachers about their Englishteaching methods, the learning situations of children and understandings of TPRS teachingmethod. After a small survey, the author concluded the followings:Firstly, English is regarded as an unimportant subject which is taught formally startedfrom Grade Three in public primary school. Therefore, almost in every public primary school,teachers are not paying more attention to English teaching and the background of teachers isalso not optimism.
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Conclusion
In order to certificate and testify the results of this research, the author held thisexperiment through observation, questionnaire and the paper test to get the results in primaryschool. Through this research, the author discovered that English teaching under TPRSmethod can definitely enhance the learning interests of children, the performances of childrenin class and the performances of teachers. TPRS teaching method affects teaching andlearning in several ways, of which the followings are the most obvious: According to the results of the experiment, TPRS teaching method highly improvedthe English learning interests of children. From the observation of experiment, we can seechildren have actively participated in classroom activities and answered the questionsspontaneously and quickly; carefully listened to the teacher. Otherwise, application of TPRSmethod can motivate children to learn English on their own initiations and boost theirconfidence greatly. In traditional English teaching method, there are few methods which canfully grasp the characteristics of children, while TPRS teaching method is a good example inprimary teaching.
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Reference (omitted)