TPR Method, Interactive and Creative Method to Teach Procedure Text

“How to Make a Cup of Coffee”

Author

Name                                 : Fifit Rizkiyani

Student Number                 : 2201415056

Mobile Phone Number       : 082324461655

                Introduction

The method which I chose in my last micro-teaching is TPR (Total Physical Response), I chose this method because I thought that it was the best method to teach students about procedure text and by using this method I believed that this method can be interactive and creative way to engage the students in the learning activities. 

TPR was first proposed by James Asher, James Asher’s Total Physical Response (TPR) is method in teaching English where the students follow directions uttered by the instructor (without native language translation).

According to Larsen and Freeman (2000) there are some principles of TPR:

-   TPR was developed in order to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign languages and thereby encourage the students to persist in their study beyond a beginning level of proficiency.

- The teacher’s role in TPR is the director of all students’ behavior and the role of the students are imitators of her nonverbal model. As some point (usually after ten to twenty hours of instruction) some students will be “ready to speak’. At that point there will be a role reversal with individual students directing the teacher and other students.

- The interaction in TPR initially is characterized by the teacher speaking and the students responding nonverbally. Later on, the students become more verbal and the teacher responds nonverbally. Students perform actions together, they can lean by watching each other.

-  One of the main reasons TPR was developed was to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign language. In TPR the students are though in interactive and enjoyable way so that it can reduce their anxiety when studying foreign language.

-  In TPR method the teacher often uses imperative sentence to give commands on their students.

- Students’ native language is rarely to be used in TPR method because meaning is made clear by body movements.

-  In TPR method, teacher evaluates the students by observing their actions to know whether or not students understand.

-  When applying TPR method, teacher should be tolerant of students’ errors and only correct major errors. As students get more advanced, teachers can ‘fine tune’, then correct more minor errors.

          Reflection 

          The objective of the lesson:

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1.      Demonstrate steps in procedure text given by the teacher.

2.      Pronounce some words related to procedure text correctly.

3.      Listen and do other people commands.

4.      Give commands to other person.

5.    Describe the steps in procedure text orally

        The strengths of my micro-teaching performance:

         From my friends’ comments and my reflection on my micro-teaching performance, my strengths are:

1.   Clear instruction and explanation. When I taught my students, first I wrote down what would be discussed in our meeting on the white board. At that time I wrote the title of procedure text “How to make a cup of coffee” then I wrote the generic structure of procedure text which is Goal, Material and Steps. By writing the material on the white board, the students can have clear material and it can a guidance for us as a teacher about what should we do in our teaching activities.

2.    I have prepared the material well. I provided pictures and real things when teaching procedure text using TPR.

Picture 1: Real Materials to make a cup of coffee

      The real materials which I had provided when teaching procedure text using TPR is that I tried to give real illustration to make a cup of coffee so that the students can understand easily about the material and the steps of how to make a cup of coffee trough my demonstration in front of the class and practiced together the commands given by me as a teacher.

Picture 2 :  spoon 

 Picture 3: Instant Coffee 

Picture 4: Cup 

 Picture 5: Hot water

      I had provided some pictures on white board when teaching procedure text using TPR method, by providing some pictures on white board, all students can see the pictures when I commanded the students to point on the pictures. On the pictures above I also provided the transcription of the name of the materials so that the students knew how to pronounce the name of the materials correctly. 

Picture 6: List of words

     When I Taught procedure text using TPR, I also provided list of words on white board, so the students knew how to spell the words correctly and also knew the meaning of the words given when teaching and learning activity. In TPR, the whole learning activity is dominated by giving commands to the students, so we have to provide clear command by providing list of words to the students.

Picture 7: Work sheet

      After giving commands and practice together with all the students to make a cup of coffee, after that I gave the worksheet to check their understanding, I gave commands and then they should give number on the pictures based on my commands. By providing worksheet after learnig rocedure text using TPR method the students are expected to have clear understanding about procedure text in this case how to make a cup of coffee.
3.  When teaching procedure text using TPR method I also provided some jokes and voice effect when practicing how to make a cup of coffee, the aim is to engage the students and make the learning activity to be more interactive and enjoyable.
4.  Using gesture, movement and eye contact. Gesture was defined as ‘movement’ of the arms, head or trunk, while movement was defined as lateral (left or right) movement of the teacher from one position to another position. Therefore, when I taught my students I moved my arms to show the material, and pointed out to the students. I also moved from one position to another position in the class. So, by using gesture, movement, and eye contact not only had the effect of arousing of focusing attention but could have added meaning to verbal communication.
5.  Giving verbal reinforcement to the students. When I taught my students sometimes I gave them verbal reinforcement by saying “good job” or “very good” and also by clapping hands. Those positive reinforcement helps the students to develop correct habits when learning activities.

     The weakness of my micro-teaching performance.

From my friends’ comments and my reflection on my micro-teaching performance, my weaknesses are:
1.  When teaching the students I sometimes used filler “emmm” more than three times, may be because I was nervous at that time.
2.  One of my friend's comment that there were two unclear pictures (cup and hot water picture). Those unclear picture because I toke the picture directly from the internet and then may be it also because of the quality of printer.
3.  There were some mispronounced like the word “material”, because when I performed micro-teaching in front of the class I didn’t realize that I had many mistakes in pronouncing some words, I  just kept going to teach my students.

Conclusion

Some points to consider when applying TPR:
1. Clear and loud voice, because in TPR we as a teacher will give many commands to our students, so we must have clear and loud voice in order to make our students understand and can follow our instruction.
2. Clear instruction, when we apply TPR method in our class room, we must give clear instruction to our students what they should do when learning activities.
3. Providing good model and materials, because in TPR method the students do not allow to speak until they are ready to speak, therefore as a teacher we should provide good model and materials to the students like pictures, real materials and etc, so that the students can gain the knowledge about the new vocabularies from the model and materials given by the teacher.
4. Confident, TPR is a method that have goal to reduce students’ anxiety when learning foreign language. So by having good confidence the teacher can encourage the students and can make the learning activity more alive and interactive so that the students can follow the learning activity well.

In order to improve our teaching skills, we should consider several things as follows:

1.We should prepare the material well and practice a lot before teaching our students in order to reduce our nervous when teaching the students and by practice a lot we will be more confident in front of the class.

2.We needs to employ a variety of techniques and media when applying the TPR methd, such us: picture and real materials to engage students when learning activity 

Reference

Larsen, D., & Freeman. (2000). Techniques and principles in language teaching (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.