Using TPR Method in Teaching English Adjectives

Abstract: The topic of this study is using Total Physical Response (TPR) in teaching English adjectives to 11-year-old pupils. The objective of this study is to investigate whether the TPR method is effective in teaching English adjectives. The researcher used a quasi-experiment to design this study. The population was the pupils aged 11 in a middle school in Kristianstad. 30 pupils were selected as samples and divided into two groups: one experimental group and one control group. The steps of this experiment were: (1) the experimental group was taught by the TPR method; (2) the control group and the experimental group were given the same post-test. In order to investigate whether there is a necessity to adopt new English vocabulary teaching technique for these pupils, two questionnaires were deliberated; the first questionnaire was for all testees and the second questionnaire was just for the experimental group. The result of the study showed the pupils’ achievements in the experimental group were improved by the TPR method. The mean score of the experimental group was much higher than that of the control group. The p-value of this test was 0.0002 less than 0.01 which showed strong evidence that the results were not achieved coincidentally. The effect size of this study was 2.59 more than 0.8 which indicated that the TPR method has significant effectiveness in teaching English adjectives. The questionnaires indicated that TPR was the new English vocabulary teaching technique that the pupils need.