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ELT SEMINAR

The Use of Total Physical Response in Maximizing


Students’ Vocabulary

BY:

A.A Made Dody Pujawan

E1D115005

ENGLISH EDUCATION PROGRAM

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

2018/2019

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“The Use of Total Physical Response in Maximizing Students’ Vocabulary”.
NAME: A.A Made Dody Pujawan
NIM: E1D115018

1. Background of Study
The ideal target for learning English is to master the four skills of English which
are listening, speaking, reading and writing as one of the learning goals. Therefore
students have to maximize vocabularies in their mental lexicon to achieve the
ideal target of the learning process. Vocabulary is a precarious tool when the
students acquire the second language because of a limited vocabulary in their
mental lexicon will affect the success of learning goals. Underlining the
importance of vocabulary acquisition, Schmitt (2000) emphasizes that “lexical
knowledge is the central to communicative competence and to the acquisition of a
second language” p. 55). Vocabulary becomes an essential component in learning
English, as the essential component in the learning process, the student has to
maximize their vocabulary.
A student who has lack of vocabularies will find difficulties in the learning
process, they can not arrange their idea in speaking and writing class, the same
thing in reading and listening class they can not understand and comprehend the
meaning of the text or speech. The sources of problems come from the lack of
students’ interest in maximizing their vocabulary, the monotonous teaching
method and no interesting media to support them. The limitation of vocabulary
made the student difficult to organize idea, understand and comprehend the text or
speech. From those source of problems, there is should be a new implementation
in the learning process to maximizing students’ vocabulary. There is a technique
called Total Physical Response to help the student in maximizing their
vocabulary. Total Physical Response is effective to reduce student anxiety, stress,
and nervous in the learning process.

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2. Theoretical Concept
a. The Teaching and Learning of Vocabulary

Whute (1986) stated that vocabulary are all word that are used in any
language. They are elements that are combined to make sentence or
discourse. The more vocabulary will be needed in order to intake accurate
word choice, it will effectively convey thought and ideas. Hornby (174:
252) states that vocabulary is a total number of words which make up the
language with rules for combining them. The vocabulary of language
consists of lexical forms (words) that refer to a part of our experience.
Julian Edge (1993: 27) stated that knowing many words in a foreign
language is important as it enables us to have more chance of
understanding the language.
Learning new words is an important part of learning a new language. Even
children learning their native tongue usually learn isolated words or phrase
before piecing them together into more complex utterances. Learning
some words and phrases in a new language allows people to start
communicating at once. Learning vocabulary helps the students speak
fluently and accurately, write easily, or understand what the learner reads
or hears if they have enough vocabularies and have the capability of using
it accurately. In relation to this case, the linguist David Wilkins in
Thornbury (2002: 13) stated that without grammar very little can be
conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. The most
important point of the statement above is that maximizing vocabulary for
students is the main essential component in order to master the four skills
of English. Even at higher levels, successful learning of new words and
phrases is often a way by which students can see that they are making
progress. So, in an approach which values the ability to communicate,
vocabulary is essential, central to language teaching.

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b. Principles of Vocabulary Acquisition

1. The Principle of Cognitive Depth: “The more one manipulates, thinks


about, and uses mental information, the more likely it is that one will
retain that information. In the case of vocabulary, the more one engages
with a word (deeper processing), the more likely the word will be
remembered for later use.” (Schmitt 2000: 120).
2. The Principle of Retrieval: “The act of successfully recalling an item
increases the chance that the item will be remembered. It appears that the
retrieval route to that item is in some way strengthened by being
successfully used.” (Baddeley, 1997: 112)
3. The Principle of Associations: “The human lexicon is believed to be a
network of associations, a web-like structure of interconnected links.
When students are asked to manipulate words, relate them to other words
and to their own experiences, and then to justify their choices, these word
associations are reinforced.” (Sökmen, 1997: 241-2).
4. The Principle of Re-contextualization: “When words are met in reading
and listening or used in speaking and writing, the generative of the context
will influence learning. That is, if the words occur in new sentence
contexts in the reading text, learning will be helped. Similarly, having to
use the word to say new things will add to learning.” (Nation 2001: 80).
5. The Principle of Multiple Encounters: “Due to the incremental nature of
vocabulary acquisition, repeated exposures are necessary to consolidate a
new word in the learner’s mind.” (Schmitt & Carter 2000: 4).

c. Principles in teaching vocabulary :


1. Keep teaching simple and clear, no complicated explanation.

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2. Relate the present teaching to past knowledge by showing a pattern
3. Use both oral and written presentation write it on the board and explaining
4. Give most attention to words that are already partly known
5. Tell the learners if it is a high frequency word that they should remember
6. Don’t bring in other unknown or little known related words.
7. Give the students feedback.

4. Technique of Teaching Vocabulary


a. Visual Techniques
Concerning with the visual techniques, Gairns and Redman(1980) as
cited by Marla, et al (1999:12) says that "there are there form visual
techniques; “relia, pictures, and mime or gestures.” Relia means using a
variety of real-object brought by the students in the classroom It
can be also applied to remember written material. Students can act out
what they read, or associate physical sensation with specific words found in reading
passages. Referring to ideas mentioned above,Klippel (1994:115)
implies that "mime or gesture is useful if it emphasizes the importance of gestures
and facial expression on communication. At the essence it can not only be used to
indicate the meaning of a word found in reading passage, but also speaking activity
as it stresses mostly on communication.

b. Verbal Techniques
This technique pertains to the use of illustrative situation, synonyms
opposites,scale, definition and categories. More specifically, Marla,
al (1990:3) divided verbal techniques into four parts, among those are: ~
a. Definition and illustration sentences, this technique the English
teachers are expected to introduca word in English through the use of other
word in the same language.

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b. Synonyms and antonyms; Synonyms and antonyms are especially important
in building new vocabulary because learners are able to know
vocabulary.Synonyms are words that have the same meaning as the unknown
in a given sentence. There may be signals that identify the presence of
synonym for the readers.They could be or, commas, dashes, and
colons. Meanwhile, antonyms are words that have the opposite
meaning of the unknown word in a given sentence. Signals which identify
the presence of the antonyms for readers are instead although,
but,yet, and however.
c. Scale; This technique is the presentation of related words in scales
that include the combination of both verbal and visual techniques, for example,
in term 32° Celsius, the degree sign is the visual.
d. Explanation; This technique explains the meaning and the use of a
foreign word in the foreign language itself. Taking into account the points
of technique presented earlier, it seems that there are several similarities
of program for teaching vocabulary development skills to be recognized by
Brown (1994:367). He offers some techniques for teaching vocabulary skills,
among other are :
1.Determine the goal of teaching, such as:
a.To improve the reading vocabulary skills of ESL students
b.To teach ESL students word-building skills
c.To teach ESL students to guess word meanings from context clues
2. Get student to make word building; that is derived from suffixes,
prefixes, and roots.
3.Definition clues, which comprises the parentheses and footnotes, and
synonyms and antonyms.
4.Inference clues; These clues have three types, such as example, summary,
and experience. Based on the quotation above, it can be said that the
English teachers, before applying those techniques, should know
the level of students' competency and the goal of teaching in advance,
particularly on teaching vocabulary. Also, they should be able to lead the

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students to learn a new word or some words clearly. In relation to the
employment of verbal techniques, of course, the English teachers have to
regard the length of time and the English textbooks used.

c. The Use of Dictionary


In addition to the previous two techniques, the use of
dictionaryanother technique in finding out the meaning of unfamiliar words
and expression In this respect, the Students can make use a variety of dictionaries,
such as bilingual, monolingual, pictorial, and thesaurus. By Allen, using
dictionaries is "passport to independence and use them is one the students-
centered learning activities.” (1993:83) Meanwhile, Gerald and Laura
(1989:120) state that"dictionaries are more easily used to determine word
meaning.” Moreover, Readence (1995:35) adds that "the dictionary
definition is shared with a discussion when the words are presented both in
isolated form and in the context. In conclusion, the use of dictionary is an effective
way for the students in finding outthe meaning of words.

d. Total Physical Response


Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method developed by James J.
Ashers, a professor of psychology at San Jose State University,
California, in the 1960s. This method has been developed from
developmental psychology, learning theory, and language learning
procedures. TPR was born because of James Asher had noticed that
the interaction between the children with the parents in the form of
speaking and then followed by the response action of the children.
Therefore, he made an experiment. For example, children do learn a
lot of listening before they learn to speak and they do a lot of physical
activities in learning their first language, such as reaching, moving,
grabbing. Therefore, TPR emphasizes on comprehension and delays
the production of language. This process is the one by which children
acquire their first language and maximizing their input of vocabulary

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in their mental lexicon first they try to do a physical response then try
to speak and use the new input (vocabulary). The children start to
listen, watch and imitate, it also deals with visual, audio, and body it
helps the student understand the new input by learning by doing.
TPR is based on the premise that the human brain has a biological
program for acquiring any language. The proponents of TPR claim that
memory is increased if it is stimulated through association with motor
activity and the process of learning the first language. TPR is a hold-on
approach to second language learning on which the teacher infuses
language through commands and by which the student responds with
body movement to show total comprehension. Total Physical
Response is largely about the movement by physically moving to learn
the components of vocabulary. Learning increases and stress
decreases. However, it is recognized that TPR is most useful for
beginner students, though it can be used for the higher levels of
students where preparation becomes an issue for the teacher.

3. Teaching and Learning Process.


a. Pre Activities
1. Teacher open the class
2. Teacher checks the students list
3. Teacher introduces the topic of vocabulary and activities that are
going to be learnt
b. Whilst Activities 1
a. Teacher show the student several pictures about transportations,
such as ; plane, car, and bike.
2. Teacher give a clear pronunciation to each picture.
3. Teacher repeat the keywords until all student familiar or
understand the meaning of the words.
4. Teacher ask the student to stand up.
5. Teacher give command to every pictures

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a. Fly your plane.
b. Drive your car.
c. Ride your bicycle.
6. Teacher repeat the six steps twice.
7. Teacher give the command without the action student should do the
instruction for view times.
8. Teacher give the jumbled or random commands to the student.
9. Teacher ask the student about the pictures.
10.Teacher give compliment to all students.
Plane

Car

Bike

c. Whilst Activities 2
1. Singing
In singing way, the teacher and the students are singing a song

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while doing the actions in the song

Song
This is the way we take our bath
Take our bath,take our bath
This is the way we take our bath
So early in the morning

This is the way we brush our teeth


Brush our teeth, brush our teeth
This is the way we brush our teeth
So early in the morning

This is the way we go to school


Go to school, go to school
This is the way we go to school
So early in the morning

d. Whilst Activities 3
1. Simon Says
In this game, the teacher act as Simon and give the students
commands. The commands can be followed only if the teacher says
“Simon Says...” . If a student doesn’t follow the commands or fail to
follow the commands,the student is eliminated.
Commands: (Commands without “Simon Says” can not be done)
-Simon says put your hands up
-Put your hands down
-Simon says put your hands down
-Simon says touch your ear
-Touch your nose
-Simon says touch your nose

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-Simon says clap your hands
-Clap your hands
-Simon says clap your hands twice
-Simon says slice your bread
-Simon says lick your ice cream

e. Post Activities
1. Evaluation
In order to find out if the students are able to know and do the act
correctly and know the vocabularies, ask them how much they
know about how much they understand about the topic
2. The teacher concludes the learning activities

4. Conclusion
Teaching vocabulary using Total Physical Response technique would help
the students to maximize the vocabulary. The students’ vocabulary would be
maximizing because by using TPR the student interest will increase and
anxiety will decrease. Learning by doing the student unconsciously get the
new input in their mental lexicon by listening, watching, and imitating the
teacher’s action. This situation is fun and makes the student enjoy the class.

5. References.
Pujiningsih, Nining. 2010. Improving students’ English vocabulary by using
Total Physical Response.
https://eprints.uns.ac.id/3462/1/166013001201204531.pdf. Accessed on July 2nd
2019.
Setiyadi, Ag. Bambang.2006. Teaching English as A Foreign Language.
Yogyakarta: Graha Ilmu

Udin, Amin 2017. Teaching vocabulary through Total Physical Response


Method for children.

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https://aminudin241072.wordpress.com/2009/02/08/teaching-vocabulary-
through-tpr-method-to-children/. Accessed on July 2nd 2019.
Principle of teaching vocabulary.
http://maulanaeo14.blogspot.co.id/2015/11/definitionsprinciples-of-
teaching.html. Accessed on July 2nd 2019.
Five Guiding Principles Of Vocabulary Learning.
https://www.eflmagazine.com/the-five-guiding-principles-of-vocabulary-
learning/
Accessed on July 3rd 2019

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