How can TPR help me learn?
TPR stands for Total Physical Response. It is a teaching method designed to help retain knowledge better by incorporating physical movements while learning.
https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/total-physical-response-tpr
It is mainly used with young students as it not only helps them learn but can be more fun for them (jumping and dancing around is a lot more fun as a child than sat down staring at a book).
In fact, this is where I originally started using this method, while teaching younger students. However.. I've started using it again.. on myself!
During my studies of learning Japanese using Anki (a Spaced Repetition piece of software), I noticed my accuracy wasn't great... and dropping! Yes, some of this was down to tiredness and fatigue but... I decided to try and get past that by using TPR.
The results improved quite quickly. I went from 45% accuracy to around 60% accuracy after just a few sessions. Not only was TPR getting me active (waking me up a bit and reducing stress from sitting in front of a screen) but the actions were definitely helping me recall certain words. Instead of trying to reach into my brain to pull the information out I was instinctively doing the actions and the words would appear (as if by magic!)
This method isn't for everyone, if you already have a firm grasp of the language (like a lot of my students) then you'll find it's easier to make things "stick". But... if you are just starting out, either in English or another language then try this method out. Get moving around and having fun with it. It's helped me out and I will continue to use this, until it stops providing benefit :)
24 de enero de 2018
