Metathesis: journal of english language literature and teaching

Keywords: 
total physical response, young learner, English 
language teaching 
Introduction 
Teaching English in young learner is a challenge for teachers because it requires 
more preparation to create success in teaching. It is also not easy to do because the 
teachers should know effective ways of teaching young children, such as 
employing appropriate tricks and treats, creating students’ interests, and 
making/helping them to pay attention to learning process in the classroom 

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Cicih 
 
Using Total Physical Response (TPR) Method 
27 
Acces article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license 
(
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
)
(Ummah, 2017). Good teachers are those who teach and are able to create positive 
responses in their students.
English teaching and learning between young learner and adults cannot be 
equated. This is reflected by the different developmental characteristics of adults 
and children. Children are very talkative, having less concentration, having their 
own business, and they are fond of talking to friends. Consequently, the teachers 
must have the spirit of patience and high hospitality. The teacher and the students 
are the main elements in the class. The teachers should be able to manage the 
class well. Many experts reveal that the use of appropriate techniques used by the 
teachers can attract the children in class, especially in English classes. In the level 
of young learner, the teachers must relax and create fun approaches to delivering 
the materials to children. In addition, teachers must create a good learning 
environment and appropriate instruction for students (Rokhayati, 2017). 
Young learner in Panti Asuhan Yauma is for children who are ages of five to 
ten or eleven years. For some children, schools may be frightening. They just 
want to play and interact with their friends at school (Rani, 2012). Children or 
young learners especially those up the ages of nine to ten learn differently from 
older learners, adolescents, and adults: they easily get bored, losing interest after 
ten minutes or so. Therefore, teachers must be able to make fun and enjoyable 
classroom. They also need to be able to invite children to participate in the 
teaching activities. However there are some children who talk with their friends 
and play when the teachers are teaching. So, it is a big task for the teachers to 
conduct the English teaching and learning process (Rani, 2012). Students usually 
feel bored when they learn English because the learning methods are boring, it 
means that choosing the appropriate method and activities with a focus on 
students’ motivation will create a better learning process as the students will 
motivate themselves to learn more. In doing so, teachers should be more creative 
to provide teaching materials as well as teaching aids that are considered 
significant needed by the students (Nurani & Yohana, 2015).
A mnemonic strategy used for teaching Foreign Language (FL) vocabulary is 
the Total Physical Response (TPR) developed by Asher. TPR involves having 
students listen to a command in a foreign language and immediately responding 
with the appropriate physical action (Asher, 1964). When using this method, FL 
instructors give a series of commands in the target language (e.g., jump and clap 
your hands), while learners are expected to respond with whole-body movements 
(e.g., to jump while clapping their hands).
TPR is supported by several theoretical approaches to learning situations 
(Khorasgani, 2017). The physical aspect of TPR learning process makes it 
possible to integrate physical exercise and play into language teaching quite 
naturally and to enhance children’s physical activity and engagement outside 
classes, contributing not only to their linguistic, but also to their physical 
development and movement. In the process of English teaching and learning, the 
use of TPR involves movements that the students can actively do in the 
classroom. In teaching, the teachers can use a song, a storytelling, or role-play in 
which there are commands to enable students to carry out instructions to perform 
an action. For example, the teacher says "run". Then the teacher instructs through 
giving commands to the students to take this action then all the students run. 
These activities can be done repeatedly. After that, the teacher asks the students to 

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