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As a trainee teacher majoring in Teaching English as Second Language
(TESL), I have learned, been introduced and also done in the simulation earlier
about the methods in ELT Methodology subject during semester two. There are
many methods that can be used and implemented by a teacher in his or her lesson.
During my early years in a teacher training college pupil, I was eager to know the
true meaning of how the teachers in school carry out their lesson in a classroom. A
study of method is invaluable in teacher education. Every individual has different
insights and approaches on how they want to conduct their lesson based on the
methods learnt. As for me, the methods can be used according to the suitability of
the lesson and the classroom.
For the Linking Theory to Practice subject, I was required to plan a lesson
using one of the methods. After that, in a group of three (Adila, Fatin and Husni), it
required us to carry out any lesson plan for microteaching from the group members
and present it in class. Then, I was required to write a two thousands word reflection
based on a question given pertaining to pedagogical and theoretical principles in
English language teaching and classroom practices. The method that I have chosen
for my lesson plan is total physical response or TPR. For the microteaching, my
group chose Fatins lesson plan that was conducted in direct method way.
Based on the Lasser Freeman book, TPR is a method developed by Dr.
James J. Asher (1977), a professor of phychology at San Jose State University of
California. Asher developed TPR as a result of his experiences observing young
children learning their first language. He noticed that interactions between parents
and children often took the form of speech from the parent followed by a physical
response from the child. Asher made three hypotheses based on his observations:
first, that language is learned primarily by listening; second, that language learning
must engage the right hemisphere of the brain; and third, that learning language
should not involve any stress. Pupils learn more when they are relaxed. This is
because the affective filter, a mental barrier between the pupils and the information,
is raised when pupils are nervous or uncomfortable. When the affective filter is high,
learners find it harder to understand, process, and remember information. TPR helps
reduce the affective filter because it is less threatening than the traditional language
activities. Pupils do not have to produce language; mistakes are unimportant and

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easily corrected by the teacher. And lastly, language is remembered easily and longterm.
Total physical response is a method of teaching language using physical
movement to react to verbal input in order to reduce pupils inhibitions and lower
their effective filter. This is because pupils learn the language by physically
responding to the teachers instructions. Therefore, by using total physical response,
it allows pupils to react to language without thinking too much, facilitates long term
retention, and reduces pupils anxiety and stress. A typical TPR activity might contain
instructions such as "Walk to the door", "Open the door", "Sit down" and "Give your
mother a flower". The pupils are required to carry out the instructions by physically
performing the activities. Given a supportive classroom environment, there is little
doubt that such activities can be both motivating and fun, and it is also likely that with
even a fairly limited amount of repetition basic instructions such as these could be
assimilated by the learners, even if they were unable to reproduce them accurately
themselves. With these explanation and reasons stated, I strongly believe that TPR
could enhance the teaching of English in a primary classroom in terms of maximizing
learning and increasing pupils involvement with the lesson.
As been said earlier, I have conducted the microteaching with my group
members using direct method. The direct method and the TPR method are different
in its own way. Direct method has been applied by language teachers for many
years. It was revived then as a method when the goal of instruction became learning
how to use a foreign language to communicate. Since the Grammar Translation
Method was not very effective in preparing pupils to use the target language
communicatively, the Direct Method became popular.
The Direct Method has one very basic rule that is No translation is allowed.
In fact, the Direct Method receives its name from the fact that meaning is to be
conveyed directly in the target language through the use of demonstration and visual
aids, with no recourse to the students native language (Diller 1978). Based on the
brief explanation just now, the Direct Method is like carrying out a lesson as usual
but no translation is allowed, and there is no emphasizing in any kind of other
techniques and activities like TPR does.

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Back to my lesson plan, that focusing on TPR Method, the listening ability and
vocabulary must be developed first. Compared to the microteaching we had done
that focusing on the Direct Method, the lesson is carried out without using word
cards but more to picture cards because it is to encourage to speak with confidence
without referring to the words and all. Firstly, Fatin who took charge in carrying out
the first stage that is presentation part, she uses picture cards of buildings like police
station, fire station, post office, school and hospital. Without using any word cards, all
the pupils practice to pronounce the words by following the teacher (Fatin) and using
the mirror to make them clear and see how they pronounce it correctly. Then, the
follow up activity was conducted by Husni. The activity was the Hot seat game
which requires the pupils to guess the building by questioning the person on the
seat. This encourages them to speak and ask with confidence and believe. I could
say that these stages, it does have been carried out wonderfully. However, for the
practice part was lacked of preparation in terms of not-so-interested teaching
materials produced which need to be improved in the future.
As for the last stage that is the production part, I have conducted jazz chants
using some of the musical instruments like maracas and triangle. The pupils were
enjoying themselves in chanting and most importantly in creating the new lyrics in
their respective groups. Then they had to perform it in front of the class. They were
so excited in using the instruments to in order to spice up the jazz chants
performance. The lesson was carried out beautifully and the pupils were so
enthusiastic learning it.
You can use these jazz chants in a variety of fun ways. You can practice
stress and rhythm with your class, to help your students sound more natural
when they speak English. Also, because each jazz chant focuses on different
vocabulary and grammar, you can also use them to review important words
and structures.
(Miles Craven: One Stop English, 2000)

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Jazz chants can create a stress free environment in the classroom because it is fun
to carry out and like the statement above which is emphasizing the advantages in
using jazz chants in classroom. Firstly, I showed them a video of jazz chants which
can stimulate them in readiness for the next activity or stage. Then, I chanted one of
the jazz chants and asked them to repeat after me. Using the example of jazz chant
just now, they were needed to create a new lyrics based on what they have learned
with referring to the stress and rhythm of the jazz chants just now. They were
exploring new way in expressing their thought about certain buildings. For example,
in the hospital there will be a syringe, medicine nurses and doctors. This will
stimulate their critical thinking and creative thinking by listing what they would see in
certain building and suiting the words in jazz chants and become the lyrics.
During the microteaching, due to the fact that the lesson is targeted on
average Year Five pupils, as a teacher, I should be aware of the language used in
the lesson. To be more specific, in the planning stage, for individual reference, I have
listed a group of vocabularies to be used in the lesson so that the pupils feel secure
in learning. This is to avoid them feel confused with a lot of unfamiliar words.
However, at the same time, some unfamiliar words are included in the list so that it
fits Krashens second language acquisition theory, I + 1 (Tricomi E. T., 1986). For
example, when I introduced them with the musical instruments, maracas and
triangle, they were introduced with the word by looking at the things itself. This is one
of the good ways in introducing new words by using pictures or realia.
Before this, Mr Bashir reminded us to choose the right activity following
through the word level activity that we have taught. In this process of planning, it
takes some time to filter the words and this teaches me how selective and how
careful a teacher should be. In the aspect of teaching aid, for the presentation stage,
we used picture cards in introducing the buildings while the practice part, we used
more stars stickers for reward and a chart for Hot Seat competition. However, Mr
Bashir commented that, the chart should be prepared earlier, not writing it
spontaneously on the white board. It showed that the teacher was not prepared or it
looked so messy. Last but not least, for the production part, the jazz chants activity
was interesting but the class need to be controlled more by the teacher in order to
carry out the activity smoothly and in good.

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Some ways to ensure that this Direct approach could be an effective method
in teaching English in terms of maximizing learning and increasing pupils
engagement to the lesson is by giving clear instruction in the targeted language
without using translation. As you do this, use gestures and facial expressions to help
the pupils understand what you want them to do. Next is by doing the action with the
pupils several times, and give the command each time you do the action. However, if
you are teaching the English words for objects, you will need to work with only one
pupil at a time as the others watch, unless you have enough objects for more than
one pupil. Other than that, if there a pupil who speak in their mother tongue, teacher
can either ignore or just punish them in a good way. Teacher should be careful in not
using the mother tongue or translation way. It is wrong to carry out the lesson as
Direct Method.
Conducting a microteaching using a different method provides an opportunity
for me to be aware of certain aspects to be taken into considerations when teaching
in real classroom. It is indeed, not only a good practice but also a process of learning
and discovering new things that will be very useful in the future. Conducting the
microteaching, make us able to maintain a good rapport with the pupils. This can be
evidenced when Mr Bashir commented on how well the involvement among the
pupils along the teaching and learning process. But I should aware and not too much
playful to avoid unexpected attitude from my pupils. For instance, they were taking
part in the activity and I saw that most of them were paying attention and involved in
the activity. In addition, being conscious about the fact that pupils do need
compliment as one kind of reinforcement in learning, I try my best to express the
appreciation using phrases like Excellent and Good job my dear. In classroom,
there will always be things that will come up, such as random pupil responses or
questions that I will not have prepared for. It reminds me to prepare myself for any
possible question and answer given by the pupils during lesson.
Other than that, I learn that as a teacher, we should be able to model accurate
and fluent language use. This means that as a teacher, one should avoid having
even one grammatical error while conducting a lesson since we are teaching English
language as second language to young learners. In fact, young children learn by
imitating. As in the microteaching, there are several grammatical errors done during

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my group members and I was conducting it. In future, I should be more aware of the
language used during interaction as young learners tend to model their teacher both
in verbal and non-verbal way.
As a conclusion, Total Physical Response (TPR) and Direct Method have its
own way and can be difference in many levels. Both methods are suitable for the
ESL primary classroom but teacher should be more creative in enhancing pupils
learning. Both methods can be applied in order to make the lesson more interesting.
This fact wakes me up as I think, in the micro teaching, I am aware that I should
apply good classroom management too in attracting pupils attention and maintain
their good result. There are some misbehaviour such as some pupils were talking
even when I am talking. I applied one classroom management routine that can assist
the smoothness of my lesson. Serious talk, it helped a lot and I managed to control
the class. For example when I say Hey the pupils need to answer Ho Ho. They
enjoyed doing that and I managed to stop them from making noise. It is believed to
help me in controlling the amount of misbehaviours so that the lesson becomes more
effective and conducive.

Again I would like to thank Mr Bashir for his guidance and supports. He
managed to boost up my confidence level. As a conclusion, we as a teacher have to
relate the theory that we have learned to apply it in classroom. Not all theories are
applicable to our Malaysian context classroom so, we need to adjust and suits the
syllabus of our education system. A good teacher has to be a role model in class
because children learn by imitating the adults and portrayed a good behaviour to
teach our next generation for betterment.