English Lesson Planner

Merve

TPR-Greek - Beginner level

TPR-Greek
Beginner level

Description

In this lesson students will follow directions uttered by the teacher. The teacher will help students acquire target structures by using Total Physical Response method in which students listen and act the commands. They are not expected to utter words until they feel ready and safe. The students are expected to acquire rather than learn as in TPR acquisition of the mother tongue is viewed as a model for learning any other language. In the first phase of the lesson teacher will perform the actions along with the students. In the second phase, the teacher expects students to show that they can understand commands by performing them alone. Teacher introduces some new commands when she is satisfied with the first six commands. After learning to respond to some oral commands, the students learn to read and write them.

Materials

Power point slide

Power point slide

Main Aims

To provide students vocabulary that they can learn through action-based drills in the imperative form.
To provide students input through action-based drills in the imperative form.
To have students utter target language when they feel ready.

Subsidiary Aims

To have the students copy the target language from the blackboard into the notebooks.

Procedure (35-45 minutes)

Warm-up (3-4 minutes) • To introduce the method to the students

T. says “You will be studying Greek in a way that is similar to the way you learned English. You will not speak at first. Rather, you will just listen to me and do as I do. I will give you a command to do something in Greek and you will do the actions along with me. I will need four volunteers to help me with the lesson.”

Presentation (5-6 minutes) • To model the commands with a few volunteer students

T. calls on four students to come to the front of the room and sit with her in chairs that are lined up facing the other sts. T. tells other sts. to listen and watch. The teacher gives commands in the target language and performs them with the volunteer students. Stand up: Σήκω πάνω /Síko páno/ Sit down: Κάτσε κάτω /Kátse káto/ Turn around: γυρίστε γύρω /gyríste gýro/ Walk: Περπατήστε /Perpatíste / Jump: άλμα /álma / Stop: να σταματήσει /na stamatísei/ The students say nothing. The teacher gives the commands quite quickly and change the order.

Practice (5-7 minutes) • To have the students practice new vocabulary with the teacher’s input, the students decode and respond.

The teacher sits down and issues commands to the volunteers. The teacher directs students other than the volunteers. The students are expected to learn through observing as well as by performing the actions themselves.

Presentation - Introducing new items (6-8 minutes) • To have students develop felxibility in understanding unfamiliar utterances.

After the teacher feels satisfied that the class masters six commands in the first phase of the lesson, she introduces new commands. The teacher and the volunteer students perform together. Point to the door: Δείξε την πόρτα /Deíxe tin porta/ Point to the desk: σημείο προς το γραφείο /simeío pros to grafeío/ Point to the chair: δείχνουν προς την καρέκλα /deíchnoun pros tin karékla/ Walk to the door: περπατήστε μέχρι την πόρτα /perpatíste méchri tin porta/ Walk to the desk: περπατήστε στο γραφείο /perpatíste sto grafeío/ Walk to the chair: Περπατήστε στην καρέκλα /Perpatíste stin karékla/ Touch the door: αγγίξτε την πόρτα /angíxte tin porta/ Touch the desk: αγγίξτε το γραφείο /angíxte to grafeío/ Touch the chair: αγγίξτε την καρέκλα /angíxte tin karékla/

Practice (5-7 minutes) • To have the students practice newly introduced commands

The teacher sits down again and utter commands to the whole class as well as to volunteer students. The teacher changes the order or the commands to avoid memorisation of fixed routines.

Production (6-7 minutes) • To have the students utter commands if they feel ready

If the teacher satisfies that the students master the commands, she will ask a volunteer to give command to a peer. This part could be omitted if the students do not feel ready to speak because in TPR method, one of the main aims is to reduce the stress people feel when studying foreign languages. As Larsen-Freeman (2000) states forcing the students to speak before they feel ready will only create anxiety.

Closure (5-6 minutes) • To have students read and write the commands

As the spoken language should be emphasised over written language, at the end of the lesson the teacher shows the commands learned during the lesson by using power point slides. The students are expected to copy them into their notebooks.