Total Physical Response in Early English as a Foreign Language Teaching

The aim of this master's degree thesis is to present the Total Physical Response method of language teaching. The use of this method in teaching English to young foreign language learners will be examined more closely. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part brings the theoretical overview of the English as a foreign language teaching with young learners and the main characteristics of the Total Physical Response method, such as background to the method, results of previous research, roles of teachers and learners, procedure and the downsides of the method. In the second part, research results are presented and discussed. The aim of the research was to determine how much pre-service teachers know about the Total Physical Response method and what their experiences with applying this method to young learners are. Research participants were pre-service teachers, students enrolled in the teacher education study programmes at the University of Zagreb and the University of Padova, whose results have been compared. The results show that the majority of the participants have heard about the Total Physical Response method of teaching English as a foreign language, but not many of them have applied it in their own teaching practice. Comparing the results of the students from Zagreb and the students from Padova it is noticeable that a larger number of students from Zagreb have used this method with young learners. All participants who have used this method reported being satisfied with the learning outcomes, and would recommend its use in English as a foreign language teaching.Cilj ovoga diplomskog rada je predstaviti Total Physical Response metodu poučavanja jezika. Pobliže će se ispitati korištenje ove metode u poučavanju engleskoga kao stranoga jezika u radu s učenicima mlađe školske dobi. Rad je podijeljen u dva dijela. Prvi dio rada sadržava teorijski pregled poučavanja engleskoga kao stranoga jezika učenicima mlađe školske dobi i glavne karakteristike Total Physical Response metode, kao što su teorijska pozadina metode, rezultati istraživanja, uloge učitelja i učenika, procedura i negativne strane metode. U drugom dijelu rada prikazani su i razmotreni rezultati istraživanja. Cilj istraživanja bio je utvrditi koliko budući učitelji znaju o ovoj metodi i kakva su njihova iskustva s primjenjivanjem ove metode u radu s učenicima mlađe školske dobi. U istraživanju su sudjelovali budući učitelji, studenti učiteljskih studija sa Sveučilišta u Zagrebu i Sveučilišta u Padovi, čiji su rezultati uspoređeni. Rezultati su pokazali kako je većina ispitanika upoznata s Total Physical Response metodom učenja engleskoga kao stranoga jezika, ali je manji broj ispitanika imao priliku primijeniti tu metodu u vlastitoj praksi poučavanja. Usporedivši rezultate studenata iz Zagreba i iz Padove primjećujemo da je veći broj studenata iz Zagreba koristio ovu metodu u radu s učenicima mlađe školske dobi. Svi ispitanici koji su koristili metodu zadovoljni su rezultatima s obzirom na ishode učenja i preporučuju korištenje ove metode u poučavanju engleskoga kao stranoga jezika