Get MOVING in EFL (aka YAY for TPR)

Throughout this blog I discuss different ways to use TPR in the your English class. Essentially TPR (Total physical response) is a technique which is often used with EFL students. Students are taught to associate an action with a word or phrase.

Asher's book

HISTORY 1965 James Asher basically said, "Hey! I am sure that we can get students to actually move around and have less stress in class." What he came up with was having students move to show comprehension. You can check out more TPR World or language impact for more background information.


Even though the basis for TPR in EFL started over 30 years ago there is still a bounty of current research being done to support using actions with language teaching. One of my favorites to direct people to is an article published by New Scientist in January of 2012 which discusses a study where 20 students enrolled in a 6 day course to learn a fake language. Half of the content was taught using traditional (spoken and written) techniques and the other half was taught with each word having a body movement. The students did better at learning the information that was taught with motions! Keep in mind that this worked for all words, not just words with a clear motion. That is to say, this technique worked as well for actions like run as it did for words like however or rather. The study goes onto cite functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans as well which seem to show that the actions help by creating a more "complex representation of the word that makes it more easily retrieved." You can read the actual study via the onine library if that interests you.


Now that you know a bit of what it is, let's check out how to use it:

Poor Joe, he has no....

Games

• Simon Says- Usually body parts and actions but you could get specific with adjectives. "Simon says jump up and down quickly."
• Charades- Usually this is done when a student is given a word and they have to act it out. Great with verbs, but don't be afraid to do this with nouns or adjectives. You can make it more complicated by giving them an entire sentence!
• Oh No Poor Joe- If you play with students covering the part that's missing this is great TPR for body parts.

Make a fortune teller!

Activities

• Make a box with your students! Directions (Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Middle), Actions (Kick, Throw, Fold, Unfold, Meet) Nouns (Invitation, Door) Adjectives (Locked, Unlocked)
• Make a fortune teller. Locations (Center, Corner, Left, Right) Actions (Cur, Flip, Fold, Unfold) 
• Tell a story while they draw or act it out Draw and Tell story.

Songs
Find a song (or make one for your EFL class)

• Traditional Kids Somgs (Great for younger EFL students)

• Teddy Bear Teddy Bear- Directions (Turn Around) Actions (Touch, Jump) 
• Hokey Pokey- Body Parts (All!) Actions (Put your)
• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes- Body Parts (Head, Shoulders, Knees, Toes, Eyes, Ears, Mouth, Nose)
• Songs I've adjusted to use with my EFL students:
• Sweet Little Bunny For Animals, Body Parts, and Adjectives
• Open them Shut them For Opposites, or Verbs- 
• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes with Clothes! Clothing (Hat, Jacket, Trousers, Shoes, Glasses, Ear Muffs, Scarf, Glove)
• Macerena I change this to teach prepositions (Above, Above, Below, Below,  Across, Across, Atop, Atop, Beside, Beside, Down, Down, Around, Around)
• Songs which I use, "as is" to practice the words they use.

The video has 15 songs you can use (but probably not at once)! 

• Bounce, Rock, Roll, Skate- Actions (Bounce, Rock, Roll, Skate)
• Cha Cha Slide Directions (Left, Right, Back, On, Low, Top), Verbs (Turn, Slide, Criss-Cross, Clap, Stomp, Reverse, Freeze, Hop), Numbers (One, Two, Five), Body Parts (Hands, Knees, Foot), Adverbs (Again)
• Cupid Shuffle Directions (Right, Left) Verbs (Kick)
• Da Dip- Actions (Dip) Possessive Pronoun (My, Your)
• Dancing in Heaven- Adjectives (Slow, Quick)
• Do the BartMan- Actions (Move, Shake, Sitting) Directions (Front to back, To the side) Body Parts (Hips) 
• Harlem Shake- Actions (Move) Directions (Left, Right) Adjectives (Fast)
• Hoedown Throwdown- Actions (Glide, Jump, Pop, Lean, Lock, Shake, Shuffle, Stick )  Adjectives (Polka Dot, Zig zag) Nouns (Hawk, Sky) Body Parts (Hands, Head, Hips, One Footed, Toe) Directions (180 twist, Diagonal, In, Left, On, Side to side)
• Locomotion Directions (Up, Back), Body Parts (Hips), Actions (Swing, Jump)
• Mambo #5-Actions (Jump, Move, Put, Clap) Body Parts (Hands)
• Men in Black- Actions (Bounce, Freeze, Slide, Walk) Body Parts (Neck)
• Peppermint Twist Directions: (Round, Up, Down) Actions (Jump, Kick)
• Stanky Leg- Actions (Bounce,Drop, Lean, Shake, Show, Slide, Snap, Stick, Stop, Switch, Wipe) Body Parts (Feet, Fingers, Leg, Shoulders) Adjectives (Low,  Right ) Clothing (Socks)
• The Bunny Hop Directions (Left, Right, Forward, Out) Body Parts (Foot), Actions (Put, Hop) I add a "Backwards and a forwards hop hop hop" to get a bit more vocab. 
• The Time Warp  Directions (Left, Right), Body Parts (Hands, Hips, Knees, Pelvis), Verbs- (Jump, Step, Thrust)
• The Superman Tons of verbs / commands (Sleep, Wave, Hitch a ride, Sneeze, Walk, Swim, Ski, Spray, Blow your Horn, Ring the Bell, Kiss, Comb your Hair, Give a wave, Bend your Knees, Faster, Louder)
• Usher's UTurn Directions (Put your hands up, Circle) Verbs (Bend, Bounce, Get down) Body Parts (Hands, Knees) 
• YMCA- Letters (Y, M, C, A)

FingerPlays 

• A family of pumpkins- Family Members (Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Baby) 
• Five Easter Eggs - Emotions (Angry, Happy, Sad, Scared, Sleepy)
• Itsy Bitsy Spider - Animals (Spider), Prepositions (Up, Down, Out), Actions (Went, Washed, Dried), Weather (Sun, Rain)
•  Open them Shut them (for this and that)- Great for almost any category: Adjectives, Verbs, etc.

This list already seems a bit long so for now I am stopping, but if you have any other songs, games, or activities you think embrace the spirit of TPR be sure to leave it in the comments!

This or That? These or Those?

When I was younger, I vaguely remember this song being used in class. It went, "Open them, shut them, open them, shut them, give a little clap clap clap. Open them, shut them, open them shut them, put them in your lap lap lap." I believe there was more, but I seemed to omit that part from my memory. (If you want the whole version and other fingerplays you can look inside The Eentsy Weentsy Spider book and see the "correct" version")

As far as learning goes, it was perfect. It was repetitive, simple, included the body (wohoo TPR) and was super easy to adapt. So when I started teaching ESL (EFL to some) to Preschool and Kindergarten students this was definitely in my bag of tricks.

Like most songs and chants I liked it because it could be adapted to almost anything.


We used it to review classroom language (stand up, sit down or open the book, close the book etc.), animals (much like with the sweet little bunny song most animals can easily be given a body equivalent), adjectives (really useful for short and small and other subtle differences), verbs (often the easiest to mime), classroom supplies (have them hold up a pencil then a pen), clothing or body parts (touch the clothing), and really anything else your heart desires.

As the video states I found it great when reviewing this and that (along with these and those). This was one finger touching the other hand (singular and close), that was one finger pointing away from the hand (singular and far), these was two or more fingers touching one hand(plural and close), and those was two or more fingers pointing away (plural and far). Students picked it up quickly, and I could see them doing the motions during the test.

The best part was students genuinely enjoyed it! When classes got rowdy, I would silently begin doing the "open them shut them" motions and one by one they would do them with me. Then when everyone was with me we would quickly do a round and then get back to the lesson.

Have you altered the song's lyrics or tried any of the above in class? Share in the comments!

Sweet Little Bunny With a Fly Upon Its Nose

When I was in the Netherlands I picked up a few Dutch kids songs. One was the lief klein konijntje: Children would use hand motions (wohoo TPR) and have a lot of fun (plus it is one of the songs I still remember!)

When I was thrown into a preschool class with no chance to prep I very quickly and super roughly translated this song into English and sang it for the students.

Sweet little bunny with a fly upon its nose

Sweet little bunny with a fly upon its nose

Sweet little bunny with a fly upon its nose

And it flew from here to there

OOOOOH sweet little bunny

OOOOOOOOH sweet little bunny

OOOOOOOOOOH sweet little bunny with a fly upon its nose

That was fun, but it didn't last very long. So on a whim I had the students change the words in a mad libs like activity. So the students changed the animals, body part and adjectives.

For example: 

Happy, tall giraffe with an elephant on its elbow

Happy, tall giraffe with an elephant on its elbow

Happy, tall giraffe with an elephant on its elbow

And it flew from here to there

OOOOOH happy tall giraffe

OOOOOOOOH happy tall giraffe

OOOOOOOOOOH happy tall giraffe with an elephant on its elbow

It is perfectly OK if the song doesn't make any sense. The important part is that each word has a matching hand motions and the students have fun! You can make it more practical and change the verb (and it swam from here to there, and it walked from here to there, and it went from here to there) but I think part of the fun is students picture ridiculous animals flying. If you like at the end you can end with the students drawing a picture of their favorite combination.

I have used this is Spanish as well (Cornejito cariñoso con una mosca en la nariz...) when practicing body parts with little ones in the States.

For those of you who love the Dutch version so much you want it on your IPOD to treasure forever and ever I have found a few copies. You can pick from the one on your left or your right.