2. Tpr relation with Characteristic of young learners

In this chapter we will discuss why TPR should be applied teaching English to primary school children Teachers seeking useful teaching results first of all need to know characteristics of children and how their mental abilities develop through different age periods.

The way children learn a foreign language, and therefore the way to teach it, obviously depends on their development stage. "It would not be reasonable to ask a child to do a task that demands a sophisticated control of spatial orientation (for example, tracing a root on a map) if he or she has not developed this skill. On the other hand, beginners of 11 or 12 years of age will not respond well to an activity that they perceive as childish, or well below their intellectual level, even if it is linguistically appropriate (for example, identifying an odd shape out of matching picture halves)" (Sarah Phillips, 2003:5). To avoid such misapprehension teachers has to remember children’s limitation.

Theorist Jean Piaget (in Queen J. Allen, 2003 ) suggested that children think differently than adults and proposed a stage theory of cognitive development. He was the first to note that children play an active role in gaining knowledge of the world. According to Piaget’s framework, teaching English to children can mean working with very different age groups with different interest and needs. Brown ( 2001) also believes that to successfully teach English to children requires specific skill and intuition. Teacher has to know the characteristic of children.

Moreover, Scott and Ytreberg (200:1-5) sais "there is a big difference between what children of five can do and what children of ten can do. Some children develop early, some later. Some children develop gradually, others in leaps and bounds. Children of five are little children. Children of ten are relatively mature children with an adult side and childish side. What seven to ten years old children can do at their own level? They are competence users of mother tongue. They can tell the difference between the fact and fiction. They love to play and learn best when they enjoy themselves, but they also take themselves seriously and like to think what they are doing is really work. They are enthusiastic and positive about learning. They rely on the spoken word as well as the physical world to convey and understand meaning. They are able to work with others and learn from others. Their own understanding comes through eyes, hands, and ears. They have very short attention and concentration span. Overall, children in primary school still like to play and learn through their hands, eyes, and ears". According to those characteristics most activities for the young learners should include movement and involve the senses.

Phillips (2003) states, that young learners are children from the first year of formal schooling (five or six year old) to eleven or twelve years old. So young learners are unique and different from adult learners. They have special characteristics in the way of learning. They do not learn by thinking, but by doing things. Scott and Ytreber (2007) sais, that giving words to young learners are not enough, but they need activities that include movements and involve senses. Brown(2001) also states that children need to have all five senses stimulated in learning. Young learners pay less attention than adult learners do. Therefore, the learning process of young learners requires a nice environment and attractive and fun methods in order to motivate them.

Moreover, Slattrey and Willis(2001) state that young learners are developing quickly as individuals, they learn in a variety of ways, they try to make sense of situation by making use non-verbal clues, they talk in their mother tongue about what they understand and do, they can generally imitate the sounds they hear, quite accurately and copy the way adult speak, and they love to play and use their imagination.

In addition, TPR and young learners are historically related. Asher ( as cited in Brown, 2001) developed Total physical response underlying the principles of child language acquisition. He notes that children in learning their first language appear to do a lot of listening before they speak, and that their listening is accompanied by physical responses ( reaching, grabbing, moving, looking, and etc.).That is why Total Physical Response activities give children opportunity to have physical activity in their lessons.

In summary, the way children learn depend on their developments stage. As they have very short attention and concentration span their activities should include movement and involve the senses.

Children are unique and think differently than adult. They have special characteristics in the way of learning and according to child psychology, children‘s language ability is developed through practical application. Children are interested to learn by doing or actively involved in the learning process which requires joyful activities and nice environment. TPR activities allow children have motor activities in their lessons and allows silent period before children start speaking.