A COMPARISON OF THE AUDIO-LINGUAL APPROACH AND THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE APPROACH TO TEACHING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE TO THIRD-GRADE CHINESE STUDENTS.

摘要

This quasi-experimental study compared the effectiveness of two theoretically-based instructional approaches, the audio-lingual and the Total Physical Response, to teaching English as a second language to limited-English-proficient Chinese-speaking third-grade students. Additionally, it investigated gender differences in learning oral English through these two approaches. The participants were Chinese students in two third-grade bilingual classes enrolled in a fifty-four day English-as-a-second-language class at Spring Valley School in San Francisco. Pretests and posttests were administered to each class to measure oral language achievement.;Results of the analysis showed that students gained more in the classes taught by the Total Physical Response approach. Out of eight analyses of variance, trends favoring the Total Physical Response were noted on all eight, and there were statistically significant differences in gains on three of the eight. The significant gains were on the subtests of the Bartel-Ramirez Oral Language Test labeled Vocabulary, Level B; Basic Structure, Level A; and Basic Structure, Level B. The results from all of the analyses of variance showed no significant differences between boys and girls on any of the scores of the Bartel-Ramirez Oral Language Test.;The conclusion from the study was that the Total Physical Response approach was more effective than the audio-lingual approach for third-grade Chinese students. The gains made by the Total Physical Response group were twice as much as those made by the audio-lingual group. Because there were no significant differences between boys and girls instructed with either approach, it can be concluded that the Total Physical Response approach works equally well for boys or girls; as does the audio-lingual approach.;Pretests and posttest scores from the Bartel-Ramirez Oral Language Test were used in the statistical analyses. A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to answer the two research questions. (1) Is there a significant difference in oral English achievement between third-grade Chinese students instructed with the audio-lingual approach and those instructed with the Total Physical Response approach? (2) Is there a significant difference in oral English achievement between third-grade Chinese boys and girls instructed with the audio-lingual approach and with the Total Physical Response approach?